ইগবো ভাষা

ইগবো ভাষা(Igboইগ্‌বো)আফ্রিকামহাদেশেরনাইজেরিয়ায়প্রচলিত একটি ভাষা। নাইজেরিয়ার দক্ষিণ-পূর্ব অঞ্চলের (বিয়াফ্রা) প্রায় ১ কোটি ৮০ লক্ষ ইগবো জাতির লোক এ ভাষায় কথা বলেন।ইয়োরুবাওচীনা ভাষারমত ইগবো ভাষাও একটিসুরপ্রধান ভাষা।
Igbo has a number of dialects, distinguished by accent or orthography but almost universallymutually intelligible, including the Idemili Igbo dialect (the version used in Chinua Achebe's epic novel,Things Fall Apart), bende, Owerri, Ngwa, Umuahia, Nnewi, Onitsha, Awka, Abriba, Arochukwu, Nsukka, Mbaise, Ohafia, Agbor, Wawa and Okigwe,Ukwa/Ndoki. It is considered to be adialect continuum. There is apparently a degree ofdialect levellingoccurring.
The wide variety of spoken dialects has made agreeing a standardisedorthographyanddialectof the Igbo language very difficult. The current Onwu orthography, a compromise between the olderLepsiusorthography and a newer orthography advocated by theInternational Institute of African Languages and Cultures(IIALC), was agreed in 1962.
The dialect form gaining widest acceptance,Central Igbo, is based on the dialects of two members of the Ezinehite group of Igbos in Central Owerri Province between the towns of Owerri and Umuahia, Eastern Nigeria. From its proposal as a literary form in 1939 by Dr.Ida C. Ward, it was gradually accepted by missionaries, writers, and publishers across the region. In 1972, theSociety for Promoting Igbo Language and Culture(SPILC), a nationalist organisation which saw Central Igbo as an imperialist exercise, set up a Standardisation Committee to extend Central Igbo to be a more inclusive language.Standard Igboaims to cross-pollinate Central Igbo with words from Igbo dialects from outside the "Central" areas, and with the adoption ofloan words.
In 1999,Chinua Achebe, the most internationally famous Igbo speaker, passionately denounced Standard Igbo and its ancestors as colonial and conservative impositions on the rich range of Igbo dialects. To illustrate his point, he delivered his lecture in a dialect peculiar only to Onitsha speakers, which was almost unintelligible to more than half the audience.
Igbo is mainly a spoken and colloquial language today, and not much Igbo literature exists. Reading and writing Igbo is not very widespread either, and Igbo is mostly used as a spoken language. Although Igbo is taught at all levels in eastern Nigerian schools, English remains the literary language that is to be studied extensively. In many urban areas,Nigerian Pidgin Englishoften replaces Igbo.
Igbo, like many other West African languages, has borrowed many words from English. Example loanwords include the Igbo word for blue ("blu") and operator ("opareto").
Many names in Igbo are actually fusions of older original words and phrases. For example, one Igbo word for green is "akwukwo nri," which literally means "leaves for eating," or "vegetables." Another example is train ("ugbo igwe"), which comes from the words "ugbo" (vehicle, craft) and "igwe" (iron, metal); thus a locomotive train is vehicle via iron (rails)
, a car "ugbo ala" ; vehicle via land and an aeroplane "ugbo elu" ; vehicle via air.
Words may also take on multiple meanings. Take for example the word "akwukwo." "Akwukwo" originally means "leaf" (as on a tree), but during and after the colonization period, akwukwo also came to mean "paper," "book," "school," and "education." This is because printed paper can be first likened to an organic leaf, and then the paper to a book, the book to a school, and so on. Combined with other words, "akwukwo" can take on many forms — for example, "akwukwo ego" means "printed money" or "bank notes," and "akwukwo eji eje ije" means "passport."
"akwukwo ndu" means "life green leaf on a tree" because "ndu" means "life".
Proverbs and idiomatic expressions are highly valued by the Igbo people and proficiency in the language means knowing how to intersperse speech with a good dose of proverbs.Chinua AchebeinThings Fall Apartdescribes proverbs as "the palm oil with which words are eaten". Proverbs are widely used in the traditional society to describe, in very few words, what could have otherwise required a thousand words.
Igbo is atonal languagewith two distinctive tones; high and low. In some cases a third, downstepped high tone is also recognized. The language featuresvowel harmonywith two sets of vowels distinguished bypharyngealcavity size and can also be described in terms of "advanced tongue root" (ATR).
In some dialects, such as Enu-Onitsha Igbo, the doubly articulated/g͡b/and/k͡p/are realized as a voiced/devoiced bilabialimplosive. The approximant/ɹ/is realized as analveolar tap[ɾ]between vowels as inárá.
Syllables are of the form (C)V (optional consonant, vowel) or N (asyllabic nasal). CV is the most common syllable type. Every syllable bears a tone. Consonant clusters do not occur. The semivowelsjandwcan occur between consonant and vowel in some syllables. The semi-vowel in CjV is analyzed as an underlying vowel 'ị', so that-bịais the phonemic form ofbjá'come'. On the other hand, 'w' in CwV is analysed as an instance of labialization; so the phonemic form of the verb-gwá'tell' is/-gʷá/.
The most commonly-used orthography for Igbo is currently theOnwu(/oŋwu/) Alphabet. It is presented in the following table, with theInternational Phonetic Alphabetequivalents for the characters:
The graphemes <gb> and <kp> are described both as implosives and as coarticulated/ɡ/+/b/and/k/+/p/, thus both values are included in the table.
<m> and <n> each represent two phonemes: a nasal consonant and a syllabic nasal.
Tones are sometimes indicated in writing, and sometimes not. When tone is indicated, low tones are shown with a grave accent over the vowel, for example <a>→<à>, and high tones with an acute accent over the vowel, for example <a>→<á>.