VOLUME 02 ISSUE 03 MARCH 2025
1See Muleya, 2Pethias Siame
1,2Department of Literature and Languages, Kwame Nkrumah University, Zambia
ABSTRACT
This article presents onomastics in the subfield of odonymics. It aims to odonymically analyse street names by identifying the street names; establishing the underlying factors that influenced street naming; and analysing the sociocultural significance of the street names in Lumwana Mine Township in Kalumbila. The analysis is guided by the critical toponymies theory which advances the intricate intersections of language, power, identity, and space in street names. The qualitative approach, with a case study design, underpins this study. Using snowball sampling, the study collected nine (9) street names and sampled five (5) participants (township officials and residents) as primary sources of data. Data were collected through in-depth interviews using interview guides and document analysis. The results indicate that streets were renamed at some point when there were some changes at the township management level. The new street names were formulated based on environmental affinity, and anglicisation. The study further shows that the street names were arrived at using various morphological processes including borrowing and clipping. The concept of street names does not only give the identity of the streets but also goes further to present the sociopolitical structure of the area. Notably, all the streets are anglicized and used with the regional language. While the mine is run by a non-Zambian company, the street names are coined using knowledge from the immediate environment using the regional language which promotes a sense of belonging and appreciation for local culture since the township serves as a campsite comprising residents from different parts of the country and the world at large. The study concludes that street names play a critical role in showing the language landscape, power, identity, and space of people inhabiting an area.
KEYWORDS:Onomastics, odonymics, Lumwana Township, Social semiotics, stratification.
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