Yes, there have been hundreds of online discussions considering the 'extinction' of the Igbo language, but this is not what this thread is about, it's roughly the opposite actually.

Note: 'Igbo speakers' here refers to people living in the Nigerian states of Abia, Anambra, Delta, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, and Rivers who speak a variant of Igbo.

Look at these stats that I have observed first (I'd be happy for you to challenge any or all of them):

Igbo is spoken primarily by a people who on average speak English well-enough to pass a Nigerian primary school English exam, which is obviously done in English. The Igbo speakers primary language of education is English; all the scientific terms, political terms, medical terms they know, and so on, are primarily (over 90%) English, including terms for new human discoveries. When Igbo speakers communicate in Igbo at least 25% of the conversation will contain some kind of English or even another non-Igbo language that isn't European. Almost no significant writing outside of Igbo Waec is done in Igbo and Igbo literature is non-existent; all signage in actual Igbo enclaves are done in English (River Niger Street, Nnamdi Azikwe Way, National War Museum); when an Igbo speaker reads a book, especially about something that isn't related to actually learning Igbo, there's a 99% chance that the book is in English, the 1% may be for French speakers.

And the stats go on, including the fact that a lot of Igbo speakers actively suppress speaking Igbo or try to stop their children learning it so that the majority of the children in the diaspora either cannot speak Igbo, or cannot speak or understand the language at all (this fact isn't so much of a problem because how many people born out of Estonia with Estonian parentage can speak Estonian? Then again the number of Igbo speakers is more than 30 times that of Estonian, but this is too much of a derailment).

The addition to my question is: Is Igbo a language we're just forcing ourselves to speak for the sake of speaking it and for posterity? Is it a living language or simply a dead language that many people happen to speak (I hope you know what I mean)?

To put it more harshly, is Igbo a waste of time to be speaking when we can just be speaking and perfecting out English, a language that is actually used for the majority of important things, as opposed to a 'museum language' used for addressing elders at village meetings and MC'ing at cultural parties?

Why do we have to raise the amount of people speaking Igbo when English can be just fine and has the resources that the Igbo language will require some serious work to catch up to?

I hate to compare, but I can roughly and quickly explain why certain languages spoken by a smaller percentage than that of Igbo speakers are relevant like Icelandic or Finnish.

I feel like the answer that 'it's the ancestors language' and that 'it's ours' isn't satisfactory anymore. I, and probably some others (like those who bar their children from speaking Igbo), want to know if there's any future in Igbo and what the actual point is of speaking Igbo when everybody with an education can communicate their ideas best in English (even with people like Chinua Achebe)?

This post doesn't necessarily reflect my opinion on this matter.

Is your traditional name a waste of time?

Is your traditional culture and religion a waste of time?

Is your ethnicity and traditional clothes a waste of time?

Is your identity a waste of time?


If yes, then the Igbo language is a waste of time.

I give up on NL

I give up on u..OP

Most world known languages have in one way or another borrowed from another language. The English language which is world's number one language have a lot of words derived from Latin, Greek, French, German etc.
There is nothing wrong from Ndigbo borrowing from other languages to enrich the Igbo language.
Having said that, I commend the society for the promotion of Igbo language in its attempt at manufacturing some words for Igbo language. At least for now, we can not write yunivasiti for university, but mahadum for university.
Having said that, I don't see any thing wrong in borrowing from english or another language e.g sekọndarị for secondary.
It is difficult for a language spoken by over 40 million people such as Igbo to be exclusively on her own.

The problem isn't so much a question of borrowing words, but of replacing pre-existing words or just being lazy with vocabulary. Most Igbo people don't know what the word for comet or even river is.

But the issue is more to do with the fact that it's kind of pointless to borrow every word for sciences and new discoveries from English when you can just speak English, and people do just speak English in Science classes anyway.

English may have borrowed much for French and Latin, but at least it's still being used as a language of science.

Right now is a good example, everyone on the internet uses English, so if English is the active language in almost everything that is important my question is what is the point of the Igbo language?

The importance of the Igbo language is so many. As you know, the English language does not cover every aspect of the Igbo ways of life. For example, in our diet, we have lots of food which the English does't know about it and its not grown in England but in Igboland. Ụna, imeguru, ikpuru, akashị, wokoroko etc, IS STILL PRESERVED IN OUR iGBO LANGUAGE.
When our fathers go to the shrine, they do that in Igbo language and when pouring libation, its done in Igbo language. The Igbo language is as relevant as the english language. The difference is, English has more speakers.

Ah! My kids are gonna learn that important language o!

A language's relevance is only as good as the people who make it so.

Why? Language is the single most important indicator of one's ethnic identity, thoughts, and sense of self. It is the only way to communicate and sustain peculiarities among a certain people or culture.

If this weren't true, there wouldn't such a thing as "being lost in translation."

We clearly see the global dominance of Anglo and Franco Europeans since most of us speak their languages. Inadvertantly there results a cultural imbalance of power since we (i.e. the commonwealth) have trains of thoughts and inclinations that are overwhelmingly Eurocentric.

IMO, asking why Igbo Language should be relevant is like asking why being Igbo should be relevant.

I will say though that our hesitance in speaking igbo is closely correlated with our cultural relevance in Nigeria as a whole...at least compared with Hausa or Yoruba.

And like the English who left Europe's shores to conquer the world and spread their tongue, Igbos, and only Igbos alone, are responsible for reviving
their own.

Creating an extensive Igbo vocabulary can be done in a single generation if concerted efforts are made to push an Igbo-speaking curriculum in schools, and if Igbo linguists are put to work. Anyway, most languages borrow words or make them up as the need arises.

The question you should be asking is: do enough Igbo people believe that Igbo language SHOULD be relevant?

Maybe it shouldn't matter if ethnicism is outdated/not an Igbo thing.

Go and read the history of this ur so much praised english language. There was a time when the english language was a language of peasants(poor) farmers,illiterate traders and other locals. But with perseverance from the speakers. It attained its present position. Why cant we do the same for igbo. We igbos are the major hinderance to our own progress.

Antivirus92: Go and read the history of this ur so much praised english language. There was a time when the english language was a language of peasants(poor) farmers,illiterate traders and other locals. But with perseverance from the speakers. It attained its present position. Why cant we do the same for igbo. We igbos are the major hinderance to our own progress.

English only came back because the Normans intermarried with English women, plus they evacuated England after several hundred years. Latin was the language of education anyway and English was written before the invasion and continued to be.

nnenna.1:
The question you should be asking is: do enough Igbo people believe that Igbo language SHOULD be relevant?

That's my point, if the majority of the people who speak the Igbo language do not see it as a language of learning and education, politics (meaning it's not growing plus there's no literature), then what makes it relevant?

Andre Uweh: The importance of the Igbo language is so many. As you know, the English language does not cover every aspect of the Igbo ways of life. For example, in our diet, we have lots of food which the English does't know about it and its not grown in England but in Igboland. Ụna, imeguru, ikpuru, akashị, wokoroko etc, IS STILL PRESERVED IN OUR iGBO LANGUAGE.
When our fathers go to the shrine, they do that in Igbo language and when pouring libation, its done in Igbo language. The Igbo language is as relevant as the english language. The difference is, English has more speakers.

I could be wrong but I'm going to guess that those vegetables have scientific names, plus most Igbo people believe ancestral shrines are of Satan.

ezeagu:

That's my point, if the majority of the people who speak the Igbo language do not see it as a language of learning and education, politics (meaning it's not growing plus there's no literature), then what makes it relevant?

Depends on how you look at it.

It is still the major means of communication among the majority of indigenous people living in the SS and SE. It is the mother language that people living the East feel comfortable using on instinct.

That is as relevant as a language gets.

Most Easterners and Nigerians at large are not 100% fluent in English. Perhaps for SEners Igbo Language is viewed as more of an informal, non-standard one - as opposed to English, which is our official language and taught in schools. The implication there is that it is also used among the elite class in politics, journals, and scientific discourse. An offshoot of colonial powers.

From this perspective I would have to agree with you. However, this isn't particular to Igbo language if we compare notes with all of Sub-saharan Africa.

Let me say that it is also relevant for Igbo-Conscious speakers who are making efforts to keep the language going anyway until mechanisms are in place to standardize it across ala Igbo.

Which brings me to question I was meaning to ask you...do you subscribe to the other points I discussed in my initial post, and hence view Igbo as being worthy enough to sustain to the level or relevance you describe?

In other words, what does the Igbo Language mean to YOU?

ezeagu:

I could be wrong but I'm going to guess that those vegetables have scientific names, plus most Igbo people believe ancestral shrines are of Satan.

The scientific names does not apply to the Igbo farmer growing this shrubs and vegetables.
The english language is very irrelevant in an igbo setting as in this photograph, it's Igbo all the way.

nnenna.1:


Depends on how you look at it.

It is still the major means of communication among the majority of indigenous people living in the SS and SE. It is the mother language that people living the East feel comfortable using on instinct.

That is as relevant as a language gets.

Most Easterners and Nigerians at large are not 100% fluent in English. Perhaps for SEners Igbo Language is viewed as more of an informal, non-standard one - as opposed to English, which is our official language and taught in schools. The implication there that it is also used among the elite class in politics, journals, and scientific discourse. An offshoot of colonial powers.

From this perspective I would have to agree with you. However, this isn't particular to Igbo language if we compare notes with all of Sub-saharan Africa.

Let me say that it is also relevant for Igbo-Conscious speakers who are making efforts to keep the language going anyway until mechanisms are in place to standardize it across ala Igbo.

Which brings me to question I was meaning to ask you...do you subscribe to the other points I discussed in my initial post, and hence view Igbo as being worthy enough to sustain to the level or relevance you describe?

In other words, what does the Igbo Language mean to YOU?

Your point about the instinctual use of Igbo is one I was fishing for, but what Igbo means to me today is that the majority of it's speakers don't know what the word for sea is, 'fluent', or not.

My focus is mainly on the younger generation under 35 who are worse than their parents at speaking the language, if they speak it at all (there are people born and living in Igbo speaking areas that don't speak Igbo, sometimes by choice).

But I haven't yet been convinced as to why Igbo should still be pushed when most people strive to attain perfect English. I'm questioning why there should be a struggle to maintain a broken watered down Igbo when you can just learn good English? Most people with an education speak good English, which means that people who don't speak good English don't do so because they are underprivileged. You can use the same argument to place pidgin English on the same level as Igbo which I believe many people including myself do not agree with.

Andre Uweh:
The scientific names does not apply to the Igbo farmer growing this shrubs and vegetables.
The english language is very irrelevant in an igbo setting as in this photograph, it's Igbo all the way.

The shrub and vegetable Igbo names can easily be erased, just like how other terms in Igbo have been erased, for example Igbo people call the Oji tree Iroko now. If an Igbo speaker were to write a report on those vegetable, the Igbo names would be in the margins while the Greek-Latin names would be used. Right now, the majority of the people on this thread are Igbo speakers but are writing in English and that is not because of politeness or dialect, but because the majority of Igbo speakers have not learnt a consistent way of writing Igbo and cannot express intellectual thoughts in Igbo.

ezeagu:

Your point about the instinctual use of Igbo is one I was fishing for, but what Igbo means to me today is that the majority of it's speakers don't know what the word for sea is, 'fluent', or not.

My focus is mainly on the younger generation under 35 who are worse than their parents at speaking the language, if they speak it at all (there are people born and living in Igbo speaking areas that don't speak Igbo, sometimes by choice).

But I haven't yet been convinced as to why Igbo should still be pushed when most people strive to attain perfect English. I'm questioning why there should be a struggle to maintain a broken watered down Igbo when you can just learn good English? Most people with an education speak good English, which means that people who don't speak good English don't do so because they are underprivileged. You can use the same argument to place pidgin English on the same level as Igbo which I believe many people including myself do not agree with.



The shrub and vegetable Igbo names can easily be erased, just like how other terms in Igbo have been erased, for example Igbo people call the Oji tree Iroko now. If an Igbo speaker were to write a report on those vegetable, the Igbo names would be in the margins while the Greek-Latin names would be used. Right now, the majority of the people on this thread are Igbo speakers but are writing in English and that is not because of politeness or dialect, but because the majority of Igbo speakers have not learnt a consistent way of writing Igbo and cannot express intellectual thoughts in Igbo.

Refer once again to my first post.

If my comments about Igbo language as it relates to a cultural and identity mean anything to at least a few Igbos, then yeah it is relevant.

As I had mentioned, formulating concepts and new words in an Igbo-centric fashion is only a matter of making the right effort as far as our educational system and linguistic research goes.

A good portion of the English vocabulary existed only 20 years ago.

The missing element in the Igbo Language debate (which I sense is your main argument) is the lack of desire for an Igbo Language renaissance.

But my stand there is that a push for renaissance anyway until desire is born is worth it because an Igbo-centric approach to life, nay Igbo culture at large, is worth it.

Language = Culture, to me.

But this is the ethnicist in me talking.

Just for clarification... are you discussing this because you really feel that the move to standardize Igbo as opposed to standardizing English is less efficient? Or are you frustrated with the lack of enthusiasm that the younger Igbo generations/Igbo Elite in diaspora show towards Igbo Language?

Is it worth it to YOU to reverse this trend you are describing?

Just trying to understand the undertones in this thread.

I don't really know the policy of the federal ministry of education concerning the use of indigenous language in public education but if it is against it then the language can only be preserved in an Igbocentric country. Now if this is not really the case then it is a big shame that the Igbos are not doing anything to replace the language of teaching withing Igboland from English to igbo language.

In all European countries, the language of instruction is always their traditional language and that is where we should be heading to. If they can start now then within 10 to 20 years will see much progress in the number of speakers/writers, more books and materials written in the language. If there is no effort to do this then the relevance of the language will diminish as the years goes so effort should be made to do something about it.

Language is first and foremost about communication, and Igbo speakers use Igbo as a natural mode of communication. By definition, they speak it as a first language. So, it is relevant. At the same time, there is no denying that Igbo speakers seem to want to treat Igbo language as more of a relic [with missing pieces - i.e. lexicon lost to apparent oblivion] than as something organic, with the potential for growth and specialization.

Giving my own opinion on the matter, I believe that nnenna.1 can be held as an archetype of how most Igbo speakers see Igbo language (or whatever respective variants). For them the language is heavily equated to an ethnic and cultural identity. It has no true relevance beyond that, and to answer Ezeagu's question, speaking it has basically become a matter of posterity (as is the case for many or most African languages).

All of that can change though.

Igbo language is losing its relevance daily because of the refusal of Igbos to agree on who is Igbo and what dialect to adopt for all Igbos. Any time such discussions come up, it is usually turned into a supremacy battle and people end up giving reasons why they are either the purest Igbos or only started speaking Igbo as a result of inter marriage or other forms of interaction. Today nobody teaches with Igbo, there are no Igbo newspapers, no Igbo signs for businesses, Igbo parents communicate with their children at home using English. Its such a shame.


As a true Igbo man that understands our ways, I'd suggest each dialect group develop their own orthography and use it at least in sign posts and address books. There should be Igbo courses in primary schools and Igbo speaking times. All attempts to make Igbo forcefully homogenous has failed because of our republican nature and we need to stop dreaming about achieving that.

Dialect groups are gradually developing their own ways of writing and I believe Igbos should capitalize on this development to preserve our dialects/language.




1) Ngwa writing from facebook

Ngwa mmuru m l'ejighi eme hwe ngwugwa. Unu nnu otu ole yeeeee? A si m n'echekutara unu nnoko anyi- ONWA MY (Oha Ngwa Welfare Association Malaysia ) la 25/8/13 ; l'ovu m (my house); l'elekere 5:00pm. O nuru kaara ibe ya! ANYI EMETACHAALA YA!

2) Ehugbo/Afikpo writing frome facebook

he che che! Ehugbo Omaka Ejali mma mma nu
Aho jee laa oo. Ihie nriri nojum eho oo
Nde iro jee laa oo, Ihie nriri no jum eho oo
Gari daridee oo, okuku daridee oo
Ewu darideo oo, ihie ohe daridee oo
NA ONWO KWE ONYE JI JA AGBA EGBE OO!!

OHA AYI OHU UNU KAA! HEM!
NDE IYOM MMA MMA NU!!

3) Abiriba from facebook

Nde nwannem wa, unu mee aghu ee?

Unu aluala iko Obasi?, ka obu onu okoghu obasi taani?

NU KAA NI WO, UNU SA KWANWANI ULUO EKPERE? ONYE
NWOTU ESUSU ZIPUSATURUM OGUGBULAM, YA UGBOHO
EMUMA

Ife mde eri taowa nda ibe gwo nta nokwanu

Chei efohu bu oghalam

ChinenyeN: Language is first and foremost about communication, and Igbo speakers use Igbo as a natural mode of communication. By definition, they speak it as a first language. So, it is relevant. At the same time, there is no denying that Igbo speakers seem to want to treat Igbo language as more of a relic [with missing pieces - i.e. lexicon lost to apparent oblivion] than as something organic, with the potential for growth and specialization.

Giving my own opinion on the matter, I believe that nnenna.1 can be held as an archetype of how most Igbo speakers see Igbo language (or whatever respective variants). For them the language is heavily equated to an ethnic and cultural identity. It has no true relevance beyond that, and to answer Ezeagu's question, speaking it has basically become a matter of posterity (as is the case for many or most African languages).

All of that can change though.

That's what I was saying, Igbo is kind of like Latin in that it is used for special occasions (in a formal way) but is considered dead. I should have expanded by saying that I mean relevant in terms of impact on speakers everyday life, like in education and so on.

Abagworo: Igbo language is losing its relevance daily because of the refusal of Igbos to agree on who is Igbo and what dialect to adopt for all Igbos. Any time such discussions come up, it is usually turned into a supremacy battle and people end up giving reasons why they are either the purest Igbos or only started speaking Igbo as a result of inter marriage or other forms of interaction. Today nobody teaches with Igbo, there are no Igbo newspapers, no Igbo signs for businesses, Igbo parents communicate with their children at home using English. Its such a shame.


As a true Igbo man that understands our ways, I'd suggest each dialect group develop their own orthography and use it at least in sign posts and address books. There should be Igbo courses in primary schools and Igbo speaking times. All attempts to make Igbo forcefully homogenous has failed because of our republican nature and we need to stop dreaming about achieving that.

I don't think the problem is dialects, if that were simply it then the attitude towards Igbo speaking might be the opposite from what it is now, people would be competing for their dialects to have the most relevance, plus the majority of Igbo dialects are mutually intelligible so it wouldn't be that. There are hardly any languages without dialects, even some with a wider spread than Igbo like German have world renowned and legendary literary icons. Icelandic is spoken by about 350,000 people, roughly 1% of the Igbo population yet they go as far as inventing a word for television in their language (see: Linguistic purism in Icelandic). You can't tell me that the amount of people who speak the Nnewi dialect, for example, are less than the population of Finland. Of course I understand social circumstances as well, Nigeria isn't exactly competing with Iceland in terms of human development, security, education, etc, but it's a good thought.

ezeagu:

I don't think the problem is dialects, if that were simply it then the attitude towards Igbo speaking might be the opposite from what it is now, people would be competing for their dialects to have the most relevance, plus the majority of Igbo dialects are mutually intelligible so it wouldn't be that. There are hardly any languages without dialects, even some with a wider spread than Igbo like German have world renowned and legendary literary icons. Icelandic is spoken by about 350,000 people, roughly 1% of the Igbo population yet they go as far as inventing a word for television in their language (see: Linguistic purism in Icelandic). You can't tell me that the amount of people who speak the Nnewi dialect, for example, are less than the population of Finland. Of course I understand social circumstances as well, Nigeria isn't exactly competing with Iceland in terms of human development, security, education, etc, but it's a good thought.

The parts of Igbo that are clannish seem to preserve their language more than the parts that are indifferent. Check out Abiriba or Ngwa and notice that the dialects are spoken fluently by those born and bred in USA and Japan and some of them don't even know central Igbo. Some of these Igbo dialects have words that lack in central Igbo. Take the Ngwa word "Iko" which means "concubine" and the non-existence of the word in central Igbo.

Abagworo: Igbo language is losing its relevance daily because of the refusal of Igbos to agree on who is Igbo and what dialect to adopt for all Igbos. Any time such discussions come up, it is usually turned into a supremacy battle and people end up giving reasons why they are either the purest Igbos or only started speaking Igbo as a result of inter marriage or other forms of interaction. Today nobody teaches with Igbo, there are no Igbo newspapers, no Igbo signs for businesses, Igbo parents communicate with their children at home using English. Its such a shame.


As a true Igbo man that understands our ways, I'd suggest each dialect group develop their own orthography and use it at least in sign posts and address books. There should be Igbo courses in primary schools and Igbo speaking times. All attempts to make Igbo forcefully homogenous has failed because of our republican nature and we need to stop dreaming about achieving that.

At some point, Igbo Orthography has changed from "OLUMBA" to "IGBO IZUGBE", which is the accepted form of Igbo literature and instruction at the moment. And it is understood by both Ngwa, Abiriba<, Mbaise, Onitcha Ikwerre etc.
There are scattered literary works written in Igbo language and a whole lot of Igbo authors like Emenanjo etc.

The point is, we feel it is "uneducated" to address one another in Igbo language, and in most cases, we are unable to read and understand a written piece in Igbo.
And as of relevance, it is very relevant at the moment, but for the future,we make the language as relevant as we want it to be. Ndi ochichi agaghi emere anyi ya.

On the topic of dialects; Most Igbo speakers seem willing to water down their respective dialects, at the very least, when speaking with one another. So, dialectal diversity is likely not a primary player in the irrelevance of Igbo, but we could still make a case for its role in all of this. For instance, we know that "Izugbe" is the proclaimed "Igbo Standard", but short of taking a few courses in school, Izugbe seems to be virtually neglected by Igbo speakers. In my opinion, this neglect is not intentional. Rather, it is just the product of an apparent inability to render certain expressions in Izugbe that are otherwise commonplace for the different, respective dialects. This inherent limitation of Izugbe leads to lack of widespread adoption, which in turn proves to limit Izugbe's potential for growth.

So in this respect, we can see how dialects play a role in perpetuating the irrelevance of Igbo language. This overall neglect, plus the average Igbo speaker's static attitude toward Igbo language does nothing more than keep Igbo language stagnant (and possibly regressive, if we consider the possibility of forgotten lexicon which might have proven relevant in our time).

Igbo language is not relevant or it's relevant is minute. It's not until we make concerted efforts to make it relevant that it will be that. How do you explain a situation whereby you're considered educated and schooled is you can't speak your native language. So, it means by promoting education, we'll de-promoting our language because the people are being educated with English and not Igbo.

Afam4eva: Igbo language is not relevant or it's relevant is minute. It's not until we make concerted efforts to make it relevant that it will be that. How do you explain a situation whereby you're considered educated and schooled is you can't speak your native language. So, it means by promoting education, we'll de-promoting our language because the people are being educated with English and not Igbo.

Afam I sent you a PM some time ago. Did you get it?

nnenna.1:


Afam I sent you a PM some time ago. Did you get it?

Yes, i did and i replied.

All i said is that you should change the email associated with that particular account and then request for a password reset after which you can take the action.

Afam4eva:
Yes, i did and i replied.

All i said is that you should change the email associated with that particular account and then request for a password reset after which you can take the action.

Well, there lies the problem.

I will send you another PM to further explain this.