The Complete Dictionary of Guosa Language 2Nd Revised Edition: Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) Zonal Lingua Franca for Unity, Identity, Political Stability, Tourism, Arts, Culture and Science

By Igbineweka Alex G.

This book is about breaking new grounds in the world zonal lingua franca.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532065750

Igbineweka Alex G.

I was born, raised and educated in Nigeria until 1996 when I moved to the United States of America for further studies into linguistics research and documentation. From a very young age I recognized the need for an indigenous universal zonal language (lingua franca) for my homeland and surrounding West Africa and began my life long pursuit by the evolution of what we now know as the Guosa language. There are currently over 500 indigenous languages and dialects being spoken in Nigeria; and about twice this number in other West African countries. Many of these languages are fast becoming extinct due to so many factors militating against West African indigenous languages and dialects. It was over 30 years ago that I completed the first Dictionary of the Guosa Language. It is my vision that the adoption of the Guosa Language will be embraced by the multi-ethnic and cultural fabrics known as Nigeria and other West African countries - ECOWAS; bridging linguistic and cultural barriers among Nigerians, the West African zonal countries, Europe, the United States of America and the rest of the world.

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Copyright © 2019 Igbineweka Alex G.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-6574-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6575-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019900207

iUniverse rev. date:  01/31/2019

CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Books Of Reference

Names Of Persons, Places And Things In Reference

Introduction

Evolution Of Languages And Dialects Into The Guosa Language (As Of Date)

Elamba Asusu Guosa: Guosa Language Numerals

Uki Ardun Months Of The Year

Guosa: Rana Nke Uzola English: Days Of The Week

Tonal Patterns

Alphabetization

Ilowe Naijeriya (Guosa-African Peculiar Syllableconsonants)

Guosa Language Evolution

Verb Patterns

Verb Tense

Some Verbs Related Sentences

Singular And Plurals

Sentence Construction

Elementary Guosa Language

ÌJÚBÀ:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Unto thee Oh Mighty and Everlasting God I have herein dedicated this book, together with my top most thanks, honor and adoration for making me an instrument of linguistics and cultural unification of the people of Nigeria nay the West African regional countries of Africa or ECOWAS, African continent and, the international communities in general.

My profound gratitude to the Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolor, Oba Erediauwa, C.F.R., The Oba (King) of the Great Benin Kingdom 1979 to 2016 who was my guardian father in my teens and early youth. Omo N’Oba N’Edo Oba Erediauwa, as a top civil servant resident in the defunct Eastern Nigeria, took me along with him to the different Nigerian communities, particularly the then Eastern, the Western and the Mid-Western Regions respectively.

This acculturation intrigued highly my evolutionary inspiration and the birth of the Guosa Language. I hereby also extend this profound gratitude to the current Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare N’Ogidigan II for his dynamic traditional and cultural leadership of the Great Benin Kingdom, my place of birth.

My profound appreciation to my uncle and dad, His Royal Highness, Enogie Edun Akenzua, His Royal Highness, Enogie Enweansefe Iyi-Eweka, Princess Irene Akenzua, Princess Sisi Mrs. Asabor, The University of Abuja, Milele Hare, Vanessa Brooks, Chief Ike Orji, Dr. Mrs. Veronica I. Ufoegbune, Dr. Ebere Ahanihu, High Chief (Dr.) & Chief Lolo Ambrose Amajioyi, Norense Omogbe Igbineweka, RN, Mrs. Angela Ozigbe Obaseki, Mrs. Alexandra Isoken Omoragbon, Mrs. Gertrude O. Agbontaen, Dr. Joseph Osazuwa Imasuen, Barr. Neda Imasuen, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, Prof. Michael U. Adikwu, Vice-Chancellor, University of Abuja, Dr. Amos Dlibugunaya, Prof. Bassey E. Uwatt - Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Abuja, Prof. Ishaya Dagwa, Dr. Stephen Ogbonmwan, Dr. Kienuwa Obaseki, Mr. Wilson Iguade and, so many others I am may not be able to mention.

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Alex Guosa Igbineweka

Guosa Language Evolutionist, Creator

A West African (ECOWAS) Zonal Lingua-franca for

Unity, Identity, Political Stability, Tourism, Arts, Culture and Science

I am the language and you are the linguist

Before Abraham, there were men; and,

before the linguist, there were languages

BOOKS OF REFERENCE

Before writing this Guosa Language dictionary I read some linguistics books including but not limited to the list below, for which I am very grateful to the authors and publishers:

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NAMES OF PERSONS, PLACES AND THINGS IN REFERENCE

NAMES OF PERSONS, PLACES AND THINGS IN REFERENCE….(CONT’D)

ÌFÌNÈRÍ

INTRODUCTION

In 1914, the Northern and Southern Protectorates of a colony, an administrative boundaries set up by the British colonialists, were dismantled and the colonies merged by Sir F. Lord Lugard. The merger became the first political turning point and a milestone development. It brought about the birth through the amalgamation of a unit geo-entity and nation called Nigeria. Consequently, Nigeria did not evolve through any known ethnographic origins. The amalgamation was cosmetic and that can be seen as such because there were no elements of homogeneity in the peoples that occupied the vast landmass.

And then, in 1960, a new Nation State earned her right to self-determination and government. Nigeria, now a sovereign entity followed in the wake of the traditions willed to her by her colonialists. She readily embraced the English Language as her tentative Lingua-franca. This was not done in isolation as the country took due cognizance of the fact that Nigeria is a land of contrasts.

From present day projections, about 120 million people populate Nigeria, as evidenced by figures from the National Population Census of 1991. Out of this astonishing number, it is believed that one out of every four Africans or one out of every six black persons in the world is a Nigerian by birth or otherwise. In the same vein also, there are at least 98,000 communities with a heterogeneous populace who speaks about 400 different languages in this same country.

These data raise questions which border on the basis for cohesion, comprehension and unity in such diversity. It is an anthropological fact that Language plays a unifying role in the beginning, development, beliefs, and customs of any group of people. Language is a means by which words or expressions find meaning and is put into use. Basically, it is used as a means of giving out information, thoughts, skills, ideas, reasoning and ensure receipt of same from varied sources without loosing track of the desired objective.

Language is capable of wearing several meanings and its message, mode, receptacle or feedback loop can influence action, behaviour, norms, mores, values and other extra perceptory roles of human beings in the society.

As a direct result of the diverse cultural and ethnic peculiarities of Nigeria and other West African countries, the development of a common indigenous language has been at a very sluggish pace. Our adopted lingua francas of English, Spanish, or French are imported impostors in the true sense of usage. This reasoning explains why it has become difficult to formulate decisively, an educational and socio-political, economic as well as culturally integrated policy than can form the foundation for a purposeful agrarian, industrial and even technological revolution.

It is in the light of the ethnocentric peculiarities of Nigeria and her West African neighbor countries, coupled with the wide marginal differences in terms of their people, their customs and value system; their resources, environment, divergent cultures and religions, that the Guosa Language was evolved as a medium of common indigenous socially interwoven language and as a unifying mould towards building a virile and formidable society.

The Guosa

There are about 400 different ethnic languages, dialects and fractionalized tongues in Nigeria; and about twice this number in other West African countries. The Guosa language alone had in its evolution at least 118 of these divers languages beginning with just a pair in the mid-sixties when I conceived and evolved the language, as a teenager living with my uncle, now the Oba of Benin. The Guosa language is made up of carefully detailed units of the different ethnic languages and cultures, so that in the future years, Nigeria and indeed the West African regional countries will be able to take their positions in the communities of lingua franca nations of the world, such as the East Africa, the North Africa, Europe, America, Asia and so on. You will find below a vibrant list of languages presently supporting the conception of the Guosa language.

As you will observe an abbreviated time line in Nigeria consisting of a series of unfolding national achievements as follows:

1914 brings about with it, the unification of Nigeria by the gathering of the various ethnic groups (which have their own cultures, dialects and languages). The coming of 1960, heralds the realization of Nigerian National Independence. An event of such magnificent proportion, that the independence alone certainly and naturally led to the inspirational genesis of the Guosa Language; in 1965. A revisit of the 1914 coming together as a united Nigerian nation; as well as a re- unification of languages and tongues which hitherto had been disunited and scattered even from the historical Tower of Babel.

Should the adoption of the Guosa Language be accomplished and cemented into the multi-ethnic and cultural fabric known as the country of Nigeria and other West African countries, it will progressively and purposefully move the populace towards regional and national consciousness, a sense of identity and homogeneity.

Below are some of the current list of languages single-handedly evolved into the Guosa Language:

EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS INTO THE GUOSA LANGUAGE (AS OF DATE)

NOTE: Rules and criteria have been made for the evolution of more West African languages and Dialects into the Guosa, under the language growth scheme.

ELAMBA ASUSU GUOSA: GUOSA LANGUAGE NUMERALS:

UKI ARDUN MONTHS OF THE YEAR:

GUOSA: RANA NKE UZOLA ENGLISH: DAYS OF THE WEEK

TONAL PATTERNS

Tones: ` low tone ´ high tone    v low to high    ^ high to low;    mid-tone unmarked

NOTE: due to lack of research equipment I have been unable to reflect the above tonal marking on each of the Guosa language alphabets and vowels. Hopefully in the next edition of the Guosa language dictionary.

ALPHABETIZATION:

Á B D É Ẹ F G Í H J K L M N Ó Ọ̀ P R S T Ú V W Y Z

Graphic Alphabetization:

Áá Bb Dd Éé Ẹẹ Ff Gg Íí Hh Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Óó Ọ̀ọ̀ Pp Rr Ss Tt Úú Vv Ww Yy Zz

ILOWE NAIJERIYA (GUOSA-AFRICAN PECULIAR SYLLABLECONSONANTS)

GUOSA LANGUAGE EVOLUTION:

In the Guosa Language, visible and concrete objects are of Hausa, and or other northern Nigerian languages vocabularies origin; example:

Invisible or abstract things are of Igbo, Yoruba or other southern Nigeria language origin. Their evolution from either Igbo and or Yoruba depends mainly on the alphabetical sequences. For instance, let us take the word come in English which meant: bìa (in Igbo language); and a corresponding wá (in Yoruba language) respectively. To decide which word should come in first or which word should evolve into the Guosa, you go on alphabetical sequence. In the above words from Igbo and yoruba languages, you will see that bìa comes before wá alphabetically.

Therefore, a sentence like: please, give me water (English) is thus evolved and translated as: bíko, fún mi ní rúwá (in the Guosa Language) because water is rúwá; and fún mi ní refers to give me.

VERB PATTERNS:

Present Progressive:

Past Progressive:

Note the past tense la evolved from Ikwere-Kalabari languages.

VERB TENSE

SOME VERBS RELATED SENTENCES:

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SINGULAR AND PLURALS:

PREPOZI……………(PREPOSITION)

WORDS EVOLUTION:

CONVERSATIONAL DRILL:

Note: the word meni? i.e. (what?) is an evolution from Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba as follows:

In the Guosa language evolution the word ‘what’ is ‘meni’, evolved from the Hausa, Igbo and the Yoruba languages. These tripod languages have so many other languages and dialectical regions using and sharing the ‘what’ or ‘meni’ vocabulary, carrying along with them their respective cultural and traditional value systems. Therefore ‘what’ or ‘meni’ in the Guosa language transcends beyond the linguistic entities of the Hausa, Igbo and the Yoruba languages. This is one of the numerous linguistic tentacles of the Guosa language to be found in the Guosa language.

Another Guosa language word of tremendous interest is mouth (English) and "ónu" (órnúh) in Guosa, with the morpheme: o:nu. This word is an evolution of the Igbo, Edo and the Yoruba languages, dialects and fractions of groups of dialects. In Igbo, it is ‘onu’. Yoruba: ‘enu’ and Edo groups: ‘unu’ respectively. They all ended each with similar or same vowels and alphabetical sequence. In the Guosa language evolution, the word ‘mouth’ is ‘onu’, (o:nu and the letter ‘o’ with a dot underneath).

NUMERICAL AND POSITIONAL ADJECTIVES:

GUOSA LANGUAGE PHONOLGY:

The phonological perfectness of Guosa language is such that the original word phonetic is retained at all level so as to give it fluent pronunciation as well as maintain high degree of cultural unification within the various units of vocabularies. This is why Guosa language has been able to bring about the much desired national unity and multi-culture.

Examples:

mo yama la mota …. I bought a car. This is words from Yoruba, Agbo (Cross Rivers Stat of Nigeria) and Hausa languages (both major and minor language evolutions) thus:

mŏ …. I (first person pronoun) evolved from Yoruba and Itsekiri major and minor languages.

yámá….. buy or buying (evolution of word from Agbo, CRS, Nigeria)

mótà…… motor (word evolution from Hausa languages, major and minor)

lá …. a Guosa part of speech used for past tense.

Therefore, when I say in the Guosa language: mŏ yámá lá mótà, I simply meant: I have bought a motor. Please note the tonal patterns of high, low, low-to-high respectively as these are the phonological guidance in spoken and written Guosa language. Reference: Alexander Ekhaguosa Igbineweka, (Alex Igbineweka) The Dictionary of Guosa Language Vocabularies 1987, ISBN 978-30291-1-8

MOFIM GUOSA:

GUOSA MOREPHEME:

More than ninety-percent of the Guosa language words are made up of morphemes. I have not been able to fully reflect this in nearly all the words of this dictionary due to lack of linguistic research support. This deficiency will be corrected in my proposed Guosa Language Encyclopedia. Guosa morpheme is represented by a colon at points where words from one or more ethnic group or different syllables are harmoniously evolved and joined up with words from another language groups to make one word in the Guosa language, e.g.

SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION:

Conversational:

ELEMENTARY GUOSA LANGUAGE

Tones: ` low tone ´ high tone    v low to high    ^ high to low;    mid-tone unmarked

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Guosa Language Train-the-Trainers Class Faculty of Arts, University of Abuja, Nigeria.

February 2-16, 2018

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