Associative -a as a Productive Affix in Names Formation in Runyambo

This paper presents the names formed through associative -a in Runyambo. The formation of nouns in Bantu languages employ several strategies including the use of associative -a which differ in productivity in different languages. The paper looks at this process as a productive one especially in forming personal and place names in Runyambo. The paper is descriptive in nature with qualitative data presented through listing and morphological parsing. The names were collected from five native speakers; What’s app groups where lists of names (especially of people) are listed during different contributions; extraction from written materials and through elicitation techniques in the natural environment where the language is spoken. It was found that associative <i>-a</i> is very productive in the formation of names in Runyambo. It is used to associate an entity being named with the environment and its meaning. Being a dependent morpheme, it attaches to noun class agreement affixes to agree with the nouns it associates. In names, the associative <i>-a</i> ‘of’ occurs as a prefix as in class 9/10 <i>nya-</i> in a personal name <i>Nyangoma</i> ‘of drum’. The other forms include <i>ka-</i> class 12, <i>cha- </i>class 7, <i>bhya- </i>class 8, <i>rwa-</i> class 11, etc. Among which when used in personal names <i>nya- </i>is feminine, <i>rwa, bhya</i> and <i>cha </i>are masculine and <i>ka </i>is diminutive. Despite having morphological features, names in Runyanyo are meaningful and reflect the culture of the speakers.