Kalabari is an Ijo language of

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, ...

spoken in

Rivers State Rivers is a states of Nigeria, state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed on 27 May 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Nigeria, Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include Imo State, Im ...

and

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 ...

by the Awome people. Its three dialects are

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 ...

. The Kalabari dialect (Kalabari proper) is one of the best-documented varieties of Ijo, and as such is frequently used as the prime example of Ijo in linguistic literature. As of 2005, the language, "spoken by 258,000 people, asendangered largely because of the massive relocation that has taken place in the area due to the development of Nigeria's oil industry in the

Port Harcourt Port Harcourt (Pidgin: ''Po-ta-kot or Pi-ta-kwa)'' is the capital and largest city of Rivers State in Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is locate ...

region." Berbice Creole Dutch, a recently extinct Dutch Creole formerly spoken in Eastern

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

, was spoken by descendants of Kalabari speakers. The African element in Berbice Dutch is predominantly Kalabari in origin. Kalabari-language words have been proposed for some modern technical terms.

Dialects

Kalabari is spoken south of

. Ibani is spoken southeast of Port Harcourt, in the Bonny local government area and in

Opobo Opobo is a community in Rivers state, South South region of Nigeria that was founded in 1870 . The people of Opobo are a mixture of the Ndoki tribe, Ndoki clan of the Igbo people and the Ibani clan of the Ijaw ethnic group. Their native languages ...

. Kirike is spoken in Port Harcourt and the local government areas of

Okrika Okrika is a town in Rivers State, Nigeria, and serves as the headquarters of Okrika Local Government Area. It is situated on an island south of Port Harcourt, functioning as a suburb of the city. The inhabitants of Okrika LGA are of Ijaw descent ...

and

Ogu–Bolo Ogu–Bolo (also spelled Ogu/Bolo) is a local government area (LGA) in Rivers State, Nigeria, with its administrative headquarters in the town of Ogu. It is situated in the eastern part of the Niger Delta, the Ogu-Bolo people are of Ijaw descent ...

Writing system

References

Works cited

* *

External links

Kalabari - English Dictionary
* * * Languages of Nigeria Ijoid languages Indigenous languages of Rivers State Ibani people {{ijoid-lang-stub

Dialects

Writing system

See also

References

Works cited

External links