Phonological and morphological processes in Yoruba given names

Extant works on Yoruba names (names of people) are largely assemblages and meanings, accompanied with English glosses, without adequate attention paid to the phonological and morphological inputs. This article therefore examines the phonological and morphological Phonology processes in the Yoruba given names with a view to illustrate their roles in the derivation of the Yoruba names. The data are drawn from Oruko Yoruba by C.L. Adeoye (1982), A Dictionary of Yorùbá Personal Names by A. Babalola and O.Alaba (2003), Yoruba Personal Names: An African Highly-Structured System by Yemitan Oladipo and Elebu-Ibom Yemi (nd) and personal knowledge being a native speaker. Phonology, is the study of how sounds are patterned in (a) language(s) and morphology is study of the internal structure of words. It is established in this study that there is interplay of phonological and morphological processes on morphological and syntactic units, which are subsequently reduced to a single grammatical category - the noun - when eventually combined. The existence of these processes within the universal language framework are viewed through the Optimality Theory. Some linguistic interplay between Yoruba names and the ecosystem is demonstrated. The underlying structure of Naming, an interface between humans and labels (semantics), actions, and the ecosystem which all in turn affect worldviews (thought, emotions, cognitive ability) and eventually behaviors deserves further scrutiny.