A Linguistic Overview of the Patronymic and Gender Names amongst the Selected African Communities

Abstract

Most family systems world over are basically patriarchal in that children are given names bearing those of their fathers. The tendency cuts across almost all cultures in the world. This trend has continued to exist from the ancient epoch to date with varied procedures exhibited amongst various communities in the world. An analysis of these personal names shows applications of some aspects of morphology especially the use of free morphs and affixes with various denotations. For instance, a free morph may be used to refer to ‘a son of’ or ‘daughter of’, and or an affix used to indicate someone’s name by adding it on the father’s name in the case of patronymic studies. There are also some affixes that are used to denote the common gender of either masculinity or femininity of community members. Thus, the article intends to provide a linguistic overview of the patronymic and gender names amongst the selected African communities in an attempt to examine how these aforementioned aspects of morphology manifest themselves. It intends to show if there is uniformity and or variations in the use of free morphs and also affixes that indicate gender.