A linguistic study of Ígálâ death prevention names

Philip Manda Imoh, Naomi Ojonugwa John Paul, Friday Nyizo Dansabo

Abstract


This paper studies personal naming practice as a strategy for preventing death among the Ígálâ people of North-Central Nigeria from a structural perspective. In the Ígálâ language, it is believed that death prevention names can generate and maintain some level of assurance and security that is vital for the survival of a child, given the belief that certain spiritual forces are responsible for incessant child mortality. The study focused on the linguistic structure of such names. The qualitative approach was used with the study population and it is a descriptive theory (free approach). The primary data were obtained from 50 respondents comprising name bearers, name-givers whose ages range from 20-75 in Dekina, Ankpa and Idah local governments of Kogi state, Nigeria as well as introspection of one native and one non-native speaker supplemented by civil service registers in the study areas. The secondary data were obtained via the onomastic literature. It studies the structural characteristics of this category of names. It answers the question, what are the grammatical structures of death prevention names in ígálâ? This study discovered that personal naming among the Ígálâ people serve as appellations and a means of communication to the addressees who are usually ancestors or deities whose main aim is to forestall further mortality of the named infants. The study also discovered that death prevention names range from simple lexemes, complex words, root and synthetic compounds and sentences such as statement (affirmative and negative), interrogative, imperative (affirmative and negative) which are not characterized by any unique structures different from conventional names, rather, some of them use imperatives to sternly command the spirit of death to avert or forestall further infant mortality.

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