Izon (), also known as Central Izon language, Ijaw, Izon and Uzo, is the dominant Ijaw language, spoken by a majority of the

Ijaw people The Ijaw people, also known as the Izon people, are an ethnic group found in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria, with primary Population, population clusters in Bayelsa State, Bayelsa, Delta State, Delta, and Rivers State, Rivers. They also have ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. There are about thirty dialects, all

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...

, of which there are Gbanran, Ekpetiama and Kolokuma etc. Kolokuma is the language of education. In June 2013, the ''Izon Fie'' instructional book and audio CDs were launched at a ceremony attended by officials of the government of

Bayelsa State Bayelsa is a state in the South South region of Nigeria, located in the core of the Niger Delta. Bayelsa State was created in 1996 and was carved out from Rivers State, making it one of the newest states in the federation. The capital, Yenag ...

. The government of Bayelsa State official employed 30 teachers to teach the Central Izon language in primary schools in the state in order to save the language from extinction.

General information and history

While there are approximately 1.7 million speakers of all Ijo languages in Nigeria, it is believed that there are only a little over 1 million Izon speakers. The language is currently classified as "at risk", with a 20% certainty based on the evidence available. Izon is recognized as having been present in the region several

millennia A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting p ...

before the 15th century when the Portuguese arrived at the Nigerian

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

. At present, linguists approximate that the language became established in the Niger Delta region as many as seven to eight thousand years ago. The Ijo people did not call the Niger Delta region home for all of history; in fact, it is known that there have been

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

movements from far-away places/from the edges of the

Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitic ...

. Because of this, Izon is closely related to a variety of other languages from surrounding areas, beyond the confines of

towards the sources of the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Nige ...

near West Africa. Linguists have traced the pre-history of Izon far back and collectively refer to its roots as proto-ijo, the language from which all existing Ijo

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s came into existence.

Dialects

An Izon dialect classification from Blench (2019) is given as: ;Ịzọn * West: Arogbo, Fụrụpagha, W. Olodiama, Egbema, Gbaramatu, Ogulagha, Iduwini * Central ** North *** Northeast: Gbanraịn, Kolokuma, Ekpetiama *** Northwest: Ikibiri, Ogboin, W. Tarakiri, Kabo, Kumbo, Mein, Tuomọ, Sembiri, Operemọ, Ọbọtẹbẹ, Ogbe Ịjọ ** South *** Southwest: Apọị, Koluama, Basan, E. Olodiama *** Southeast: Oiyakiri, Oporomọ, Ḅụmọ

Preservation efforts

In recent efforts to prevent the Izon language from

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

, the Bayelsa State Government has taken great preservation measures. They have employed over thirty teachers to teach the Izon language in local schools within the state. The Commissioner for

Culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

and Ijaw National Affairs, Dr. Felix Tuodolo fears that because families are now teaching their children Pidgin-English, as opposed to Izon, that the language is now at critical risk for extinction. As a means of furthering the government's dedication to preserving the cultural language, a number of books have been written in Izon dialects to assist in this process.

Phonology

Consonants

* A voiced velar fricative �occurs as an extra phoneme among speakers of different dialects. However, it does not exist in most dialects. * A glottal is only existent in interjections, not as a phoneme. * /s, z/ are in free variation with

postalveolar Postalveolar (post-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but n ...

sounds �, d͡ʒin loanwords borrowed from English.

Vowels

Syntax

* The Izon language does not make singular-plural distinctions in verbs, as opposed to what is done in English. Therefore, regardless of whether or not the subject is singular or plural, the same form of the verb is used. Such a system is evident in the following examples: In each of the four Izon sentences above, the same form of the verb "sei" (dance) is used, even when the plurality of the subject changes. * Another interesting aspect of Izon

Syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...

is its Demonstrative Agreement. A variety of demonstratives are used in Izon to indicate the gender of the nouns that coincide with them. The demonstratives "bei" (this) and "u bei" (that) are used with singular-masculine nouns, for instance: :''bei ki.mi. bei'' (this man) ''bei owu bei'' (this masquerade) :''u bei ki.mi. bei'' (that man) ''u bei owu bei'' (that masquerade) The demonstrative "ma" (this) and "u ma" (that) coincide with singular feminine nouns as follows: :''ma iyo. ro. arau. ma'' (this woman) ''u ma iyo. ro. arau. ma'' (that woman) :''ma ere ma'' (this wife) ''u ma ere ma'' (that wife) In addition, "mi" (this) and "u mi" (that) are used with singular neuter nouns, for example: :''mi ololo mi'' (this bottle) ''u mi ololo mi'' (that bottle) :''mi bira mi'' (this hand) ''u mi bira mi'' (that hand) When there is a plural noun present, the demonstrative "ma" (these) and "u ma" (those) are used, regardless of the gender of the noun. This can be seen in the following: :''ma ere abu ma'' (these wives) ''u ma ere abu ma'' (those wives) : (these rooms) (those rooms) :''ma akimi ma'' (these men) ''u ma akimi ma'' (those men)

Additional linguistic information

Izon can be considered distinct from many other related languages in the region, in the sense that it follows a SOV (subject-object-verb) format, both in simple and complex sentences. Additionally, directional and locative phrases also precede the main verb. Tense marking takes the form of a

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

on the final verb. Location markers and other

preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...

-like articles are

ed to the nouns that they relate to. Possessor typically precedes possessed and

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

s precede the

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

s they modify.

Sample vocabulary list

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

* http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/7934 * http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/IJC/ijc_word-list_1984_04.html * https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7HL15LP5QbTN0lFNjl4bFFaWGM/view {{Ijoid languages Languages of Nigeria Ijoid languages