Ibibio language

Ibibio is the native language of the Ibibio people of 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 which come from the Ibibio word mbakara and in the Afro-Cuban tradition of abakua.

Ibibio
Usem Ibibio
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Abia State, Akwa Ibom State, Rivers State, Cross River State
Ethnicity	Ibibio
Speakers	L1: 6.3 million (2020)[1] L2: 4.5 million (2013)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Congo Benue–Congo Cross River Lower Cross Ibibio-Efik Ibibio
Writing system	Latin Nsibidi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ibb
Glottolog	ibib1240

An Ibibio speaker, recorded in the United Kingdom.

Geographic distribution

The Ibibio people are found in the South-South region of Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State, Cross River State, and Eastern Abia State (Arochukwu and Ukwa East LGAs). Ibibio communities in Opobo Nkoro and Oyigbo LGA's of Rivers State are largely unknown.

Some Ibibios are also found in other neighboring countries (western Cameroon, Bioko — central Guinea, and Ghana).

Phonology

Consonants

Ibibio consonant phonemes^[2]

		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.^[2]
  • /b/ has two allophones, which occur in complementary distribution: voiceless [p] and voiced [b].^[3]
• /n, d, s/ are alveolar [n, d, s], whereas /t/ is dental [t̪].^[2]
• Stem-initial /ŋ/ is realized as [ŋ͡w].^[2]

Intervocalic plosives are lenited:^[2]

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

Vowels

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

Ibibio vowel phonemes^[2]

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

• /i, u/ are phonetically near-close [ɪ, ʊ].^[2]
• /e, ʌ, o/ are phonetically true-mid; /ʌ/ is also strongly centralized: [e̞, ʌ̝̈, o̞].^[2]
• /a, ɔ/ are phonetically near-open; /a/ is central rather than front: [ɐ, ɔ̞].^[2]

Between consonants, /i, u, o/ have allophones that are transcribed [ɪ, ʉ, ə], respectively.^[2] 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/.^[2]

Tones

Ibibio has five phonemic tones: high, mid, rising, falling and low.

Orthography

Ibibio alphabet

Essien 1983[4]	Essien 1990[5]	IPA
a	a	a
b	b	b
d	d	d
e	e	e
ǝ	ǝ	ə
f	f	f
gh	gh	ɣ
h	h	x
i	i	i
ị	ị	ɨ
k	k	k
kp	kp	kp
m	m	m
n	n	n
ñ	n̄	ŋ
ñw	n̄w	ŋʷ
ny	ny	ɲ
o	o	o
ọ	ọ	ɔ
ʌ	ʌ	ʌ
p	p	p
s	s	s
t	t	t
u	u	u
ụ	ụ	ʉ
w	w	w
y	y	j

Proverbs

The following Ibibio proverbs with English translations come from The Sayings of the Wise: Ibibio Proverbs and Idioms by Anietie Akpabio, published in 1899.^[6]

• "Ekpo ufɔk ɔkɔbɔ owo." "Trouble often begins at home."
• "Eto keet isikabake akai." "A tree cannot make a forest."
• "Ikpat eka unen isiwotdo nditɔ." "A hen's feet cannot kill the chickens (i.e. the mother's actions are never meant to be harmful to the children)."
• "Idop, idop ewa, enye ata ɔkpɔ unam." "It is a quiet dog that eats the fattest bone."
• "Ofum ese ekpep eto unek." "The wind teaches the tree how to dance (i.e. someone's action that generates good will in another person)."

References

1. Ibibio at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. Urua (2004), p. 106.
3. Urua (2004), pp. 105–106.
4. Urua, Eno-Abasi; Gibbon, Dafydd. Orthography, globalisation and IT: A proposal for Ibibio text technology (PDF) (Report). p. 12., citing Essien, O. E., ed. (1983). The Orthography of the Ibibio Language. A publication of the Ibibio Language Panel. Calabar: Paico Press & Books. pp. 7–8. OCLC 16152696.
5. Essien, Okon E. (1990). "0.3.6". A Grammar of the Ibibio Language. Ibadan: University Press. ISBN 978-978-2491-53-4. OCLC 24681999.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
6. Akpabio, Anietie (1899). The Sayings of the Wise: Ibibio Proverbs and Idioms.

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 [A quantitative tone model for Ibibio. Development of a prediction module for the BOSS speech synthesis system] (MA thesis) (in German). University of Bonn. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7307214.
• Kaufman, Elaine Marlowe (1972). Ibibio dictionary. Leiden: Cross River State University and Ibibio Language Board, Nigeria, in cooperation with African Studies Centre. ISBN 978-90-70110-46-8.

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