The Nsukka tribe of the Igbo ethnic group is located at the northernmost part of Igboland in Enugu state and shares borders with Igala/Kogi state. The Ikwerre people are located at the southern edge of the Igbo-speaking areas in Rivers state. Despite being located so many miles apart from each other, we find very striking similarity between their traditional counting systems. This is not an article on whether Ikwerre is Igbo or not but I find it very fascinating that these two Igboid groups located on the extremes of Igboland share 90% similarity in their counting systems. The Ikwerre TCS did not show such level of similarity with nearby Owerri, Ngwa dialects but instead with an Igboid group located on the extreme north of the Igbo-speaking area.

Conclusions are yours to make.

Nye Iwurhuoha obula zi nu nairaland, bia pa.

cc Hopeathand

Ok. Ikwerre is a tribe that borrowed almost all their language.


Dunno what they were speaking before they found lenders.

Proudly nsukka

We never can tell exactly how migration occured years ago. We can't say for sure how language traversed from Ikwerreland upwards to Nsukka or from Nsukka downwards. Either there is a connection between the two groups or simply nature playing a fast one.

@bigfrancis21

Same can be seen with the Ekpeye people of Rivers state and Abaomege people of Ebonyi state

They ar quite similar... I was complying some documents at the office last week I came across EMEKE, but felt it was a mistake, I had to correct to my own Igbo EMEKA, little did i know the IKWERRES are somehow Igbos

Blessed4lif:
They ar quite similar... I was complying some documents at the office last week I came across EMEKE, but felt it was a mistake, I had to correct to my own Igbo EMEKA, little did i know the IKWERRES are somehow Igbos

Are you Igbo?

Is the Emeke person Ikwerre?

It honestly could be any number of things. Some unclear linguistic innovation with numerals might have started from some yet unknown point in the hinterland and spread unevenly. Ikwerre and Nsukka interactions with their neighbors might have led to retention of some aspect of proto-Igbo speech, which might have been lost in some other parts due to the unclear linguistic innovation from the hinterland. It could be a relative coincidence (relative only because we aren't bothered with going far back enough through the language family trees).

It could be any number of these or all of these.

It's only those living in a self-denial will argue that Ikwerres are not Igbos.

Go to their villages, you will see that there's no any amount of interaction with Igbos would have influenced them so much to the extent of having same, language, cultures and traditions just as Igbos.

Just as an Nsukka man speaks Nsukka dialect of Igbo so is Ikwerre man speaks Ikwerre dialect of Igbo.

Nsukka was under the Benin Kingdom.
Chief Obaseki's father was from Nsukka.
Chief Obaseki was the Iyase of the Benin Kingdom after the british invaded.

nuelsylves:
It's only those living in a self-denial will argue that Ikwerres are not Igbos.

Go to their villages, you will see that there's no any amount of interaction with Igbos would have influenced them so much to the extent of having same, language, cultures and traditions just as Igbos.

Just as an Nsukka man speaks Nsukka dialect of Igbo so is Ikwerre man speaks Ikwerre dialect of Igbo.

Nsukka was under the Benin Kingdom.
Chief Obaseki's father was from Nsukka.

Why didn't anybody correct these statements?!