DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2018.v06i02.001

Pages: 267-276

This study investigated the interconnection between language and the culture Abugusii traditional marriage. In a people’s culture, language use is very peculiar and is normally symbolic. Even very ordinary words could have very different meanings depending on the context . Such is the case with the language used in Abagusii traditional marriage though no research had been conducted to unearth such usage. The objectives of the study were to examine language used in traditional marriage of Abagusii community and to interpret language use in the context of Abagusii traditional marriage. The study employed two theories which are relativism theory of Foucault (1981) and Chambers (1995) . This theory looks at language as a societal environment, control people’s thinking and affects meaning people give to certain concepts in their language. It is a social structure like gender family, economy it is a social affair. May (1986) looks at language as an instrument of communication between human beings thus instrumental theory. It is an exchange of ideas between man and man,man and society , society and society and man , society and environment. Methodology used involved snowballing starting with the researcher’s own maternal grandmother then to others a total of four respondents aged between 70-80years. The respondents had gone through traditional marriage and easily remembered and narrated what took place. The data collected was translated analyzed and language used interpreted. The results showed that in the context of marriage, language used was special and was culturally bound . Even very ordinary words had special meaning. The study is a boost to studies on language and culture.