Igbo Linguistics

Igbo Linguistics

Igbo Language

Igbo (also known, less commonly, as Ibo; Ndi Igbo in Igbo) is a language spoken in Nigeria by around 30 million speakers (the Igbo), especially in the southeastern region once identified as Baifra. The language was used by John Goldsmith as a example to justify going away from the classical linear model of phonology as laid out in The Sound Pattern of English. It is written in Roman script. Igbo is a tonal language, like Yoruba and Chinese.
Igbo has a number of dialects, distinguished by accent
or orthography but almost universally mutually intelligeble, including the Idemili Igbo dialect (the version used in Chinua Acgebe's epic novel, Things Fall Apart), Owerri, Ngwa, Umuahia, Nnewi, Onitsha, Awka, Abriba, Arochukwu, Nsukka, Mbaise, Ohifia, Wawa and Okigwe.

The wide variety of spoken dialects has made agreeing a standardized orthography and dialect of the Igbo language
 very difficult. The current Onwu orthography, a compromise between the older Lepsius orthography and a newer orthography advocated by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (IIALC), was agreed in 1962.

The dialect form gaining widest acceptance, Central Igbo, is based on the dialects of two members of the Ezinehite group of Igbos in Central Owerri Province.

Dialects

Dialects continued...

between the towns of Owerri and Umuahia, Eastern Nigeria. From its proposal as a literary form in 1939 by Dr. Ida C. Ward, it was gradually accepted by missionaries, writers, and publishers across the region. In 1972, the Society for Promoting Igbo Language and Culture (SPILC), a nationalist organization which saw Central Igbo as an imperialist exercise, set up a Standardization Committee to extend Central Igbo to be a more inclusive language. Standard Igbo aims to cross-pollinate Central Igbo with words from Igbo dialects from outside the "Central" areas, and with the adoption of loan words.

Share by: