Ibibio is the native language of the Ibibio people of Nigeria, belonging to the Ibibio-Efik dialect cluster of the Cross River languages. The name Ibibio is sometimes used for the entire dialect cluster. In pre-colonial times, it was written with Nsibidi ideograms, similar to Igbo, Efik, Anaang, and Ejagham. Ibibio has also had influences on Afro-American diasporic languages such as AAVE words like buckra which come from the Ibibio word mbakara and in the Afro-Cuban tradition of abakua.
Ibibio | |
---|---|
Usem Ibibio | |
Native to | Nigeria |
Region | Abia State, Akwa Ibom State, Rivers State, Cross River State |
Ethnicity | Ibibio |
Native speakers | L1: 6.3 million (2020)[1] L2: 4.5 million (2013)[1] |
Latin Nsibidi | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ibb |
Glottolog | ibib1240 |
Ibibio is the language of the Ibibio people. The Ibibio people are found in Southsouth Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State, Cross River State, and Eastern Abia State (Arochukwu and Ukwa East LGA's). Ibibio communities in Opobo Nkoro and Oyigbo LGA's of Rivers State are largely unknown.
Some Ibibio are found in other countries (Western Cameroon, Bioko and Ghana).
Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Plosive | voiceless | b | t | k | k͡p | |
voiced | d | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | |||
Approximant | j | w |
Intervocalic plosives are lenited:[2]
Front | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|
unrounded | unrounded | rounded | |
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | ʌ | o |
Open | a | ɔ |
Between consonants, /i, u, o/ have allophones that are transcribed [ɪ, ʉ, ə], respectively.[2] At least in case of [ɪ, ə], the realization is probably somewhat different (e.g. close-mid [e, ɘ]), because the default IPA values of the symbols [ɪ, ə] are very similar to the normal realizations of the Ibibio vowels /i, ʌ/. Similarly, [ʉ] may actually be near-close [ʉ̞], rather than close [ʉ].
In some dialects (e.g. Ibiono), /ɪ, ʉ, ə/ occur as phonemes distinct from /i, u, o/.[2]
Ibibio has five tones: high, mid, rising, falling and low. A word can mean two or more different things based on the tone ascribed to it.
Essien 1983[4] | Essien 1990[5] | IPA |
---|---|---|
a | a | a |
b | b | b |
d | d | d |
e | e | e |
ǝ | ǝ | ə |
f | f | f |
gh | gh | ɣ |
h | h | x |
i | i | i |
ị | ị | ɨ |
k | k | k |
kp | kp | kp |
m | m | m |
n | n | n |
ñ | n̄ | ŋ |
ñw | n̄w | ŋʷ |
ny | ny | ɲ |
o | o | o |
ọ | ọ | ɔ |
ʌ | ʌ | ʌ |
p | p | p |
s | s | s |
t | t | t |
u | u | u |
ụ | ụ | ʉ |
w | w | w |
y | y | j |
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: CS1 maint: date and year (link)