An onomastic renaissance: African names to the fore

Abstract

One could differentiate between the lexicon and the onomasticon of a language. This dichotomy has further been formulated in terms of proprial as opposed to non-proprial sustantives (Leys 1974). Non-proprial creativity is restricted: few individuals are capable of coining new phonic constructions, and most use those lexemes forced upon them by the speech community. By contrast, onomastic creativity is not thus restricted. Practically any individual may name an entity. Within onomastics then, as the study of proper names, the possibility of linguistic creativity and innovation is large. Names also, better than any other language form, reflect various social and other attitudes and relationships, social barriers, and the way in which social groups behave towards languages and other aspects of society. Against this background the paper is offered. The first section is devoted to the development that clearly indicates the influence of African names on the surrounding language communities, while the second part takes a look at how African names, formerly marginalised and operating mostly in ‘closed ranks’, are now making their presence felt in all areas of social life.

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