Akan water metaphors, idioms, and proverbs

Abstract This paper investigates metaphors, idioms, and proverbs that relate to the polysemous word nsuo ‘water,’ in Akan and concentrates on water, rain, and river. It uses Farzad Sharifian’s (2015) Cultural Linguistics and George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphors (CMs). The paper emphasizes that Akans see water as indispensable in all aspects of their undertakings; therefore, they apply metaphors, idioms, and proverbs to comment on the functions of water. Akans use metaphors, idioms, and proverbs to depict their indigenous knowledge, spiritual life, philosophy, worldview, and environmental knowledge about water. This study is purely qualitative, and focuses on library studies, internet sources, and interviews with renowned Akan scholars, folklorists, folksong composers, and broadcasters. The paper compares water metaphor in Akan, Chinese, English, Hindu, Javanese, and Syrian cultures. It is another interdisciplinary research in Akan language, cognition, worldview, environmental studies, and culture in the areas of cultural linguistics, cognitive linguistics, ethnography of communication, anthropology, and oral literature.