Thesis presented and defended with a view to obtaining the grade of DOCTOR in English Literature and Civilization

By
Noël KITAMBILA MUTEN
DEA in Applied Linguistics

Orientation: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
Promoter: ATHANASE MALEKANI KAPELE
Ordinary Professor

Jury Members
Prof. BUSAKI ONKEN Cyprien: President and Full Member (PO, UNIKIN/LCAngl.)

Prof. MUNDEKE OTOM'Sl Léon-Pierre: Secretary and Full Member (PO, UNIKIN/LCAfr.) Prof. MALEKANI KAPELE Athanase: Promoter and Full Member (PO, UNIKIN/LCAngl.) Prof. PAYANZO NTSOMO Pascal: Full Member (PE, UNIKIN/SSPA.)

Prof. DUMA KHONDE César: Full Member (P, ISP/GOMBE.)

Prof. MAJAMBO KALONDA Albain: Substitute Member (PE, UNIKIN/LCAngl.) Prof. NSIMAMBOTE ZOLA Remy: Substitute Member (P, UNIKIN/LCAngl.)

MARCH 2023

ABSTRACT

Progress is bom of inquiry and doubt is often better than over-confidence, for it leads to inquiry, and inquiry leads to invention or at least to innovation. That is, the increased amounts of research make progress possible.

This dissertation is entitled A Sociocultural and Sociolinguistic Investigation of Old and New Place Names along the National Highway from Matadi to Kasangulu in Kongo central province (DRC). It is aimed at taking a scientific look at public place names in the area concerned. The main concept has been the investigation into place names from the colonial to postcolonial periods from Matadi to Kasangulu that revealed that an easier common way to find directions is to refer to place names as names would provide a more useful geographical reference when moving around.

It was also useful to study the sociocultural and sociolinguistic aspects of the dialects concerned, namely Kimboma, Kindibu and Kintandu spoken in the area of our investigation and other people involved in the interview. As a matter of fact, the names given to places are the products of human and community conventions for giving not only personal names but also names of certain categories like homes, bridges, rivers, towns, roads, public places, and the like, that reflect the history, cultures, geography topology, beliefs, ideologies, and values of the community, for names given to people and places are an integral part of the community in which they are utilized.
The study has clearly indicated that toponymy is part of onomastics, which is the science of place names, a privileged domain of geography. Several studies in this discipline have shown how toponymy is at the heart of the relationship between society and the territory it occupies (Austin, 1963).

Beyond its rental function (designation, location, and orientation), a toponym carries heritage and cultural significance and constitutes an indisputable identity reference. Other studies, more inscribed in a historical perspective, have attempted to trace the toponymy evolution of place according to the territorial (re) conquests and the altemation of political regimes which are remodeled in their 1mage.
The study is an exploratory one as the topic was barely investigated before, but mainly exploited the qualitative and quantitative methods, through the instruments of questionnaire, interview, and observation data. This triangulation mixed methodology was both chosen to exploit the strengths of methods, while minimizing their limitations.
Various aspects of sociocultural and linguistic characteristics of the place names are involved in the study, especially the dialectal and regional variation of the three dialects, some morpho-phonological aspects of place names, the sociocultural and sociolinguistic characteristics of Kimboma, Kindibu and Kintandu, the anglicization of some place names, the morpho-semantic explanation of some borrowed place names, and the indigenization of foreign words.
Sorne of the findings revealed that there is not a national board for standardizing toponyms in DRC. Twenty six percent, the higher score of the respondents were against the renaming of some old place names.

We recommended the government through this study to keep the old names for cultural and historical reasons. Unlike countries like the USA and South Africa that have scientific bodies that aim at place name creation and standardization, this country does not have one. Such a body in charge of standardization of toponyms could refer to the expertise of the above-mentioned countries (USA and South Africa) to meet the recommendation of the United Nations on Standardizing. Geographical Names (UNSGN) of 1991 International Conference on the Standardization of Place names all over the world.