WEBONARY-001 - lexical attestation
Dholuo obuya, the toy that roars
Western Kenya - Lake Victoria basin - Africa
Play / practical
obuya
Source term: bull-roarer noise maker
toy bull-roarer/noisemaker
Luo country runs along the eastern shore of Lake Victoria in western Kenya, around Kisumu — a world of lake fishing, sorghum and maize gardens, and cattle. Look up 'toy' in the Dholuo reversal index and there is obuya, glossed a bull-roarer noise maker: filed with the things children make, not with the things men keep. Nothing more is set down — no wood, no cord, no game it belonged to — but the noun is there, in the plainest possible company.
toy n obuya (bull-roarer noise maker)
Webonary Dholuo reversal index, printed p. 285.
- Object
- A bullroarer noisemaker called obuya in Dholuo, from the Lake Victoria basin of western Kenya; no material, dimensions or cord are recorded.
- Function
- A toy noisemaker.
- Source
- Webonary Dholuo reversal index, printed p. 285.
- Source location
- Printed p. 285
- Source confidence
- low Kisumu/Dholuo language-area anchor; source supplies no collection or performance locality
- Toy / secular survival