English / Igbo Phrasebook: Words R Us Bilingual Phrasebooks, #39

By John Rigdon and John C. Rigdon

This is not your typical tourist phrasebook. It contains over 75 categories of terms in Igbo and English with over 4,000 terms, phrases and sample sentences.   Also included is a guide to the Igbo alphabet and pronunciation.

 

The English / Igbo Phrasebook is designed to be used by the English speaker to learn the basics of the Igbo language or for a Igbo speaker to learn the basics of English.

 

If you are intending to learn any new language, you'll need a phrasebook. The purpose of the phrasebook is to give your practice in real-life situations. Memorizing phrases ahead of time is the BEST way to use a phrasebook. Your grammar book, and sometimes even your course, does not give you the "Which room is mine?" kind of phrases. Yes, you will need to flip through the book to find responses or the next question on a different topic, but that is only if you do not practice a bit ahead of time. You can't beat this book - for the price and the small, yet concise and relevant content.  Learn how to tell time, order food, go through customs, as well as greetings and social conversations.

 

Also included is a guide to the Igbo alphabet and pronunciation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Words R Us
• Release date: Oct 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393178514

Book preview

English / Igbo Phrasebook

Akwụkwọ akpaokwu Bekee / Igbo

By John C. Rigdon

English / Igbo Phrasebook

Akwụkwọ akpaokwu Bekee / Igbo

1st Printing – OCT 2020 1/0/0/0/KN

Paperback ISBN:

© Copyright 2020.  Eastern Digital Resources.  All Rights Reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the express written consent of the copyright holder.

© Copyright 2020. Ebe Ntanetị Ebe Ọwụwa Anyanwụ. Ikike niile echekwabara. Agaghị emepụtagharị akụkụ ọ bụla nke akwụkwọ a n'ụzọ ọ bụla na-enweghị nkwupute nkwupute doro anya nke onye ji nwebisiinka.

Published by:

Eastern Digital Resources

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Cartersville, GA 30120 U. S. A

http://www.wordsrus.info

EMAIL: [e-mail]

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Contents

Contents..............................................3

Introduction...........................................4

A Guide to Igbo Pronunciation..........................6

Alphabet..............................................7

Vowels................................................8

Common Dipthongs....................................9

Grammar.............................................10

Reading and writing..................................11

Written Igbo..........................................11

Personal Pronouns....................................13

Present Tense and Imperative..........................15

Greetings Phrases....................................18

Recreation Phrases ..................................198

Introduction

IGBO IS THE PRINCIPAL native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group of southeastern Nigeria. There are approximately 24 million speakers, who live mostly in Nigeria and are primarily of Igbo descent. Igbo is also a recognized minority language of Equatorial Guinea.

Igbo is written in the Latin script, which was introduced by British colonialists. There are over 20 Igbo dialects. There is apparently a degree of dialect levelling occurring. A standard literary language was developed in 1972 based on the Owerri (Isuama) and Umuahia (such as Ohuhu) dialects, though it omits the nasalization and aspiration of those varieties. There are related Igboid languages as well that are sometimes considered dialects of Igbo, the most divergent being Ekpeye. Some of these, such as Ika, have separate standard forms.

The Igbo people are 98% Christian whereas about half of the Nigerian population are Muslim.

This is not your typical tourist phrasebook. It contains over 75 categories of terms in Igbo and English with over 4,000 terms, phrases and sample sentences.  Also included is a guide to the Igbo alphabet and pronunciation.

The English / Igbo Phrasebook is designed to be used by the English speaker to learn the basics of the Igbo language or for a Igbo speaker to learn the basics of English.

If you are intending to learn any new language, you'll need a phrasebook. The purpose of the phrasebook is to give your practice in real-life situations. Memorizing phrases ahead of time is the BEST way to use a phrasebook. Your grammar book, and sometimes even your course, does not give you the Which room is mine? kind of phrases. Yes, you will need to flip through the book to find responses or the next question on a different topic, but that is only if you do not practice a bit ahead of time. You can't beat this book - for the price and the small, yet concise and relevant content.  Learn how to tell time, order food, go through customs, as well as greetings and social conversations.

Also included is a guide to the Igbo alphabet and pronunciation.

For pronunciation and definitions of the words in this book, see our website at

http://www.wordsrus.info/ibo

Proper names may or may not be translated between languages.  Generally country names are translated, but personal names, place names,  and trade names (products) are not.  In this dictionary we identify certain Proper Names with a (P) following the word pair.  Some words may provide an alternate translation or transliteration, others may not.

A Guide to Igbo Pronunciation

IGBO IS A TONAL LANGUAGE with a high, mid, and low range, in addition there are rising and falling tones. Accents are used to indicate the high and low tones; an acute accent such as 'ó' are used for high tones, and a grave accent such as 'è' is used for a low tone. There are further accents that indicate nasal tones. The lower dotted accent such as 'ọ' combined with a grave accent ('ọ̀') is used to indicate a low nasal tone, and an upper dotted accent such as 'ė' or a lower dotted accent with an acute accent ('ọ́') is used for a high nasal tone. The trema (¨) such as 'ö' or a simple dot underneath is used for a mid nasal tone. Other diacritics include the caron (ˇ) for rising tones, the circumflex (ˆ) for falling tones, and the macron (¯) for long vowels.

Alphabet

THE IGBO ALPHABET AS found in dictionaries, is in the following order:

a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, gb, gh, gw, h, i, ï, j, k, kp, kw, l, m, n, ñ, nw, ny, o, ö, p, r, s, sh, t, u, ü, v, w, y, z

Vowels

Common Dipthongs

Grammar

IGBO IS CONSIDERED an agglutinative language. A number of affixed phonemes denote the tense of a verb in addition to the other modifications of a verb root; an example using òjéḿbà, traveller, can be split into the morphemes: ò, pronoun for animate and inanimate objects or he, she, jé verb meaning travel, walk, embark, ḿbà town, city, country, foreign lands, abroad resulting in he/she/it-go[es]-abroad.

Nouns in Igbo have no grammatical number and there are no gendered pronouns or objects. Igbo grammar generally maintains a subject–verb–object clause order; mádụ̀ àbụ́ghị̀ chúkwú, human[s]-[it]is[not]-God, man is not God. Adjectives in Igbo are post-modifiers, although there are very few Igbo adjectives in the closed class; many so called adjectives in Igbo are considered nouns, especially when the word is a pre-modifier like im ágádí nwóké transliterated as elderly man. Igbo features vowel harmony between two vowels and commonly features vowel assimilation where a preceding vowel influences the articulation (or the elision with /a/) of the next such as in ǹk'â, this one, analysed as ǹkè of and â this. Igbo syllable shapes are CV (consonant, vowel) which is the most common, V, and N which are syllabic nasals, there are also semi vowels like /CjV/ in the word bìá (/bjá/) come and /CwV/ in gwú /ɡʷú/ swim.

Reading and writing

THE IGBO LANGUAGE WAS first inscribed with ideographs known as nsibidi which originated in the Cross River region of Africa. Nsibidi symbols were used to represent ideas and often times specific objects. British colonialism since the late 19th century till 1960 has wiped away nisbidi from general use and has led to the introduction of the Roman-script-based orthography known as ọ́nwụ́ which developed from several revisions of Roman orthographies in the 19th century and early 20th century. The first book written in Igbo was an Ibo-Isuama primer by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, a Sierra Leonean creole of Egba-Yoruba descent in the 19th century. As a tonal language, the Latin script has been modified to fit the different tones and sounds of the Igbo language.

Igbo-language literary works have been few since colonialism introduced an alphabet. Literature in English by Igbo writers on Igbo society, however, have achieved international acclaim, the most popular of these books, Things Fall Apart, written by author Chinua Achebe, deals with the subject of colonialism and the destruction of Igbo society in the late 19th century.

The Igbo languages' tonality may be confusing at times homonyms are differentiated by the way that the tones are expressed. Diacritics are used to signal tones in written Igbo along with other special characters such as the dot over (˙) and underneath (.). /akwa/ is a notorious homonym in Igbo which can be interpreted in different tones as /ákwà/ ('cloth'), àkwá ('egg'), /ákwá/ ('cry, crying'), /àkwà/ ('bed'), /àkwà/ ('bridge').

Written Igbo

THERE ARE HUNDREDS of Igbo dialects and Igboid languages spoken by different clans and former nation-states. The high variation and low mutual intelligibility between many Igbo dialects has been a hindrance to written Igbo and Igbo literature over the years, this has lead to the development of a standard form of Igbo known as 'standard Igbo' or Igbo izugbe. This standard form was based on dialects around the central parts of Igboland. Although it is was created to boost Igbo literature, it has received backlash and opposition from Igbo speakers such as author Chinua Achebe, who prefer to speak their own dialects. Igbo izubge is the standard used in the curriculum of Igbo-language studies.

Personal Pronouns

THE PRONOUNS IN IGBO language have two forms: separable and inseparable. The inseparable forms only apply to the singular pronouns and are found as the single subject in direct combination with the main verbs of a sentence, as in

Note that for the first person singular, the m follows the verb stem.

Separable pronouns are not confined to its sole purpose as a subject with a verb and can be used as a subject, direct and indirect object, for example:

They can also follow a noun in possessive relationship: