Traditional personal names: an investigation into Songhay anthroponomastics

Abstract

Human beings have always been characterized by their names, naming ability and practices. Names are created and shaped by sociocultural values and serve to give an identity to their bearers. They tell about the place and period of birth of the bearers, their social status, gender, the birth order in the family, etc. The Songhay society of Northern Mali makes use of the same naming devices in that it describes and names its sociocultural environment, expressing by the same token, the Songhay philosophical thought and vision surrounding those names and naming systems. In fact, most Songhay traditional names have faded away under the heavy weight of Islam and Christianity which have come to impose new names and naming practices. Research in African onomastics, Songhay onomastics included, is generally scanty. No serious study is known to have taken place specifically on Songhay traditional personal names. Therefore, this investigation is undertaken to fill this gap. The study focuses on the determination of the types of Songhay traditional personal names, the circumstantial meanings that induce their creation and attribution and their morphology. The participant interview was used to collect the data from Sognhay native speakers of Gao and Timbuktu living in Bamako. The name typologies (including the circumstantial meanings) uncovered by the study involve the kinship system, the period of birth (including the day, month or season), the social status of the name bearer (slaves), protection and/or survival, blessing, beauty, complexion, etc. The morphological typologies basically display simple nouns with 44.08% of frequency rate, followed by noun-adjective combinations, 26.88%, and two noun combinations, 15.05%.