Morphosemantic Analysis of Oromo Personal Names

By Tesfaye Gudeta Gerba

Oromo personal names are an indispensable part of the language. In order to understand their meaning, the structure of the different word categories from which they are formed and the cultural background should also be taken into consideration.

The Oromo personal naming process cannot be divorced from the context in which these names are created: their meanings depend on the context and culture. Though personal names are used universally to label and identify people, the component of meaning cannot be ignored, particularly when one is studying Oromo personal names.

This part demonstrated how the meanings in the morphological composition of Oromo personal names can convey messages from and experiences of the name-giver and the society at large.

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 Typology of Oromo Personal Names

Tesfaye Gudeta Gerba
Abstract

This paper addresses the typology of Oromo personal names and considers naming as an important aspect of the Oromo society. The present study looks at Oromo names within the idea of linguistics anthropology. It considers names are not arbitrary labels but sociocultural tags that have sociocultural functions and meanings. The data was collected from native speakers Afan Oromo languages. Qualitative research design, Ethnolinguistics research and an in-depth interview were employed. The data were analysed qualitatively. The analysis shows Oromo personal names have typology or semantic classification based on the how and when of naming a baby.

The typology of Oromo names include circumstantial names, depict special physical appearance and Behavioral features at birth, names derived from animals, tempronyms, names associated with plants (flora names), names referring to agricultural work product and cattle amount, names referring to the Oromo days of a month, names reflecting joy and happiness, name denoting seasons, birthday names, seven days of a week, birth order names, names indicating birth Places, twin names, clan name, names referring to grandfather, grandmother, and great grandfather (ancestor’s names), names associated with trees, political related names, and teknonymy.

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