bigfrancis21:

Says who? You mean Lagos Igbos or SE Igbos?

whichone be SE igbos?
So those of us for south south kwa?

lepasharon: Igbos dont even speak their language when they are together !

really? Have you been to the east? If you come here you'll even not understand a word or else you are addressed; #pls get your facts right before posting shit, Yoruba people here in the east only speak English both to their wards and to their tribesmen

Igbos are the only ones bothered about this thread thats why they are still here

Nimen: really? Have you been to the east? If you come here you'll even not understand a word or else you are addressed; #pls get your facts right before posting shit, Yoruba people here in the east only speak English both to their wards and to their tribesmen

LIAR

taiocol: yea. There hav never known english or any other language.

Learn how to write English correctly before you abuse other people. smh

macof:
It's because u lack sense, I won't hid the truth from u because I don't want to offend.
How can a sensible human say "drop ur indigenous language, learn internationally recognized ones because it's gonna help u plan for the future"?
Over 35million Yoruba people speak Yoruba fluently, and they won't stop for anything or anybody.

Again you are totally off base with these unguarded statements! Who is saying that we don't have tens of millions of Yoruba and Igbo speakers in Nigeria and the Diaspora today. Get your opponents points well. Instead you jus de yap people unnecessarily. SMH
Look around your environment especially at people that can afford the luxuries and good things of life. Almost 100% of their kids are totally at home with speaking English or Nigerian pidgin rather than their ancestral languages. They will also travel outside their home regions for study, work and business and marry from outside their ancestral tribes.
What will then happen to the children of these kids today? You think they will somehow teach their own wards a language which they themselves have hardly ever used outside the house?
Bros you de fall my hand no be small!

igbo boy:

whichone be SE igbos?
So those of us for south south kwa?

A lot of people use SE and Igboland interchangeably. SE can mean the region that's made up of 5 states or Igboland. The term SE is just a political moniker. How is Onitsha SE and Asaba isn't? Is Igboland more SE than Cross River and Akwa-Ibom?

ezeagu:

They should stop using Lagos Igbo people to judge igbo language competency.

Imagine

EBK2:
I didint say that. May be you didnt get my point. Of course learning as many language as you can is an added advantage. To drive home my point, perhaps lets look at two extremes:
Given two options: Igbo or English, which one will you get you child to learn in today's world. Personally, I will choose English. That is not to say that he/she shouldnt learn a local language but it is of less priotity and i wouldnt worry about it as some parents do in vain.
In Nigerian context, what is more important is to be able to speak a language with which you can relate to every Nigerian, not a parochail language.

as of the present this chap is one of the worst fools I've seen here,trading your identity for something you might not ve.it wouldve been beTter if you were sold as a slave so that you could learn the english,francais or espanol you want and be lost in obscurity.even the english you're championing sef,you can't from your writeup speak sound english that's why I love Napoleon and Hitler of france and deutscheland respectively,,especially hitler who loved everything German and Germany itself.as for me,my loyalty is to my ethnic nation not to the geographical area called Naijiria

hotwax:

Thats your Language. Of all Languages, Yoruba will never go into extinction. Yoruba Language is dated 600 BC.

Greek is dated AD 400. Greek has gone into extinction, Yoruba is still spreading despite older than Greek.

oo aww I hate when people showcase their latent tomfoolery and magnifiQue stupidity before the unsuspecting public.I don't know the year oduduwa' crossed the sahara from egypt to ife but to say Yoruba is older than greek or greek is dated 400AD is preposterous...if Yoruba is older than greek? Then...
1)In 1250BC,some thousand greek ships crossed the aegean & laid siege to troy which they destroyed a decade later.which language were they speaking?
2)In 700BC,the same year prophet Yeshayahu(isaiah) wrote his book was when a blind poet by name homer wrote the iliad & odyssey.Dd he write it in Yoruba?
3)The apostle to the Goyim(gentiles) paul (around 60 or 75AD)wrote most of his epistles in koine.was koine a Yoruba variant?
Pls pls pls stick to the rules of engagement & don't be overzealous in your arguements so that you can be seen as a sagacious fellow

cheruv:
as of the present this chap is one of the worst fools I've seen here,trading your identity for something you might not ve.it wouldve been beTter if you were sold as a slave so that you could learn the english,francais or espanol you want and be lost in obscurity.even the english you're championing sef,you can't from your writeup speak sound english that's why I love Napoleon and Hitler of france and deutscheland respectively,,especially hitler who loved everything German and Germany itself.as for me,my loyalty is to my ethnic nation not to the geographical area called Naijiria

Old boy you just de yarn opaks. Anyway Hitler was of course an Austrian born at Brannau on the Austrian-German border whilst Napoleon was an Italian born in Corsica. Neither of them were mainstream citizens of Germany and France at the time of birth which raises the next point . What is living language? Simple a language lives when people speak it. If people for whatever reason do not cannot or bluntly refuse to speak a language that language is dead. To suggest that a language can and should exist in its own right when it no longer serves its purpose as a means of communication is nonsensical really.
Same thing for tribes. The only legal and political reality that exists for Nigerians today is their state of origin,state of residence and their Nigerian citIzenship. That is all.

Pls pls pls the mods should desist from changing or editing my words kos I know what am writing.I said Y O R O B A and not yoruba.thanks for your anticipated cooperation

tensor777:
Old boy you just de yarn opaks. Anyway Hitler was of course an Austrian born at Brannau on the Austrian-German border whilst Napoleon was an Italian born in Corsica. Neither of them were mainsteream citizens of Germany and France at the time of birth which raises the next point . What is living language/ Simple a language lives when people speak it. If people for whatever reason do not cannot or bluntly refuse to speak a language that language is dead. To suggest that a language can and should exist in its own right when it no longer serves its purpose as a means of communication is nonsensical really.
Same thing for tribes. The only legal and political reality that exists for Nigerians today is their state of origin,state of residence and their Nigerian citenzenship. That is all.

Oldie I know perfectly what am saying...as for napoleon,he's french kos the ligurian republic sold corsica to france in 1768 and he was born the next year so I don't see what makes him less french whilst hitler though he was austrian,preferred Germany that's why in WW1 instead of serving in the austrian army saw action in the imperial German army.there's no need to haggle anymore over this but that doesn't dissaude me from the fact that peeps who willingly reject their language are less than slaves

^^^You can't get away with using code words especially on a public forum like Nairaland. Anyway as a fine student of history, I'm sure you recall Effiongs surrender statement to Gowon at Dodan Barracks at the end of the Nigerian civil war. He said

We are firm. We are loyal Nigerian citizens. We accept the authority of the FGN. The Republic of Biafra hereby ceases to exist.

The sooner you and other disgruntled elements in Nigeria and the Diaspora reconcile yourselves to this extant political reality the better it will be for the entire South-East as a political entity.

tensor777: ^^^You can't get away with using code words especially on a public forum like Nairaland. Anyway as a fine student of history, I'm sure you recall Effiongs surrender statement to Gowon at Dodan Barracks at the end of the Nigerian civil war. He said

We are firm. We are loyal Nigerian citizens. We accept the authority of the FGN. The Republic of Biafra hereby ceases to exist.

The sooner you and other disgruntled elements in Nigeria and the Diaspora reconcile yourselves to this extant political reality the better it will be for the entire South-East as a political entity.

Y not disprove the facts he put up other than talking abt the civil war .
see backing out

tensor777:
Look around your environment especially at people that can afford the luxuries and good things of life. Almost 100% of their kids are totally at home with speaking English or Nigerian pidgin rather than their ancestral languages. They will also travel outside their home regions for study, work and business and marry from outside their ancestral tribes.
What will then happen to the children of these kids today? You think they will somehow teach their own wards a language which they themselves have hardly ever used outside the house?
Bros you de fall my hand no be small!

Dude I don't understand Ekiti dialect, that doesn't mean I won't encourage my kids to learn it.

In fact I'll expose them to it so they can know their personal identity

tensor777: ^^^You can't get away with using code words especially on a public forum like Nairaland. Anyway as a fine student of history, I'm sure you recall Effiongs surrender statement to Gowon at Dodan Barracks at the end of the Nigerian civil war. He said

We are firm. We are loyal Nigerian citizens. We accept the authority of the FGN. The Republic of Biafra hereby ceases to exist.

The sooner you and other disgruntled elements in Nigeria and the Diaspora reconcile yourselves to this extant political reality the better it will be for the entire South-East as a political entity.

this Y A R I B A as awusas call you frankly I don't remember bringing up the name of the former Biafran CDS General Efiong into this discourse.moreover I don't understand the obseSsion Yo-robas have with the notion of biafrans reestablishing their kingdom kos from every angle as Al Jazeera would say,it seems the igbos are blocking their "domination" of nigeria.
since you guys came from pharaonic egypt,maybe another 10 plagues would be to do the magick

^^^Actually I am from your own part of Nigeria BUT I don't support ethnic chauvinism masquerading as ethnic self-determination.

ngozievergreen:

Y can't a Yoruba address this issue without mentioning the word Igbo.
Did the Op say anything about Igbo?
What kind of inferiority complex is this?
I guess from your post that Igbo rappers don't make millions then?
Hia

macof:

The dude was wrong about Greek but not about Yoruba

Yoruba civilization started long before Oduduwa, the date u giving is during Oduduwa's kingship.

Ife had people for thousands of years before Oduduwa.
Ife- the primal dialet of Yoruba language is the oldest in west Africa.

@Bold...how can you prove that? What are your sources?

Let's be realistic here. Radiocarbon dating put the Ife period between 1,000 - 1,4000AD. Radiocarbon is a chemical test using the carbon used in chemistry to determine the age of artefacts and things.

Radiocarbon dates put the 'classical' period of Ife, art at about A.D. 1000-1400. This neatly tallied with reconstructions of chronology based on the surviving kinglists of states like Oyo, Ketu, Benin and Ijebu. Their foundations were generally placed between the 13th and 15th centuries - perhaps about 1300 (Smith, 1969: 34), and the tradition that their founders came from Ife, was accepted at face value by many authors.

http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/yorubat/yt2.html

It will shock you to discover that Igbo people are older than Yoruba people in Africa. The same radio carbon dating technique places the start of the Igbo civilization in Africa at as early as 700AD.

The Radiocarbon dating technique was used to
determine the age of the Igbo-Ukwu site and
artifacts. Of six samples sent to the laboratory for
testing, the one from Igbo Isiah was destroyed when the apparatus went wrong, and consequently there are no dates from this site. Of the remaining five samples, only one (sample I-2008), from the burial chamber (Igbo Richard), came from an artifact (wood from a stool) and therefore qualified for A1 status. The remaining four samples from the Igbo Jonah site were all composite charcoal samples, presumed to date the source deposits of artifacts, and thus qualified for A2 status.

For sample I-2008 (Igbo Richard), a calendar range
of 880-1160 AD was determined. Of the other four samples from Igbo Jonah, sample HV1514 was
dated at 760-1060 AD, sample HV1515 was dated 730-1000 AD, sample I 1784 was dated 690-1020
AD, and sample HV1516 was dated 1350-1430 AD.
The much later date determined for sample
HV1516, as compared to all other samples, is
explained by Shaw as most probably being as a
result of contamination of the sample, going into
detail to show in what ways this contamination may
have come about.
[b]
Radiocarbon dating placed the
sites around the 10th century or earlier, which
would make the Igbo-Ukwu culture the earliest-
known example of bronze casting in the West African region. The
craftsmen were working centuries before those who
made the more well-known Ife bronzes. The
archaeological sites in southeastern Nigeria are
associated with the Nri-Igbo.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3236716

igbo boy:

Nna i disagree with you.. I think you got it mixed up. Yes there maybe up to 40million igbos world wide but you cant assume that all 40 million igbos speak igbo. I was born and bred in warri ( I am from delta), yet my igbo no pass kedu and odinma until my adult years when i decided to correct the wrong of my youth..

You know how many igbos for warri those days wey their igbo no pass hearing? to speak dey hard dem. I am sure lots of igbos in Lagos are in the same boat..We cant treat a problem if we dont accept it first. Let's accept that there is a steep decline in the generational handling down of the language.

Ndigbo g'achi

You don't speak Igbo properly because you were raised outside Alaigbo. But your cousins in Igboland speak the language. You can not judge Igbo lang with Igbo population outside AlaIgbo. If you go to AlaIgbo and Igbo language is substituted for another language, that should be a worry for you.
Amongst all the languages I know of in West Africa. Igbo people are the ones pushing hardest in promoting their language. Here in the U.K, there are so many Igbo language schools and I know the attendance level. Even, Christine Ohuruogu the golden girl attends Igbo language school in London. Yet I haven't heard about other Nigerian language schools in the U.K.
Though some Igbo people do not make enough effort to learn the language, not all are like that. For example, I did not study Igbo language in secondary school in Ibadan because of the reason you all know. But I sat for Igbo language in GCE in Ibadan and made excellent grades due to Igbo lessons organised by Catholic nuns inside the Ibadan versity campus. There were many of us then.
Nigerians should just worry about those languages in Adamawa, Bauchi, Kaduna, Cross River etc that are disappearing hugely.

Igbo is actually spreading. Look at Equatorial Guinea, and other parts of West-Central Africa for evidence. Nigerian films and music have also helped considerably.

Andre Uweh:
You don't speak Igbo properly because you were raised outside Alaigbo. But your cousins in Igboland speak the language. You can not judge Igbo lang with Igbo population outside AlaIgbo. If you go to AlaIgbo and Igbo language is substituted for another language, that should be a worry for you.
Amongst all the languages I know of in West Africa. Igbo people are the once pushing hardest in promoting their language. Here in the U.K, there are so many Igbo language schools and I know the attendance level. Even, Christine Ohuruogu the golden girl attends Igbo language school in London. Yet I haven't heard about other Nigerian language schools in the U.K.
Though some Igbo people do not make enough effort to learn the language, not all are like that. For example, I did not study Igbo language in secondary school in Ibadan because of the reason you all know. But I sat for Igbo language in GCE in Ibadan and made excellent grades due to Igbo lessons organised by Catholic nuns inside the Ibadan versity campus. There were many of us then.
Nigerians should just worry about those languages in Adamawa, Bauchi, Kaduna, Cross River etc that are disappearing hugely.

I'm impressed with the turnout of Igbo people at Igbo language exams. I took GCE in 2005 towards the ending of my SS2. When I was filling the GCE form with the list of subjects to write I included Igbo too even though it wasn't compulsory you write it just like Agric, Geography given that this was not secondary school where you're forced to register at least 9 subjects in WASSCE. I remember thinking that not many GCE takers will include Igbo, maybe only the compulsory 5 subjects - Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and Physics for science students. However I was in for a huge shock. The GCE exam started in earnest. On the day for Igbo I entered into the exam hall with the expectation that the hall will be scanty with test takers. To my greatest surprise, the hall was full as usual like the previous days. I was very very impressed that Igbos take their language that seriously.

Even though I wasn't speaking Igbo then as a teenager, my writing and reading skills were excellent. In the theory section, while I could directly write an essay in the theory section in Igbo from my thoughts without prior thinking, section, I noticed that some others who were speakers would rather first write the essay in English and then translate to Igbo. It worked for them though it tended to waste a lot of time compared to writing it directly in Igbo.

Few months later the GCE result came out and I had A1.

I know how this sounds, but once tribalism moves away from politics and moves more into science, education, technology, and over all soft-power, wonders would happen. Tribalism is why we have Samsung vs. Sony, after all.

bigfrancis21:

@Bold...how can you prove that? What are your sources?

Let's be realistic here. Radiocarbon dating put the Ife period between 1,000 - 1,4000AD. Radiocarbon is a chemical test using the carbon used in chemistry to determine the age of artefacts and things.


http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/yorubat/yt2.html

It will shock you to discover that Igbo people are older than Yoruba people in Africa. The same radio carbon dating technique places the start of the Igbo civilization in Africa at as early as 700AD.


http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3236716

wtf! Igbo language older than Ife? Lol

www.newdigitalculture.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=29

ezeagu: Igbo is actually spreading. Look at Equatorial Guinea, and other parts of West-Central Africa for evidence. Nigerian films and music have also helped considerably.

Igbos actually made a mistake of succumbing to worlds demand to make nollywood movies in English.
If they had continued Igbo spoken movies from living in bondage till now, the lang would have been an internationally recognized one like English,Spanish; considering the fact that nollywood is rated high in the world

bigfrancis21:

I'm impressed with the turnout of Igbo people at Igbo language exams. I took GCE in 2005 towards the ending of my SS2. When I was filling the GCE form with the list of subjects to write I included Igbo too even though it wasn't compulsory you write it just like Agric, Geography given that this was not secondary school where you're forced to register at least 9 subjects in WASSCE. I remember thinking that not many GCE takers will include Igbo, maybe only the compulsory 5 subjects - Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and Physics for science students. However I was in for a huge shock. The GCE exam started in earnest. On the day for Igbo I entered into the exam hall with the expectation that the hall will be scanty with test takers. To my greatest surprise, the hall was full as usual like the previous days. I was very very impressed that Igbos take their language that seriously.

Even though I wasn't speaking Igbo then as a teenager, my writing and reading skills were excellent. In the theory section, while I could directly write an essay in the theory section in Igbo from my thoughts without prior thinking, section, I noticed that some others who were speakers would rather first write the essay in English and then translate to Igbo. It worked for them though it tended to waste a lot of time compared to writing it directly in Igbo.

Few months later the GCE result came out and I had A1.

at which area were u writing the GCE that made u think ppl wouldn't come out to write a whole Igbo Lang, The surest means of getting at least one A1 in waec?
.
lol at those that first wrote their essays in English first, them get luck say time no choke them.
It definitely means they don't think in Igbo, unlike those of us that do the reverse, then translate to English mentally.

ngozievergreen:

Igbos actually made a mistake of succumbing to worlds demand to make nollywood movies in English.
If they had continued Igbo spoken movies from living in bondage till now, the lang would have been an internationally recognized one like English,Spanish; considering the fact that nollywood is rated high in the world

you must be daft to think that nollywood is owned by the igbos. Nollywood is a collection of yoruba language, hausa language and english language movies since there are no igbo movies. The english counterpart consists of igbo actors(emeka ike,jim iyke, monalisa chinda etc), yoruba actors(olu jacobs, omotola, funke akindele etc), calabar actors(ini edo, annie macaulay etc), ghanaian actors(john dumelo, majid, van vicker etc) and hausas.

Nollywood is not only movies but soap operas, music videos, adverts, documentaries etc.


Now, tell me, are all the above owned by igbos alone? Mugu.

Segeggs: you must be daft to think that nollywood is owned by the igbos. Nollywood is a collection of yoruba language, hausa language and english language movies since there are no igbo movies. The english counterpart consists of igbo actors(emeka ike,jim iyke, monalisa chinda etc), yoruba actors(olu jacobs, omotola, funke akindele etc), calabar actors(ini edo, annie macaulay etc), ghanaian actors(john dumelo, majid, van vicker etc) and hausas.

Nollywood is not only movies but soap operas, music videos, adverts, documentaries etc.


Now, tell me, are all the above owned by igbos alone? Mugu.

I jump and pass those name callings.
There were making only Igbo movies before the Igbo group went English.
Are they not the ones that employed those non igbos u are talking about?

ngozievergreen:

I jump and pass those name callings.
There were making only Igbo movies before the Igbo group went English.

you sold off your language for MONEY now you guys are complaining.

ngozievergreen:

at which area were u writing the GCE that made u think ppl wouldn't come out to write a whole Igbo Lang, The surest means of getting at least one A1 in waec?
.
lol at those that first wrote their essays in English first, them get luck say time no choke them.
It definitely means they don't think in Igbo, unlike those of us that do the reverse, then translate to English mentally.

I wrote it in the east here. Lol.
Yea, its the surest way of getting an A1 in WAEC. I remember a maternal cousin of mine who lives in Enugu, who wrote WAEC and the only A1 he had was in Igbo. Mama ya wee jilizie ya na-ama ya njakili, si na o furo biology, chemistry na physics jee nwee A1 o bulu Igbo!

I was surprised at my few exam colleagues, about 5 or so, who had to first write in English. These people were fluent speakers. The habit was not tied to the fact that they think in English. They think in Igbo. Only that they have been used to writing essays in English all their lives. Over the years, they've developed skills and tactics at composing letters in English, so they found it convenient to write a superb letter in English, as they are used to, then translate to Igbo. It works though, just that it tends to take time.

Segeggs: you must be daft to think that nollywood is owned by the igbos. Nollywood is a collection of yoruba language, hausa language and english language movies since there are no igbo movies. The english counterpart consists of igbo actors(emeka ike,jim iyke, monalisa chinda etc), yoruba actors(olu jacobs, omotola, funke akindele etc), calabar actors(ini edo, annie macaulay etc), ghanaian actors(john dumelo, majid, van vicker etc) and hausas.

Nollywood is not only movies but soap operas, music videos, adverts, documentaries etc.


Now, tell me, are all the above owned by igbos alone? Mugu.

This topic has been discussed severally on nairaland. While Nollywood consists of 2 major sections - ANTP(the Yoruba industry responsible for the production of Yoruba movies) and Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN - The Igbo industry responsible for the production of English and Igbo movies), Nollywood is predominantly Igbo and Igbo-owned. The foundation of Nollywood as you have it today was originally the Igbo-language movie industry which, up until 1996, acted movies solely in Igbo language and then made the great switch to English language in the late 90s to meet up with the growing demand of Nollywood movies after the Igbo-language movie, Living in Bondage(Andy Okeke and Merit), shot in Onitsha gave the Igbo-language movie industry a tumultuous breakthrough and spiralled the growth of the industry. Igbo movie producers realized that to make even in an ever-changing global movie market, you'd want to act movies in a universal language that everybody understands, which is English. While not forgetting Igbo-language movies,
Igbo language movies have continued to be made but are sold mostly in Igbo South South and South east.

The Igbo and Yoruba language industries were separate and acted movies of their own before the Yoruba movie industry was merged to the already-known Igbo-English movie industry in the early 2000s to form a greater Nollywood. Notice that the Hausa language industry, which is called Kannywood, is separate from Nollywood and stands on its own. They make and produce Hausa movies with little or no interference from AGN. It is not counted as part of Nollywood.

Nollywood is where it is today because of mostly the efforts and industry of the Igbo movie industry. When foreigners watch Nigerian movies, they watch the English-language movies which are Igbo-owned and produced by AGN. Ask a foreigner to name any 3 nollywood actors/actresses and the 3 names are likely to be Igbo actors/actresses.