The Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the Solega A Linguistic Perspective

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mononomials ’ from our initial name list were in fact optional binomials , at least for
speakers from some villages. Table 4.2 gives a list of obligate mononomials from
Table 4.1 , which, during the course of the picture elicitation task, were used in con-
junction with the morpheme –hakki.
Some new obligate binomials were also recorded during the picture elicitation
task (Table 4.2 ). Scrutiny of the morphemes that make up such names shows that
binomial names are obligatory when the fi rst morpheme encodes an attribute of the
bird being named—this can include physical appearance (e.g. arsinakki ‘yellow
bird’), behaviour ( mara eḷe hakki ‘tree climb bird’), cultural signifi cance ( sa:vakki
‘death bird’), an associated object, substance or plant ( maṇṇakki ‘mud bird’) or a
god’s name ( ka:raĩyanakki ‘ karaĩya ’s bird). Taking the new data in Table 3.2 into
account, the revised counts and percentages for the different types of names are as
follows:

Obligate binomials : 12 (19 %)
Optional binomials : 27 (44 %)
Obligate mononomials : 23 (37 %)

Table 4.2 Selected bird
name s from the picture
elicitation task

Optional binomials

Alternative Solega name Common name

keshṭe hakki Red Spurfowl

marakuṭuka hakki Woodpeckers

gi:ṇanakki Plum-headed Parakeet

goravana hakki Malabar Whistling Thrush

siṭṭe hakki Small passerines

ko:gilakki Asian Koel

koṭrole hakki Red-vented Bulbul

kuggilu hakki Pigeons

pa:piranakki Common Hawk-cuckoo

si:danagari hakki Jungle Babbler

gumusi hakki House Sparrow

New obligate binomials

Solega name Common name

arsinakki Yellow-browed Bulbul

( Acritillas indica )?

ka:rihakki Woodpeckers

ku:sakki, nana ku:so hakki Puff-throated Babbler

ka:raĩyanakki Woodpeckers

mara eḷe hakki Nuthatches

sa:vakki Flameback woodpeckers

‘Optional binomials ’ are those bird name s from

Table 4.1 which were initially considered to be obligate

mononomials. The only exception is ‘sparrow’, which

was initially thought to be an obligate binomial. ‘New

obligate binomials’ are some newly-recorded bird

names that were absent from the initial list

4 Solega Ethno-ornithology