Summary
Ibibio (proper) is the native language of the Ibibio people of Akwa Ibom State and Abia State, 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, and buckaroo, which come from the Ibibio word mbakara, and in the Afro-Cuban tradition of abakua.
| Ibibio | |
|---|---|
| Usem Ibibio | |
| Native to | Southern Nigeria |
| Region | Akwa Ibom State, Abia State, Cross River State |
| Ethnicity | Ibibio |
Native speakers | 6,426,000[1] |
| Latin Nsibidi | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ibb |
| Glottolog | ibib1240 |
| Ibibio language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
PhonologyEdit
ConsonantsEdit
| 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 | ||||
- /m, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f/ is labiodental.[2]
- /n, d, s/ are alveolar [n, d, s], whereas /t/ is dental [t̪].[2]
- Stem-initial /ŋ/ is realized as [ŋ͡w].[2]
Intervocalic plosives are lenited:[2]
VowelsEdit
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ʌ | o |
| Open | a | ɔ | |
- /i, u/ are phonetically near-close [ɪ, ʊ].[2]
- /e, ʌ, o/ are phonetically true-mid; /ʌ/ is also strongly centralized: [e̞, ʌ̝̈, o̞].[2]
- /a, ɔ/ are phonetically near-open; /a/ is central rather than front: [ɐ, ɔ̞].[2]
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]
TonesEdit
Ibibio has five tones: high, mid, rising, falling and low. A word can be used to mean two or more different things based on the tone ascribed to it.
OrthographyEdit
| a | b | d | e | ǝ | f | gh | h | i | ị | k | kp | m | n | ñ | ñw | ny | o | ọ | ʌ | p | s | t | u | ụ | w | y |
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Ibile, Fagbo (2022-04-25). "Ibibio language speakers". JoshuaProject.net. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Urua (2004), p. 106.
- ^ Urua (2004), pp. 105–106.
- ^ Essien, Okon E. (1990). "0.3.6". A Grammar of the Ibibio Language. Ibadan: University Press Ltd. ISBN 978-2491-53-5. OCLC 24681999.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
BibliographyEdit
- Urua, Eno-Abasi E. (2004), "Ibibio", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 105–109, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001550
Further readingEdit
- Bachmann, Arne (2006): "Ein quantitatives Tonmodell für Ibibio. Entwicklung eines Prädiktionsmoduls für das BOSS-Sprachsynthesesystem." Magisterarbeit, University of Bonn.
- Kaufman, Elaine Marlowe (1972) Ibibio dictionary. Leiden: African Studies Centre / Cross River State University / Ibibio Language Board. ISBN 90-70110-46-6
External linksEdit
- Ibibio kasahorow – language resources, including dictionary, books and proverbs.
- Bachmann's Master Thesis, Paper, Presentation
- BOSS-IBB documentation v0.1-r4
- ELAR Documentation of Dirge songs among the Urban people [Efik, Ibibio]
- ELAR Documentation of documenting drums and drum language in Ibibio traditional ceremonies