Thread: Who Will Save The Igbo Language?

The Igbo language is getting to extinction because of the relative value it’s been given to English. It has even come to the point that people can seldom speak two good sentences of Igbo without attaching some engli-igbo to it. (Me included)...even the good old proverbs are dying.

Through out my study life in Nigeria, I never saw any emphasis on the relevance of Igbo as a language and there wasnt a direct link with the language and its cultural enrichment. All I knew then was that one of the three major Nigerian languages was compulsory for final secondary school exams and everyone in my school went through the Igbo route.

Even the speaking of Igbo (a vernacular language) was prohibited in my primary and secondary schools. Am talking of government schools o...Even, in private schools the penalties were worse. I remember above the class timetable is something in scripted in white thick chalk “VENACULAR IS PROHIBITTED IN THIS CLASS”…and a breach of this piled people with fines.. I have had people punished, flogged and beaten for conversing with friends and colleauges in Igbo at school. Why should I be fined for speaking my own native language !! I thought my predicament ended there till I got into FUTO at 16years and spoke Igbo quite fluently to anyone... till someone said to me, “Nne, you have to stop speaking Igbo in public, this is a university and people would think you are illiterate and igbotic”. Gosh, did I laugh that day! Speaking Igbo isn’t synonymous to been a Village girl from Aba. Geeeeeez

The “westernization” disease has also taken some family. I know parents who literally force their kids to speak English at home and spank them if they don’t... U’d see parents conversing to their kids in English. Even at home, they can’t speak their native language. I know lots of kids that I grew up with who can barely speak Igbo, rather their were enrolled into German, French classes. I find that really sad. Extremely sad. One thing they never failed to understand that the learning/speaking of Igbo wouldn’t worsen their English language skills provided both have strong foundation. Some people take it as a useless language that wouldnt take you anywhere!

I went to my dads church in the village before I left naija 5years ago and a church that had its whole service in Igbo now has English and Igbo mass. My Village dowry list now has Igbo and English versions. I call my friends in Naija, eager to speak to them in real native ngwa and all I hear is "heylow, woooooozzzzzop".

Incidentally, i learnt to read and write Igbo language in secondary school. @ Austnne it was a private school too.

Originally Posted by bluestocking

Aust, definetly not only Igbo people behave that way. That's just an example. More often than not the loud obnoxious person bullying someone else in public, is either a 419er or trader and guess what? They are usually Igbo.
Dont get me wrong, I dont have anything against Igbo people or the language and trust me I speak Igbo well enough. I'm just saying that people being the way they are, they'd rather distance themselves from people like that. It takes a lot of maturity to still be yourself and to know that what that Igbo man does has no direct reflection on you as an Igbo person.

Dont you think that people who are ashamed of their identity with the fear of being tagged what a majority is identified as have some problems beyond just not wanting to identify themselves as Igbos. Its just the same thing here, despite the fact I know peoples background knowledge of Nigerians in terms of scams etc, it wouldnt deter me from identifying myself as a Nigerian anytime anywhere....and you r right, it takes a lot of maturity to be oneself despite the way typicals of oneself have been grouped by the unknowns.

Originally Posted by bluestocking

Incidentally, i learnt to read and write Igbo language in secondary school. @ Austnne it was a private school too.

Same here...
Am talking of continuity of the language. Many people behave like they are forced to learn the language in schools not that they want to learn. The language is dying because people see no relevance of it.

Guys, sorry o! ...I am not Igbo, however, I couldn't help but comment!

The possible extinction of the Igbo language can also be said of many other Nigerian and African languages, and the reasons/problems are more than one!

For example:
When you have children growing up, whose parents dont speak the language to them, who are forbiden to speak it in schools, who when they speak their native language are considered "Rass", then we have a problem as a nation! It's sad that a whole lot of our generation, and the ones coming up after us (born and raised in Nigeria!) will no little or no Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, etc....

I am not sure why Africans, read Nigerians in this case, are so fascinated with everything English to the point that we are killing our languages softly! (no pun intended!) It is the same generation whose parents in Nigeria (Africa) forbid their kids to speak the native language to them, and even going to the extent of punishing them!

CAn you imagine a boy growing up in a Yoruba household about 5 years old not knowing how to speak his native tongue? The same can be said of other tribes in Nigeria! This will NOT happen if such boy grew up in a Spanish, Asian, or East European country!

As they say, charity begins from home! To curb our languages from being extinct, we need to start encouraging its teachings in our homes....buy materials for your children in their languages! If materials don't exist, create them! Have them watch clean native movies with you! HEck, order the OGD all starz music DVD for them so they can see how creative/beautiful our culture is and start learning from such opportunities that exist! The fact that some of us aren't currently in Nigeria, should not be an excuse for (parents) to not teach their children where they came from, who they are, etc.

My two pence!

Aust_nne, well-done, you nailed it!

Igbo is still strong and alive in most Eastern States; go to the streets, markets, or just visit a village. I don't see anything seriously wrong with mixing sentences up with English descriptions occassionally, especially when what you're trying to describe is of foreign origin. This is even done more in English language, where many decriptive terms/words are derived from other languages. It's a part of globalization. BUT, that is only done when you either can't develop a word for something or you can't remember the word for it.

Originally Posted by bluestocking

Think before you write!

I dont know why once we disagree with what people say then we think its our right to insult them. Nonsense!

i wonder where the insult is located in my response.Lets not develope thick skin for superior arguements i beg.

I tend to agree with point raised about "relevance". However this issue is not exclusive to the Igbo language though, especially with almost total linguistic dominance (worldwide) of English and the other major European languages. The sad truth is that in this digital age, it is actually getting worse.

However, I wonder if making many more movies in Igbo language would help?

I am also confused about the issue of the difficulty with the dialectal variations of the Igbo language. I'm not an Igbo speaker so please educate me if I am out of my depth on this one, but I thought there was a standard version of the Igbo language known as "Union" Igbo? Apparently the Holy BIble is written in the Union Igbo format. Isn’t this a widely used version of the Igbo language?

Originally Posted by Wendall

I tend to agree with point raised about "relevance". However this issue is not exclusive to the Igbo language though, especially with almost total linguistic dominance (worldwide) of English and the other major European languages. The sad truth is that in this digital age, it is actually getting worse.

However, I wonder if making many more movies in Igbo language would help?

I am also confused about the issue of the difficulty with the dialectal variations of the Igbo language. I'm not an Igbo speaker so please educate me if I am out of my depth on this one, but I thought there was a standard version of the Igbo language known as "Union" Igbo? Apparently the Holy BIble is written in the Union Igbo format. Isn’t this a widely used version of the Igbo language?

You may find these useful. The first is a good summary of the debate while the second offers a nuanced and analytical perspective on the issue especially Chinua Achebe's intervention

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/p...bohistory.html

http://www.kintespace.com/kp_emenyonu.html

I suspect you are on the money with regards to the possibility of films made in Igbo eventually leading to a 'standard' Igbo dialect.

Originally Posted by Aust_nne

The Igbo language is getting to extinction because of the relative value it’s been given to English. It has even come to the point that people can seldom speak two good sentences of Igbo without attaching some engli-igbo to it. (Me included)...even the good old proverbs are dying.

Through out my study life in Nigeria, I never saw any emphasis on the relevance of Igbo as a language and there wasnt a direct link with the language and its cultural enrichment. All I knew then was that one of the three major Nigerian languages was compulsory for final secondary school exams and everyone in my school went through the Igbo route.

Even the speaking of Igbo (a vernacular language) was prohibited in my primary and secondary schools. Am talking of government schools o...Even, in private schools the penalties were worse. I remember above the class timetable is something in scripted in white thick chalk “VENACULAR IS PROHIBITTED IN THIS CLASS”…and a breach of this piled people with fines.. I have had people punished, flogged and beaten for conversing with friends and colleauges in Igbo at school. Why should I be fined for speaking my own native language !! I thought my predicament ended there till I got into FUTO at 16years and spoke Igbo quite fluently to anyone... till someone said to me, “Nne, you have to stop speaking Igbo in public, this is a university and people would think you are illiterate and igbotic”. Gosh, did I laugh that day! Speaking Igbo isn’t synonymous to been a Village girl from Aba. Geeeeeez

The “westernization” disease has also taken some family. I know parents who literally force their kids to speak English at home and spank them if they don’t... U’d see parents conversing to their kids in English. Even at home, they can’t speak their native language. I know lots of kids that I grew up with who can barely speak Igbo, rather their were enrolled into German, French classes. I find that really sad. Extremely sad. One thing they never failed to understand that the learning/speaking of Igbo wouldn’t worsen their English language skills provided both have strong foundation. Some people take it as a useless language that wouldnt take you anywhere!

I went to my dads church in the village before I left naija 5years ago and a church that had its whole service in Igbo now has English and Igbo mass. My Village dowry list now has Igbo and English versions. I call my friends in Naija, eager to speak to them in real native ngwa and all I hear is "heylow, woooooozzzzzop".

Here's another view -


Omenka Ejike Eze <omenka1@uwandiigbo.com> wrote:

Folks,
I did not have the time to respond to this thread, but let me say a few words all the same. In one of the responses, Chiji mentioned that "Engligbo is our bane". On the contrary, Engligbo is a vibrant bilingual practice that does not in any way impact either of the languages in contact. What has been referred to as Engligbo is in linguistics referred to as Code Switching, a normal bilingual phenomenon. When a speaker has to languages in his or her repertoire, it is pefectly normal to switch from one language to another when speaking with other speakers who are also bilingual in those languages. This does not in any way detract from the quality of either language or the speakers linguistic competence.

It should also be known that Code Switching (Engligbo if you must) has a structured grammar of its own. The switching from one language to the other is not a random linguistic act. Instead, there are certain syntactic rules that are followed by the bilingual when switching back and forth. The syntact of codeswitching is a popular area of study in sociolinguistics.

There are competing theories on the grammar of code-switching. Noteable among these are the Free Morpheme and Equivalent Constraints under the Variationist Framework (Poplack, Eze), The System Morpheme Principle under the Matrix Language Frame Model (Myers-Scotton), Functional Head Constraint under the Matrix Language Frame Model (Myers-Scotton), and Functional Head Constraint (Belazi) etc.

I am sorry for providing more information than you actually asked for. The intent is to show that it is normal and systematic and that other bilinguals, including French and English bilinguals, English and Spanish bilinguals, Yoruba and English bilinguals (See Goke-Pariola's work) engage in this practice in speech. It is another issue if someone attempts to write in code-switching.

For more information, please check your library for a copy of my unpublished doctoral dissertation Aspects of Language Contact: A Variationist Perspective on Codeswitching and Borrowing in Igbo-English Bilingual Discourse .

Jisie ike.
--
-----------------------------
Omenka Ejike Eze, Ph.D.
Instructor, Uwandiigbo.com
Visit us at http://uwandiigbo.com for a great learning experience.

Originally Posted by ogonna

Here's another view -


Omenka Ejike Eze <omenka1@uwandiigbo.com> wrote:

Folks,
I did not have the time to respond to this thread, but let me say a few words all the same. In one of the responses, Chiji mentioned that "Engligbo is our bane". On the contrary, Engligbo is a vibrant bilingual practice that does not in any way impact either of the languages in contact. What has been referred to as Engligbo is in linguistics referred to as Code Switching, a normal bilingual phenomenon. When a speaker has to languages in his or her repertoire, it is pefectly normal to switch from one language to another when speaking with other speakers who are also bilingual in those languages. This does not in any way detract from the quality of either language or the speakers linguistic competence.
It should also be known that Code Switching (Engligbo if you must) has a structured grammar of its own. The switching from one language to the other is not a random linguistic act. Instead, there are certain syntactic rules that are followed by the bilingual when switching back and forth. The syntact of codeswitching is a popular area of study in sociolinguistics.


I am sorry for providing more information than you actually asked for. The intent is to show that it is normal and systematic and that other bilinguals, including French and English bilinguals, English and Spanish bilinguals, Yoruba and English bilinguals (See Goke-Pariola's work) engage in this practice in speech. It is another issue if someone attempts to write in code-switching.

For more information, please check your library for a copy of my unpublished doctoral dissertation Aspects of Language Contact: A Variationist Perspective on Codeswitching and Borrowing in Igbo-English Bilingual Discourse .

Jisie ike.
--
-----------------------------
Omenka Ejike Eze, Ph.D.
Instructor, Uwandiigbo.com
Visit us at http://uwandiigbo.com for a great learning experience.

But it may lead to language decline and eventually death if people continually code-switch/mix. A time will come when they can't be bothered to use the Igbo word for window, door, spoon, key etc and then they will just jettison the language and stick to English.

Let's not fool ourselves; nd'Igbo need to sit up and preserve their language. Do your bit O Igbo N'ruler- speak it, read it, write it and most importantly, be proud of it!!!

Originally Posted by grafikdon

The variation is not an excuse, every Igbo man and woman who understands the language knows there is that particular Igbo that everyone understands. Most of us have no value for the language, that is why you see a so called moronic Igbo man typing 'Ibo'. The worst part is when you point that out, they tell you "It is the way oyibo understands it?"... this foolishness goes along to encourage other people oustide the Igbo tribe to use 'Ibo' which I find highly offensive. Why should I blame them when those who are supposed show them the light are also wallowing in that putrid pool of misconceptions?

I don't know of any Yoruba man who would type "Yoroba' or Hausa man who will type "Hasa", neither is there an Urhobo who will type "Urobo". Josephu Nwankwo who did not 'breake slate' will try to impress you with 'English' and Josephinu Ononikpo who'd never seen the four walls of a classroom will try to murder your ears with "Any taimu yu a hongiri..leti mi cooku a bigi potu ofu raisi"

I am from Ekwulobia and if I break out my variation of Igbo, you'd probably shoot me but that never stopped me from using that particular Igbo comprehensible to all when dealing with some people outside my home town. When I am with my towns people, no to go hardcore...no yawa.

@ ogonna thanks for the link.

preach!!

By Tony Edike
Monday, November 20, 2006

Enugu—RENOWNED language scholar and Criminologist, Dr Paul Obianaso has warned that the Igbo Language would be extinct in the next 20 years if the current rate of decline in its use is sustained. Obianaso who raised the alarm at the launch of a booktitled “Igbo Ethical Revolution” at the Enugu Press Centre at the weekend said that at best the language may be so watered down or corrupted that it would have lost its true essence and originality.

He lamented that most Igbo parents especially the elites are not only shunning the Igbo language,culture and tradition but are refusing to teach their children thereby speeding up the process of their extinction.

He said, “The Igbo language is definitely under the threat of extinction. The shameless tendency of the Igbo elite to abandon the language and also refuse to teach their children Igbo language, cultures and traditions will ultimately lead to the annihilation of Igbo language and culture and consequently the Igborace”.

Continuing, Obianaso said “A people without a sound knowledge of their history, culture and tradition will ultimately become a people without destiny. It follows their therefore that the bookunder review is a timely wake up call for the Igbos to rise and make the right choices and decisions to savetheir future and destiny”.

He pointed out that the comparisons made in the bookbetween the trend of developments in the western, northern and eastern part of the country clearly showed that Igbos had been towing the wrong path over the years in their neglect of education, youth orientation and empowerment.

Dr Obianaso accused Igbo political elites of abandoning their traditional platforms in the pursuit of wealth and power adding that this had led to the continued absence of united platform for the Igbonation to achieve rapid and meaningful developmentwithin the Nigerian polity.

In his remarks at the occasion, the author of the book, Mr Anezi Onwuzurike advocated the establishment of an Igbo Ethical Revolutionary Council and the Ethical Disciplinary Committee which according to himwould serve as a catalyst for the realization of a cohesive, well ordered and viable Igbo society.
Vanguard

Originally Posted by Sola

Yes, but Yoruba people now type "kpele" for "pele" - and other language murdering stuff like that. Yoruba is dying just like Igbo is dying, although in the case of Igbo, the ting get as e be. It probably starts with all those English names. Whatever happened to Chukwuemeka as a name?

Are you kidding? Tunde is the only Yoruba man in this forum whom I see type 'pele' with a 'k' prefix. All other offenders are excused as they are not Yorubas. You don't see me making that silly mistake. On the contrary, I think the Yoruba language hasn't been stronger.