Strategies for naming tourist sites in Botswana

Abstract

This paper aims at establishing and discussing the strategies for naming tourist sites in the languages of Botswana using a descriptive approach. In addition, the paper attempts a classification of these tourist sites in respect of personalities or objects after which these sites are named. The data for this paper are largely drawn from publications by the Botswana Tourist Board, Botswana Tourism Organization and Internet resources. Preliminary investigation reveals that different word formation strategies, such as affixation, compounding, reduplication, and borrowing are employed by the speakers of the languages of Botswana in the naming of tourist sites. Of particular interest is the fact that these tourist sites are named after important personalities, rivers, villages, famous trees, vegetation and hills, among others. Also of interest is the observation that the processes of affixation, compounding and reduplication show the large extent to which the speakers of the indigenous languages of Botswana use internal linguistic resources to preserve their languages. Finally, the paper notes that the naming of tourist sites after prominent persons and villages and natural objects found within the country is a deliberate and great way through which the cultural heritage of Botswana has been preserved.