Linguistic formation patterns of anglicised traditional Yorùbá anthroponyms

Abstract

Yorùbá personal names have been studied from different perspectives. A critical look at the linguistic processes involved in the anglicisation of Yorùbá personal names appears to be relatively unexplored. As such, this study explores linguistic formation patterns of anglicised traditional Yorùbá anthroponyms. The study adopts the descriptive research design and analyses 50 samples of anglicised Yorùbá anthroponyms by drawing insights from the concepts of insertion or epenthesis, consonant clustering and diacritic removal in phonology. The research shows that some instances of the anglicised Yorùbá names include: Hardebisi from Adebisi, Haryoh from Ayọ, Fehmih from Femi, Holar from Ọla and Hormosewah from Omosewa. The finding of the research also reveals that prothesis, paragoge, consonant clustering and removal of diacritics are the linguistic formation patterns prevalent in the anglicised Yorùbá traditional anthroponyms. The researchers recommend further research on the role of gender in the anglicisation of names.