Ibibio language

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. 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.

Ibibio
(Ibibio proper)
Native toSouthern Nigeria
RegionAkwa Ibom State
EthnicityIbibio
Native speakers
1.5 to 2 million (1998)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3ibb
Glottologibib1240[2]

Phonology

Consonants
Ibibio consonant phonemes[3]
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.[3]
    • /b/ has two allophones, which occur in complementary distribution: voiceless [p] and voiced [b].[4]
  • /n, d, s/ are alveolar [n, d, s], whereas /t/ is dental [t̪].[3]
  • Stem-initial /ŋ/ is realized as [ŋ͡w].[3]

Intervocalic plosives are lenited:[3]

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

Vowels
Ranges for Ibibio monophthongs, from Urua (2004:106)
Ibibio vowel phonemes[3]
Front Back
unrounded unrounded rounded
Close i u
Mid e ʌ o
Open a ɔ
  • /i, u/ are phonetically near-close [ɪ, ʊ].[3]
  • /e, ʌ, o/ are phonetically true-mid; /ʌ/ is also strongly centralized: [e̞, ʌ̝̈, o̞].[3]
  • /a, ɔ/ are phonetically near-open; /a/ is central rather than front: [ɐ, ɔ̞].[3]

Between consonants, /i, u, o/ have allophones that are transcribed [ɪ, ʉ, ə], respectively.[3] 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/.[3]

Tones

Ibibio has two tones: high and low. A word can be used to mean two or more different things based on the tone ascribed to it.[5]

gollark: You should try MODDED™, where the time taken is REDUCED™.
gollark: <@!330678593904443393>
gollark: Anyway, science is basically just a way to find out things about the world, and theoretically (this is somewhat broken a lot of the time, honestly) can have incorrect stuff noticed and corrected. Religion goes "LALALALALA I'M RIGHT I'M RIGHT" and then if this ever comes into conflict with the world, says the world's wrong or calls it a metaphor or something.
gollark: What if they're nonexistent lizards? That's much easier.
gollark: This isn't solipsism, the other people exist but are lizards.

References
  1. Ibibio at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Ibibio". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Urua (2004), p. 106.
  4. Urua (2004), pp. 105–106.
  5. Urua (2004), p. 107.

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


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