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Glite Dictionary
🌍 African customs 🗣️ African word or trait
Africanism

Africanism

7.5
A word or custom that comes from Africa
  • noun
  • /ˌæfrɪˈkænɪzəm/
translation icon : africanismo
  • Turner's study produced one of the earliest discussions in support of the argument for the presence of Africanisms in the Gullah dialect.

Examples

  • An understanding of the political context of left-wing avant-gardism in pre-World War I Paris fundamentally alters the aesthetic view of much modern art, nowhere so tellingly as in the Africanism of Picasso and his circle.

    Academic text (1990)

  • This nonmaterial aspect of African-American music virtually assured its survival, replete with Africanisms, from Africa through the slave period to the present.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Africanisms

    Academic text (1992)

  • Furthermore, as journalist Colin Legum points out, "although Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana and one of the founders of Pan-Africanism, argued strongly at the Casablanca Conference for political union, his proposal was not accepted."

    Academic text (2007)

  • In many African cultures, storytelling includes the use of specific Africanisms that reflect their unique traditions.

  • The novel was rich in Africanisms, showcasing expressions and themes from various African languages.

  • Linguists study Africanisms to better understand the impact of African languages on English dialects.

Surface Forms

Africanism singular
Africanisms plural

Morphology

Africanism = African (transparent) = African + ism

Formed by the adjective 'African' plus the productive noun-forming suffix '-ism', yielding a noun meaning a trait, term, or characteristic associated with Africa.

Etymology

Africanism comes from African plus the ending -ism, which makes nouns for a word, custom, or trait. So an Africanism is something 'originating from Africa', like a musical style, a phrase, or a word that people brought with them to new places.