RT Article
T1 An Ethnolinguistic Analysis of Customary Law in a Vietnamese Ethnic Minority (Kơho-Sre)
JF Cultural and religious studies
VO 8
IS 11
SP 594
OP 602
A1 Olsen, Neil H.
LA English
PB David Publishing Company
YR 2020
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1842685856
AB The purpose of this paper is to present an ethnolinguistic analysis of customary law from a Vietnamese ethnic minority, the Kơho-speaking subgroup Sre, during the middle of the previous century. Their customary law, entitled Nri, consists of five categories of judgements: penalties; responsibility; testimony/evidence; test/examination; and contract/agreement. The full accounting of the Nri lists nine sections or jơnau with a total of 92 individual cases (Dournes, 1951). One case from each of the nine sections is abstracted in this paper illustrating the rhyming scheme and reduplication of words to facilitate oral recitation. There are two appendices: (1) a lexicon of all the words; and (2) a detailed inventory of the sections with an example case noted and a reference category taken from Murdock’s Outline of World Cultures (1983). The Nri is transcribed from Kơho-Sre into French and then translated into English. Umberto Eco notes that a translator must take into account rules that are not strictly linguistic, but are also cultural. Eco’s strategy includes: (1) analyze historical, social circumstances in the indigenous cultural; (2) analyze the source message; (3) transfer the message in the target language; (4) reconstruct the expression in the target language; (5) consider the target language; and (6) give a final version (2000). This paper attempts to accomplish that goal.
K1 Vietnam
K1 Ethnic minorities
K1 indigenous legal practices
K1 Sociolinguistics
DO 10.17265/2328-2177/2020.11.002