Abstract

This paper interrogates observed kolanut ritual in four different speech situations in the Igbo culture with the aim of finding out the unique significance of this nut in the discursive practices of the Igbo culture, why its presence engenders unique ways of talk, the speech acts prevalent in these utterances, what cultural factors motivate such language use in this ritual, how the kolanut ritual qualifies as a speech event. Applying Hymes’ speaking model, Austin and Searle’s speech acts, the paper looks at the different speech situations of traditional marriage, funeral preparation, naming ceremonies and casual meetings where the kolanut ritual heralds other speech events in these ceremonies. It was found that these different speech situations have different participants who enact different act sequences of promising, pronouncing, vowing, asserting, thanking, requesting, appealing and other acts that elicit different perlocutionary effects on the other participants and at times on supernatural partakers of these events. The paper concludes that the kolanut ritual is a powerful speech event that connects the living and the ancestors in the Igbo culture that cannot be obliterated by even Christianity and other agents of civilization. Keywords: kolanut ritual, speech event, SPEAKING grid, speech situations

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