Rhymes in Buli proverbs, songs and poems

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Rhymes in Buli proverbs, songs and poems
Author:	Kröger, Franz
Year:	2009
Periodical:	Research Review
Volume:	25
Issue:	1
Pages:	43-50
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Ghana West Africa
Subjects:	prosody proverbs oral poetry Buli language Builsa literature Builsa (African people) Folk literature Rhyme
Abstract:	The Bulsa, a people living southwest of Navrongo in northern Ghana, can boast a rich treasure of oral literature. Their language is called Buli. This paper deals with a small area of Bulsa prosody. End rhymes, alliteration and tonal patterns are examined in Bulsa proverbs, songs and other genres of Bulsa oral literature, whose creators do not respect strict prosodic patterns, but make use of rhymes for embellishment and for contrast with everyday speech. Although some rhymes may be chance products of the poetry process, they are nevertheless accepted as welcome embellishments. It has, however, been proved that some poems create rhymes and other poetic patterns consciously and on purpose, even if, as a form of poetical licence, the mode of expression offends the standard use of correct everyday speech. Apart from rhymes proper, other types of poetic pattern are analysed, e.g. chiasmus, parallelism, symmetry and the use of consonants and vowels to produce euphony. Moreover, the contents of some poems are analysed for a better understanding of the Buli oral literature discussed in the paper. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]