Ibibio is the native language of the
Ibibio people of
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
, belonging to the
Ibibio-Efik
Central Ibibio is the major dialect cluster of the Cross River branch of Benue–Congo. Efik proper has national status in Nigeria and is the literary standard of the Efik languages, though Ibibio proper has more native speakers.
Varieties
...
dialect cluster of the
Cross River languages
The Cross River or Delta–Cross languages are a branch of the Benue–Congo language family spoken in south-easternmost Nigeria, with some speakers in south-westernmost Cameroon. The branch was first formulated by Joseph Greenberg; it is one o ...
. 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
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban ...
words like
buckra, and buckaroo, which come from the Ibibio word
mbakara, and in the
Afro-Cuban tradition of
abakua.
Geographic distribution
Ibibio is the language of the
Ibibio people. The Ibibio people are found in Southeastern 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
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...
,
Bioko and
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Tog ...
).
Phonology
Consonants
* are
bilabial, whereas is
labiodental.
** has two allophones, which occur in complementary distribution: voiceless and voiced .
* are
alveolar , whereas is
dental .
* Stem-initial is realized as .
Intervocalic plosives are
lenited:
* →
* →
* → or
Vowels
* are phonetically near-close .
* are phonetically true-mid; is also strongly centralized: .
* are phonetically near-open; is central rather than front: .
Between consonants, have allophones that are transcribed , respectively. At least in case of , the realization is probably somewhat different (e.g. close-mid ), because the default IPA values of the symbols are very similar to the normal realizations of the Ibibio vowels . Similarly, may actually be near-close , rather than close .
In some dialects (e.g. Ibiono), occur as phonemes distinct from .
Tones
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.
Orthography
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* 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.
External links
Ibibio kasahorow– language resources, including dictionary, books and proverbs.
Bachmann's Master ThesisPaperPresentation
BOSS-IBB documentation v0.1-r4
ELAR_Documentation_of_Dirge_songs_among_the_Urban_people_[Efik,_Ibibio
/nowiki>.html" ;"title="fik, Ibibio">ELAR Documentation of Dirge songs among the Urban people [Efik, Ibibio
/nowiki>">fik, Ibibio">ELAR Documentation of Dirge songs among the Urban people [Efik, Ibibio
/nowiki>
ELAR Documentation of documenting drums and drum language in Ibibio traditional ceremonies
{{Authority control
Languages of Nigeria
Ibibio
Ibibio-Efik languages