Cultural Contact and the Patterns of Ibibio Personal Names: A Morpho-Syntactic Analysis

Abstract

This article examines the changing patterns of Ibibio personal names due to the contact of Ibibio with the English language. The article takes a brief survey of how Ibibio people came in contact with English and discusses the various implications of the contact on Ibibio personal names. The researcher employs library research methodology and personal observation of the patterns of names by Ibibio people using her students of Ibibio extraction. This is particularly easy because the researcher is a native speaker of Ibibio. The article examines morpho-syntactically the patterns of Ibibio names before colonialism, during the post-colonial period and in the contemporary society. From the findings presented in this article it concluded that Ibibio names are no longer what they were.

Keywords: Ibibio, personal names, morpho-syntax, changes