A Linguistic Study of Eggon Personal Names

The article is a linguistic study that analyzes Eggon personal names. The study of personal names is common in most languages around the world. However, nothing has been done on a description of Eggon names. There is a dictionary of Eggon names which only lists the names and their meanings without any linguistic information whatsoever on the names. This necessitates the present study to fill the existing gap. It aims at exploring the sources, morphological, and syntactic structures of Eggon personal names and their meanings. Data were sourced from documented materials, interviews and the intuition of the author as a native speaker. The source of personal names in Eggon can be traced to history, culture, religion, body parts, traditional occupation, circumstance of birth, and geographical location. The study reveals that most Eggon names begin with a vowel {/a/); they are formed from single lexical items, phrases and sentences. The derivation of the complex names involves phonological and morphological processes of elision, shortening, affixation and compounding. Personal names in Eggon can be made up of a single lexical item, nominal or verbal phrases and/or a sentence. Most of the names derived from sentences are declarative, while a few others are imperative and interrogative. The meanings of the names that are made up of single lexical items are literal, but the meanings of the complex names are both literal and non-literaL The study concludes in line with many scholars that Eggon personal names are similar to the grammar of the language. The study adds to the documentation of the language and provides data for farther study by researchers and linguists.