This issue's been vaguely dealt with on other threads but is there any considerable divergence between these four collective "Abakaliki lects" and do they diverge from central Igbo more by words/morphology or just pronunciation? And are there any specific names peculiar to this region?

cc. RedboneSmith, ChinenyeN, ezeagu, bigfrancis21

Probz, from the much that I understand about the region, when it comes to specific words (when written down with Onwu orthography and without any indication of tone), they do not diverge that much. The cognate relationship between this cluster and say, Oratta is still rather high.

It's the morphology (how sentences are constructed along with tone) and phonology (pronunciation and tone) that truly sets it apart. I'll use Izii in particular, since it's divergence is well known. And anyone who knows better should feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this.

Let's take a famous bible verse, John 3:16 (in the King James version), "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.".

Igbo (standard-ish), "N'ihi na Chineke huru uwa n'anya otú a, na Ọ nyere ọbuná Ọkpara Ọ muru nání Ya, ka onye ọ bula nke kwere na Ya we ghara ila n'iyì, kama ka o nwe ndu ebighi-ebi." https://www.bible.com/bible/77/JHN.3.16.IGBOB

Izii, "Lẹ Chileke yekwarụ ndiphe obu; yetabe iya k'ọphu ọ nụru Nwa lanụ, o nweru kpoloko: g'ọoburu onye kwetarụ nkiya; onye ono taa ladụ l'iswi; o nwechiaru ndzụ ojejoje." https://www.bible.com/bible/1601/JHN.3.16.IZII

If you encounter Izii for the first time, it will certainly be unintelligible, even time after time after that. Yet, you can still see that as far as the cognate words are concerned, the divergence is not that far off. There is parity, but the morphology and phonology significantly obscure it.

As far as names peculiar to the region, someone else might have to answer that. I am not that familiar.

ChinenyeN:
Probz, from the much that I understand about the region, when it comes to specific words (when written down with Onwu orthography and without any indication of tone), they do not diverge that much. The cognate relationship between this cluster and say, Oratta is still rather high.

It's the morphology (how sentences are constructed along with tone) and phonology (pronunciation and tone) that truly sets it apart. I'll use Izii in particular, since it's divergence is well known. And anyone who knows better should feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this.

Let's take a famous bible verse, John 3:16 (in the King James version), "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.".

Igbo (standard-ish), "N'ihi na Chineke huru uwa n'anya otú a, na Ọ nyere ọbuná Ọkpara Ọ muru nání Ya, ka onye ọ bula nke kwere na Ya we ghara ila n'iyì, kama ka o nwe ndu ebighi-ebi." https://www.bible.com/bible/77/JHN.3.16.IGBOB

Izii, "Lẹ Chileke yekwarụ ndiphe obu; yetabe iya k'ọphu ọ nụru Nwa lanụ, o nweru kpoloko: g'ọoburu onye kwetarụ nkiya; onye ono taa ladụ l'iswi; o nwechiaru ndzụ ojejoje." https://www.bible.com/bible/1601/JHN.3.16.IZII

If you encounter Izii for the first time, it will certainly be unintelligible, even time after time after that. Yet, you can still see that as far as the cognate words are concerned, the divergence is not that far off. There is parity, but the morphology and phonology significantly obscure it.

As far as names peculiar to the region, someone else might have to answer that. I am not that familiar.

And what would you say the mutual intelligibility between ‘mainstream’ Igbo and Izzi is?

A few names peculiar to the region are Onwe, Anyigo, Nwiboko, Ominyi, Oroke, and names that that have the 'ph' double consonant in them, like Nwazuphu, Nwophe, Nwophoke, Nwiphuru, etc.

Probz:


And what would you say the mutual intelligibility between ‘mainstream’ Igbo and Izzi is?

Is mutual intelligibility calculable to the point where they can be expressed in figures or percentages? I doubt.

Perhaps you meant lexical similarity?

RedboneSmith:


Is mutual intelligibility calculable to the point where they can be expressed in figures or percentages? I doubt.

Perhaps you meant lexical similarity?

How much of Izzi can a mainstream Igbo person understand in other words?

Very little.

RedboneSmith:
Very little.

Is that something that changes with more and more exposure or is it always incomprehensible?

I'll echo RedboneSmith's words. Intelligibility is very low, but that also depends on the direction. An Izii speaker would have little (maybe no) problem understanding modern/mainstream Igbo, but not the other way around. From what I have seen, it is a consistent struggle for mainstream Igbo to understand Izii. So definitely, mutual intelligibility is inherently low.

Probz:
Is that something that changes with more and more exposure or is it always incomprehensible?

Every language in the world can be learned and understood. Specific humans do not hold a monopoly on specific sounds or modes of communication. So, Izii can definitely be learned as well. In fact, I'd say that prior knowledge (ie. some level of fluency or familiarity in another "non-mainstream" dialect) would be useful. However, it will still mostly feel as though learning Izii is like learning a different language.

ChinenyeN:
I'll echo RedboneSmith's words. Intelligibility is very low, but that also depends on the direction. An Izii speaker would have little (maybe no) problem understanding modern/mainstream Igbo, but not the other way around. From what I have seen, it is a consistent struggle for mainstream Igbo to understand Izii. So definitely, mutual intelligibility is inherently low.



Every language in the world can be learned and understood. Specific humans do not hold a monopoly on specific sounds or modes of communication. So, Izii can definitely be learned as well. In fact, I'd say that prior knowledge (ie. some level of fluency or familiarity in another "non-mainstream" dialect) would be useful. However, it will still mostly feel as though learning Izii is like learning a different language.

I would say, the degree of intellibility depends on the degree of exposure or time spent listening and decoding the sentence structure, accent and grammar. Learning to speak the dialect is a different matter.
Izzi-Ezza-mgbo is like a coded igbo language, one will be taken aback. You could know what they are saying at first without knowing what they mean word for word.

Lufu l'eka becomes "Pua eba""
"o shi gbuo e ye" He/she has given him a beating
"gunu bor/bohu"/ "O gunu" "what is it?"
"a shim o" "I said"
"O dure" It is good.
Go si become, goshi, Ga sie becomes "Ga shie"

While some words are completely exclusive to them, like "Mgba'ashi" "witch".

But yeah, generally, it is a bit hard to decode becaue they also speak incredly fast. they tend to speak faster than other Igbo sub.groups.

My submission might have some inaccuracies. i'm neither from izzi/Mgbo from nor from Ebonyi but I understand the dialect/language.
@probz