Lexical-stylistic features of the folklore of a small unwritten African ethnic group (using the languages of Tanzania as an example)

Abstract

This article analyzes the structure of original folklore texts (folktales) from several small, unwritten ethnic groups in the southeastern regions of Tanzania in terms of their lexical and stylistic features. These texts are introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time. Particular attention is given to folktales in the Vidunda, Luguru, Ngindo, and Ndonde languages, which were transcribed using native-speaking informants. Various lexical and stylistic devices that give a certain emotional and expressive coloring and markedness to narratives are examined, such as reduplication, the use of ideophonic vocabulary, and interjections.

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