Igbo language
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| Igbo (Igbo) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, others |
| Region: | Nigeria and other countries |
| Total speakers: | 18 million |
| Ranking: | 50 |
| Genetic classification: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Igboid Igbo |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Nigeria |
| Regulated by: | --- |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ig |
| ISO 639-2 | ibo |
| SIL | IGR |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Igbo (also known, less commonly, as Ibo; Template:Unicode Ndi Igbo in Igbo) is a language spoken in Nigeria by about 18 million speakers (the Igbo), especially in the southeastern region once identified as Biafra. The language was used by John Goldsmith as an 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 the Roman script. Igbo words are spoken with varying tones and stresses, which are marked by accent marks.
| Contents |
Sounds
Igbo is a tonal language with two distinctive tones; high and low. In some cases a third, downstepped high tone is also recognized. The language features vowel harmony with two sets of vowels distinguished by pharyngeal cavity size and can also be described in terms of "advanced tongue root" (ATR).
In some dialects, such as Enu-Onitsha Igbo, the doubly articulated and are realized as a voiced/devoiced bilabial implosive. The approximant is realized as an alveolar tap between vowels as in árá.
| Missing image Igbo_vowel_chart.png The vowel phonemes of Igbo |
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labializedvelar | Glottal | Labial-velar | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p | b | t | d | k | g | kw | gw | k͡p | g͡b | ||||||||||
| Nasals | m | n | ŋ | ŋw | ||||||||||||||||
| Fricatives | f | s | z | ʃ | ɣ | ɦ | ||||||||||||||
| Affricates | ʧ | ʤ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Approximants | ɹ | j | w | |||||||||||||||||
| Lateralapproximant | l | |||||||||||||||||||
Writing system
The most commonly-used orthography for Igbo is currently the Onwu (/oŋwu/) Alphabet. It is presented in the following table, with the International Phonetic Alphabet equivalents for the characters:
| Igbo Alphabet (Onwu) | IPA | Igbo Alphabet (Onwu) | IPA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | /a/ | Template:Unicode | ||
| b | /b/ | p | /p/ | |
| gb | ~ | kp | ~ | |
| d | /d/ | r | ||
| e | /e/ | s | /s/ | |
| f | /f/ | sh | ||
| g | t | /t/ | ||
| gh | u | /u/ | ||
| h | /h/ | Template:Unicode | ||
| i | /i/ | v | /v/ | |
| Template:Unicode | w | /w/ | ||
| j | y | /j/ | ||
| k | /k/ | z | /z/ | |
| l | /l/ | ch | ||
| m | /m/ and | gw | ||
| n | /n/ and | kw | ||
| Template:Unicode | nw | |||
| o | /o/ | ny | /nj/ |
The graphemes <gb> and <kp> are described both as implosives and as coarticulated +/b/ and /k/+/p/, thus both values are included in the table.
<m> and <n> each represent two phonemes: a consonant and a vocalic nasal.
Tones are sometimes indicated in writing, and sometimes not. When tone is indicated, low tones are shown with a grave accent over the vowel, for example <a> Template:Unicode <à>, and high tones with an acute accent over the vowel, for example <a> Template:Unicode <á>.
See also
External link
- Ethnologue report on the Igbo language (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ibo)
- Igbo Language Center (http://ilc.igbonet.com/)
References
- Awde, Nicholas and Onyekachi Wambu. Igbo: Igbo-English/English-Igbo Dictionary and Phrasebook New York: Hippocrene Books, 1999.
- International Phonetic Association (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association ISBN 0-521-63751-1it:Lingua Igbo