ABSTRACT
This work is a study of the Morphology of Yoruba Personal Names. The study aims at showing the various morphological processes with which the Yoruba personal names are derived, that is an investigation into the internal structure of the Yoruba personal names.
The theoretical framework for analysis in present study is the model of Lexical/Derivational morphology. The lexical/Derivational morphology was adopted due to its appropriateness and its explanatory power to account for the internal structure of the Yoruba personal names.
The data collected for this preset study were gotten from two sources; the primary and the secondary source. The primary data were gotten from competent native speakers of Yoruba language through oral interviews, while the secondary data were gotten from an unpublished work online (a social networking site called ‘nairaland’) with the title ‘list of Yoruba personal names and their English meaning’
After a thorough analysis of the Yoruba personal names, the researcher finds out that in the formation of compounding, clipping and affixation are the various morphological processes evident in the Yoruba personal names derivation.
The researcher also finds out that most Yoruba personal names are formed through compounding, and the phonological process of vowel deletion/elision across word boundary does not take place in the formation of some Yoruba compound names.
The researcher also finds out the alveolar nasal [n] and alveolar lateral [l] are not allophones in the Yoruba language, their alternation is as a result of regressive assimilation.
This study will contribute to use of native speakers personal names for any linguistics investigation, and it will also contribute to the growing literature of Onomastics.
The researcher recommended that personal names should be given more attention in linguistics research as religion, globalizations are having a negative impact on personal names especially in Africa, and this will enable proper documentation of personal names.
