THE ONOMASTICS OF PRINCIPAL ANLO- TOWN NAMES

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the origin, meaning and motivation of the names of the principal settlements of the Anlo state and the morphological processes involved in the formation of the names. It classified also the names with appropriate conclusions. The research design used for the study was the descriptive survey. The population for the study was the chiefs, elders and people who had knowledge about the history of the settlements. The purposive and snow ball sampling techniques were employed in selecting the sample. Two sources of data collection were employed. First, documentary analysis was used to retrieve information from existing documented narratives of the area. The second source was interviews conducted with chiefs and elders, and prominent people in the towns which followed suggested methods for collecting oral history data in Ewe. The toponymic typological framework proposed by Tent and Blair (2011) was used to classify the settlement names. The results showed that settlements names originated from the migration history of Anlos. The settlement names make reference to natural features such as hills, valleys, sandbars, marshy areas, streams, vegetation and events encountered during their migration. The names comprised one, two or more morphemes put together through processes of affixation, compounding and borrowing. Also, the thirty-six settlement names could be classified into the nine categories outlined by Tent and Blair. However, some settlement names were difficult to identify as Ewe morphemes.