ABSTRACT
This work investigates ethno-linguistic features of taboos and euphemisms amongst the Annang speaking community. In an attempt to bring to limelight the features of taboo words in Annang community, the researcher being a native speaker of the language proposed some terminologies to define taboos and euphemisms which are the two major concepts involved in this study
The theory of ethnography of communication proposed by Dell Hymes (1962) is used in carrying out the investigation, precisely the SPEAKING formula constructed by Hymes was employed for data analysis. This data were collected from native and competent speakers of the language as well as data collected from movies in Annang language watched by the researcher.
This work also states the presence of taboo words and the use of euphemism are evident in most culture of the world and as such is present in annang speech community.
This study reveals that these utterances which are regarded as taboo utterance are induced by certain conditions which includes; sex, contextual induced, disease and, age and gender induced taboo words. In this work, it is also established that in order to avoid such prohibited utterances, euphemisms are used.
It is also argued that the presence of taboo help to curb the excesses of the people in Aannang speech community. These taboo words, which have been established in this work as prohibited utterances are held in sacredness and sanctity by the Annang people.
It also note that taboo expressions are hardly taught in schools and advocates the teaching of language taboos to the learners of Annang as a second language. It advocates further, the inclusion of the Annang language in the school curriculum and teaching materials.
