MoCU Repository

A morphological analysis of Sukuma place names: A case of primary school names in Shinyanga, Tanzania

Show simple item record

dc.contributor.author Shigini, Peter G.
dc.date.accessioned 2023-10-18T07:45:21Z
dc.date.available 2023-10-18T07:45:21Z
dc.date.issued 2023
dc.identifier.issn 2788-4481
dc.identifier.issn 2788-4473
dc.identifier.uri http://repository.mocu.ac.tz/xmlui/handle/123456789/631
dc.description.abstract Place names are vital language forms as they are entrenched with data about their ethnic origins. They are crucial linguistic, historical, geographical, and socio-cultural data sources. A growing body of evidence suggests that place names have been studied mainly from a semantic standpoint. Studies focusing on the morphological analysis of place names are limited. This denies onomasticians access to knowledge regarding the structures and processes forming place names in many languages. This paper examines the morphological aspects of Sukuma place names, mainly names of primary schools in Shinyanga Rural District, Shinyanga Region, Tanzania, to uncover their underlying structural patterns and the word-formation processes. The data for this study were 125 names of primary schools found in the Shinyanga Rural District, collected through the documentary review method. The collected names were subjected to morphological analysis by decomposing them into constituent morphemes to establish their structures and word formation processes. The findings indicate that Sukuma place names minimally consist of a noun or verb stem, though most are composed of a prefix and a noun or verb stem. The study further establishes that Sukuma speakers use inflection, derivation, and compounding strategies to form place names. The results of this study support the view that names, like other words in a language, have elaborate linguistic structures that can be analysed morphologically. It is concluded that the structure of place names is as significant as the motivational factors for place naming in determining or contributing to the meaning of a place name. en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Journal of Languages, Linguistics and Literary Studies (JLLLS) en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries Vol. 3;No. 3
dc.subject Morphological en_US
dc.subject analysis en_US
dc.subject Naming en_US
dc.subject Place en_US
dc.subject Names en_US
dc.subject Shinyanga en_US
dc.subject Sukuma en_US
dc.title A morphological analysis of Sukuma place names: A case of primary school names in Shinyanga, Tanzania en_US
dc.type Article en_US


Files in this item

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

Search MoCU IR


Advanced Search

Browse

My Account