Indigenous Igbo endearment names for wives as communicative acts in socio-cultural contexts

Abstract

One way in which the culture of a people is reflected in language use is through their personal naming patterns, which often express a network of inter-cultural connections and communicate beliefs, historical antecedents, values, intentions, experiences, and cultural practices. In traditional Igbo society, it was a socio-cultural norm for a newly married man to give his wife an indigenous endearment name as a form of identification and affection. However, as reported by respondents during the course of this research, this linguistic and cultural practice is rapidly changing, likely due to shifting attitudes influenced by contact between Igbo language and culture and those of other linguistic communities within the Igbospeaking regions. This paper examines indigenous Igbo endearment names for wives as communicative acts situated within socio-cultural contexts. The names studied are characterized by a structural pattern in which a chosen nominal element combines with the attributive compound morpheme diya (‘her husband’). These names were elicited from purposively selected participants, both the name-givers (husbands) and the bearers (wives), within the study area. The data were analyzed in terms of communicative act types and
speech act categories. Findings reveal that each endearment name functions as a sociocultural communicative act that positions the wife as an integral part of her husband. These names are locutionary acts imbued with illocutionary and perlocutionary forces, primarily derived from their initial nominal components. They also fall within the declarative and expressive categories of speech acts. Furthermore, the study shows that these names have a strong interface with the social and cultural identities of the Igbo people. They play a vital role in reinforcing husband-wife interpersonal relationships within the marital context. The names also serve as reflections of traditional socio-cultural history, illustrating how naming practices evolve over time and how they encapsulate hierarchies and power dynamics embedded in the social structures of Igbo communities.