Is it Politeness or Respect? Forms of Addressing men in Matengo Society

Abstract

This paper explores the forms of address used to refer to men in Matengo society, seeking to establish whether these address terms express politeness or respect. Guided by Dominance Theory and Social Identity Theory, this qualitative study uses interviews with four native speakers of Matengo from Mbinga District, Ruvuma Region, together with documentary review. The findings indicate that Matengo society is using plural forms, surnames, kinship terms, first names, nicknames, and terms of intimacy as forms of address. Plurality, the use of surnames, and kinship terms are primarily used to show respect, mainly towards male elders and socially recognized individuals, indicative of age-based and status-based hierarchies, respectively. First names, nicknames, and intimate terms are mainly used to express familiarity and social closeness among peers and close relations. This study indicates that the address terms in Matengo serve as significant sociolinguistic markers through which power relations, social identity, and cultural values are maintained. Such findings contribute to African languages' sociolinguistics studies by identifying respect at the core of the male address practices within the Matengo society and by offering insight into culturally grounded systems of social interaction.