Linguistic, Religious and Philosophical Basis of Naming in Babanki

Abstract

This paper takes a descriptive approach to the study of the linguistic, religious and philosophical basis of naming in Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language spoken in two villages (Kejom Keku - Big Babanki) and (Kejom Ketingu -Small Babanki), found in Tubah sub-division, in Mezam division of the North West Region of Cameroon. It is worth noting that this study is delimited only to the people and place names of Kejom Keku (Big Babanki) because some of the names of the places in the two villages are different even though most of the names of the people are exactly the same. The instruments used for data collection were elicitation of word list, interview, and participant’s observation. Ten (10) fluent Babanki speakers were purposely selected and the bilingual approach was employed for the collection of data. Both primary and secondary sources of relevant literature were used and the recorded names of the people and places were transcribed and analyzed. This study reveals that Babanki names often have unique stories behind them; it is not uncommon for each parent and grandparent to contribute at least one of the names. The child ends up with several names - each telling its own special story and there are no specific names for twins, triplets, males or females. As far as place names are concerned, it was discovered that toponymic processes do not affect the place names in Babanki. The original names of the places are still maintained.