SOCIO-SEMANTIC STUDY 0F IZERE PERSONAL NAME PRACTICES OF PLATEAU STATE BETWEEN the 1990s-2000s

This study is a fusion of two different linguistic fields of studies joint to become one. These two fields are sociolinguistics and semantics. The sociolinguistic aspect deals with the aspect of naming a newborn in a society i.e. how names are given and derived while the semantic aspect deals with the meaning and origin of the names i.e using two eras 1960s-1990s and the early 1990s-2000s in which names and naming system have been affected, how a name is used in the Izere language and how names have changed over a period using three factors which are the social, historical and religious factors. The Afizere are a group of people who are mainly found in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria and speakers of the Izere language. They are also popularly known as the "Jarawa" by the Hausa and other nonspeakers. The research was able to identify and analyse male and female names in the Izere language.