The language of beekeeping in Kambaata (Ethiopia): A corpus-based account

International audience The talk presents the beginnings of a research endeavor on the lexicon and the discursive practices about beekeeping and honey hunting in Kambaata (southwestern Ethiopia), carried out together with Yoseph Yonas Zecharias from the University of Wolkite. The empirical basis of the study is a collection of audio recordings (7 hours) of conversations between Kambaata beekeepers that were recorded in autumn 2023 and are currently being transcribed, translated and annotated. In this talk, I first lay out the workflow of the collaborative transcription process that we are following. The second part gives an overview of the techniques as well as the environmental and cultural context of Kambaata home-garden beekeeping. The third and central part of the talk presents the linguistic research questions and first results. Based on illustrative examples, I show how the semantic field of beekeeping is carved up into lexemes; which lexemes are dedicated terms, which are polysemous and which patterns of polysemy are observed; which terms are mono-morphemic, compounds or derived. Finally, I take a look at the attributes that beekeepers typically ascribe to honey, bees, predators and themselves, and how they describe their role as caretakers of their hives, conservators of the environment and as suppliers of an essential component (honey) that seals contracts and ensures social peace.