PERSONAL NAME ATTRIBUTION AMONG THE DOGON OF MALI: A SOCIO-ONOMASTIC ANALYSIS OF NAMING MOTIVATIONS AND CULTURAL PRACTICES

Sociolinguistics studies the relationship between language and society, and in particular the way linguistic practice carries the cultural values and representations of a community. Among the Dogon, given names are an important part of that linguistic and cultural heritage. A name is tied to the circumstances of a birth, to family events, to beliefs and to shared experience. This study examines Dogon naming practices from a sociolinguistic angle: the criteria by which a name is chosen, the way names are formed, what they mean, and how they connect to cultural tradition and social values. It also groups names according to the contexts and circumstances in which they are given.Observation, content analysis and individual interviews make up the qualitative approach used in the study, and onomastics, the study of proper names, supplies the theoretical framework. The names collected carry social and cultural meanings, connected with events, places, beliefs and collective memory. Naming practices are therefore informative about the relationship between language, culture and social organization, and they are one of the channels through which Dogon identity and cultural heritage are transmitted.