Ibibio language

Ibibio
Usem Ibibio
Native to	Southern Nigeria
Region	Akwa Ibom State, Abia State, Cross River State
Ethnicity	Ibibio
Native speakers	6,426,000
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Cross River Lower Cross Efik-Ibibio Ibibio
Writing system	Latin Nsibidi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ibb
Glottolog	ibib1240

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An Ibibio speaker, recorded in the United Kingdom.

Ibibio (proper) is the native language of the Ibibio people of Akwa Ibom State and Abia State, Nigeria, belonging to the Ibibio-Efik dialect cluster of the Cross River languages. 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 words like buckra, and buckaroo, which come from the Ibibio word mbakara, and in the Afro-Cuban tradition of abakua.

Phonology

Consonants

Ibibio consonant phonemes

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	b	t		k	k͡p
	voiced		d
Fricative	voiceless	f	s
Approximant				j		w

• /m, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f/ is labiodental.
  • /b/ has two allophones, which occur in complementary distribution: voiceless [p] and voiced [b].
• /n, d, s/ are alveolar [n, d, s], whereas /t/ is dental [t̪].
• Stem-initial /ŋ/ is realized as [ŋ͡w].

Intervocalic plosives are lenited:

• /b/ → [β]
• /t, d/ → [ɾ]
• /k/ → [ɢ̆] or [ɰ]

Vowels

Ranges for Ibibio monophthongs, from Urua (2004:106)

Ibibio vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
	unrounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ʌ	o
Open	a		ɔ

• /i, u/ are phonetically near-close [ɪ, ʊ].
• /e, ʌ, o/ are phonetically true-mid; /ʌ/ is also strongly centralized: [e̞, ʌ̝̈, o̞].
• /a, ɔ/ are phonetically near-open; /a/ is central rather than front: [ɐ, ɔ̞].

Between consonants, /i, u, o/ have allophones that are transcribed [ɪ, ʉ, ə], respectively. At least in case of [ɪ, ə], the realization is probably somewhat different (e.g. close-mid [e, ɘ]), because the default IPA values of the symbols [ɪ, ə] are very similar to the normal realizations of the Ibibio vowels /i, ʌ/. Similarly, [ʉ] may actually be near-close [ʉ̞], rather than close [ʉ].

In some dialects (e.g. Ibiono), /ɪ, ʉ, ə/ occur as phonemes distinct from /i, u, o/.

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

Ibibio alphabet

a

b

d

e

ǝ

f

gh

h

i

ị

k

kp

m

n

ñ

ñw

ny

o

ọ

ʌ

p

s

t

u

ụ

w

y

Bibliography

• Urua, Eno-Abasi E. (2004), "Ibibio", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 105–109, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001550

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. ISBN 90-70110-46-6

External links

• Ibibio kasahorow – language resources, including dictionary, books and proverbs.
• Bachmann's Master Thesis, Paper, Presentation
• BOSS-IBB documentation v0.1-r4
• ELAR Documentation of Dirge songs among the Urban people [Efik, Ibibio]
• ELAR Documentation of documenting drums and drum language in Ibibio traditional ceremonies