Neha Patil (Editor)

Ibibio language

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Native to
  
Southern Nigeria

Ethnicity
  
Ibibio

Region
  
Akwa Ibom State

ISO 639-3
  
ibb

Ibibio language

Native speakers
  
1.5 to 2 million (1998)

Language family
  
Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Cross River Lower Cross Ibibio-Efik Ibibio

Ibibio (proper) is the native language of the Ibibio people of Akwa Ibom 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.

Contents

Consonants

  • /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

  • /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 two tones: high and low.

    References

    Ibibio language Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA