Ethnopragmatic and sociolinguistic interpretation of death-announcing euphemisms in Ewe

This article explores how the Ewe culture influences death-announcing euphemisms and attempts to establish how widely speakers know the contexts of their use. It scrutinises two sets of data: qualitative data analysed using ethnopragmatic lenses to describe the expressions and their typical contexts of use and quantitative data analysed within the Variationist Sociolinguistic Approach. The study has found that while some expressions are popular, others are now out of use. It also reveals that while age and education do not significantly influence knowledge and appropriate use of the euphemisms, dialect, gender, and community of residence are impactful.