Igbo (language)
| Igbo | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Nigeria , Equatorial Guinea , Cameroon , Gabon | |
| speaker | approx. 18-25 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Official status | ||
| Official language in |
 Nigeria
|
|
| Recognized minority / regional language in |
 Equatorial Guinea
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
ig |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
ibo |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
Igbo (outdated Ibo ) is the language of the Igbo of the same name in Nigeria and is spoken by around 18 to 25 million people. The distribution area is mainly the south-east of Nigeria, which in 1967 as Biafra declared itself unilaterally independent. Igbo belongs to the Igboid language branch within the Benue-Congo languages as part of the Niger-Congo languages . Igbo, like Haussa and Yoruba , is one of the main languages of Nigeria, alongside the official English language .
It is mainly used as a communication and lingua franca, less often as a reading and writing language, as there is little literature in Igbo. In many urban areas of the Igbos, it is now often replaced by local dialects of Nigerian pidgin . It is pronounced ibo [ íɓò ] and uses the Pannigerian alphabet . Several dozen different dialects exist in addition to a standardized Igbo, a tonal language with two tones: high and low.
The story Chi Ewere Ehihe Jie by the Nigerian author Joseph Uchechuku Tagbo Nzeako is one of the literary evidence .
alphabet
The commonly used alphabet for Igbo, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet , was established in the 1950s by SE Onwu, chairman of the Onwu Orthography Committee .
| Igbo sign | pronunciation | Igbo sign | pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| A, a | [ a ] | Ọ, ọ | [ ɔ ] |
| B, b | [ b ] | P, p | [ p ] |
| CH, ch | [ ʧ ] | Kp, kp | [ ɓ / k͡p ]] |
| D, d | [ d ] | R, r | [ ɾ ] |
| E, e | [ e ] | S, s | [ s ] |
| F, f | [ f ] | Sh, sh | [ ʃ ] |
| G, g | [ ɡ ] | T, t | [ t ] |
| Gb, gb | [ ɡ͡b ] | U, u | [ u ] |
| Gh, gh | [ ɣ ] | Ụ, ụ | [ ʊ ] |
| H, h | [ h ] | V, v | [ v ] |
| I, i | [ i ] | W, w | [ w ] |
| Ị, ị | [ ɪ ] | Y, y | [ j ] |
| J, j | [ ʤ ] | Z, z | [ z ] |
| K, k | [ k ] | Ch, ch | [ ʧ ] |
| L, l | [ l ] | Gw, gw | [ ɡʷ ] |
| M, m | [ m ] | Kw, kw | [ kʷ ] |
| N, n | [ n ] | Nw, nw | [ ŋw ] |
| Ṅ, ṅ | [ ŋ ] | Ny, ny | [ nj ] |
| O, o | [ o ] |
Text sample
General Declaration of Human Rights :
- A mụrụ mmadụ nile n'ohere nakwa nha anya ugwu na ikike. E nyere breathes na mmụọ ime ihe ziri ezi nke na ha kwesiri ịkpaso ibe ha agwa n'obi nwanne na nwanne.
- All people are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should meet one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
literature
- Nicholas Awde and Onyekachi Wambu: Igbo-English / English-Igbo dictionary and phrasebook . Hippocrene Books, New York 1999.
- Michael JC Echeruo: Igbo-English dictionary: a comprehensive dictionary of the Igbo language, with an English-Igbo index . Yale University Press, New Haven et al. a. 1998.
- Nolue Emenanjo: Elements of Modern Igbo Grammar . Oxford University Press, Ibadan 1976.
Web links
- National African Language Resource Center , Indiana University . List of African languages in which information brochures are available for download, English, accessed February 7, 2016.
- Private web page about Igbo culture and language , English, accessed February 7, 2016.
- The xLingua online dictionary German-Igbo / Igbo-German from Computer Zentrum Strausberg GmbH, which is currently under construction , was accessed on February 7, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Peter Austin: One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost . University of California Press , 2008, ISBN 0-520-25560-7 , p. 68.