ABSTRACT The word busongo names a kind of technological ‘know-how’ across a large number of languages in south central Africa, a distribution that is a testament to the word’s age. This essay reconstructs the history of the invention and changing meanings of busongo from its first millennium origins and tracks its use to the present using the methods of comparative historical linguistics. The resulting history illustrates the interplay of affective and sensory dimensions of technology in the creation of new understandings of technological practices in medieval central Africa. As a form of conceptual history, the story of busongo also raises new questions about the relationship between tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge and speech: is speech a form of tacit knowledge? If so, what are the implications for the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge?

中文翻译：

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煽动性语言：中南非洲的认识和命名技术

摘要 busongo 这个词在中南部非洲的大量语言中命名了一种技术“诀窍”，这种分布证明了这个词的年龄。本文重构了 busongo 的发明历史和从其第一个千年起源以来不断变化的含义，并使用比较历史语言学的方法追踪它的使用至今。由此产生的历史说明了技术的情感和感官维度在中世纪中非创造对技术实践的新理解中的相互作用。作为概念史的一种形式，busongo 的故事也对隐性知识、显性知识和言语之间的关系提出了新的问题：言语是一种隐性知识吗？如果是这样的话，