A socio-ethnolinguistic analysis of personal names in the Fe’efe’e community, West Cameroon

Abstract

This study accounts for anthroponyms in the Fe’efe’e community located in the West Region of Cameroon. It explores through the ethnography of communication, personal observation and bibliographic search how anthroponyms work in the community both through diachronic and synchronic lens. Socio-onomastics and the ethnography of SPEAKING that help in analysing all relevant names’ giving surrounding factors and the participants involved lead to unveil that a person’s name could unfold in a whole book. The naming process of a person could be influenced by several factors among which birth circumstances, social events, bravura, traditional impacts, progress, success or failure, the rank of the new-born in the family, group identity, social cohesion, disorder or disaster, etc. This justifies why Fe’efe’e anthroponyms bear a whole grammar-semantic interface, influenced by socio-cultural functions. The analysis ends on that synchronically, the naming process has undergone a slight change with regards to the past and influence of interethnic marriages.