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The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe - Culture - Nairaland

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The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by Abagworo(m): 1:55pm On Feb 13, 2011
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00fwp/igbo/achebe/speech.html

Every Igbo need to read this article.My reason is that I have come to discover that many people consider the spoken Igbo of today as the real Igbo whereas it was manufactured by fusing many dialects to create a new language.Many people have lost their dialects and are ignorant of this fact.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by Abagworo(m): 2:09pm On Feb 13, 2011
Some of those who believe that everyone should be made to speak and write Standard Igbo have said that what caused Chinua Achebe to go against Standard Igbo was that they did not base it on the Ogidi dialect. Let me reply to them before all the Igbo here today. I do not want them to take it. Do you understand what I am saying? I say that I do not want them to take it! Do you know who I mean by "them"? It is the learned people, the followers of Dennis, those who think that language is "engineering." Language is a gift of God. I do not want to take his own from anyone; I do not want anyone to take mine from me. Perhaps some are thinking that Chinua Achebe does not regard Igbo the way he regards Ogidi. This is a lie, lie, lie!     One who has no regard for Igbo is someone who takes a matchet and chops up all of its branches. I love both Igbo and Ogidi.

    Those who want all of us to speak the same dialect are saying that there is no time to wait until the Igbo language on its own speaks what will be Standard Igbo. But they forget that it was in wanting a Standard Igbo that Dennis gave us Union Igbo, which gave birth to Central Igbo, which gave birth to Standard Igbo. Making changes now does not help. It is like the bachelor who wakes up one day and says that the search for a wife should  begin one of these days--does he think that a woman is a cloth that you hang up? Yesterday has gone, let us take the short time remaining today and encourage ourselves to go forward before dawn arrives.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by presido1: 3:01pm On Feb 13, 2011
^^What if you have an Igbo teacher from Ogidi teaching Igbo in a school in Owerri, Afikpo, Ohafia or Ngwa. Which dialect will he teach them. If he teach them Ogidi dialect it defeats your argument of preserving dialects.

If you are not from Afikpo u can hardly understand their dialect, Now you are a WASC examiner for Igbo Lang, You are presented with Igbo exam papers from Afikpo written in Afikpo dialect what will you do if you can't read the dialect? Are you going to pass all of them or fail all of them.

Advocates of central Igbo did not tell you to abolish your dialect rather it provides a way to communicate to those ndigbo that don't understand your dialect and you don't understand their's. Its that simple.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by AndreUweh(m): 3:45pm On Feb 13, 2011
presido1:

^^What if you have an Igbo teacher from Ogidi teaching Igbo in a school in Owerri, Afikpo, Ohafia or Ngwa. Which dialect will he teach them. If he teach them Ogidi dialect it defeats your argument of preserving dialects.

If you are not from Afikpo u can hardly understand their dialect, Now you are a WASC examiner for Igbo Lang, You are presented with Igbo exam papers from Afikpo written in Afikpo dialect what will you do if you can't read the dialect? Are you going to pass all of them or fail all of them.

Advocates of central Igbo did not tell you to abolish your dialect rather it provides a way to communicate to those ndigbo that don't understand your dialect and you don't understand their's. Its that simple.
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Nothing more to comment.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by Abagworo(m): 5:10pm On Feb 13, 2011
presido1:

^^What if you have an Igbo teacher from Ogidi teaching Igbo in a school in Owerri, Afikpo, Ohafia or Ngwa. Which dialect will he teach them. If he teach them Ogidi dialect it defeats your argument of preserving dialects.

If you are not from Afikpo u can hardly understand their dialect, Now you are a WASC examiner for Igbo Lang, You are presented with Igbo exam papers from Afikpo written in Afikpo dialect what will you do if you can't read the dialect? Are you going to pass all of them or fail all of them.

Advocates of central Igbo did not tell you to abolish your dialect rather it provides a way to communicate to those ndigbo that don't understand your dialect and you don't understand their's. Its that simple.

This particular issue if properly tackled will go a long way in solving our unity problem.Many Igbos do not really like the imposition of this manufactured language hence the lack of interest in Igbo literature.

I belong to Achebe's school of thought.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by excanny: 5:20pm On Feb 13, 2011
Abagworo:

This particular issue if properly tackled will go a long way in solving our unity problem.Many Igbos do not really like the imposition of this manufactured language hence the lack of interest in Igbo literature.

I belong to Achebe's school of thought.

Dont you think it would be more of a disadvantage writing literature in your dialect. Except you want only people from your clan to read it. A central Igbo(I quite disagree with the term 'standard Igbo') is necessary at least for writing purposes.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by Abagworo(m): 5:42pm On Feb 13, 2011
excanny:

Dont you think it would be more of a disadvantage writing literature in your dialect. Except you want only people from your clan to read it. A central Igbo(I quite disagree with the term 'standard Igbo') is necessary at least for writing purposes.

If you look at some issues cropping up,you will observe the crisis created by this standard Igbo.For example the spelling of Igbo/Ibo,
Oluchi/Orunchi,
Okolo/Okoro,
Wakama/Nwakanma,Ifeoma/Homa,Nwala/Wali/Nwali/Nwani/Weli/Wala/Nwana/Wana.

We cannot really say which is correct or not but if we wrote in each of the dialects,they are right to the speaker.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by excanny: 7:39pm On Feb 13, 2011
Abagworo:

If you look at some issues cropping up,you will observe the crisis created by this standard Igbo.For example the spelling of Igbo/Ibo,
Oluchi/Orunchi,
Okolo/Okoro,
Wakama/Nwakanma,Ifeoma/Homa,Nwala/Wali/Nwali/Nwani/Weli/Wala/Nwana/Wana.

We cannot really say which is correct or not but if we wrote in each of the dialects,they are right to the speaker.

I do not think that these variations were caused by a supposedly 'standard' Igbo. These difference were already inherent in our diverse dialects, which is BTW not peculiar to the Igbo language.

Like I previously pointed out, I 'm really at odds with the term 'standard Igbo'. I kind of find it insulting to our collective natural way of speaking. A better and more diplomatic term would be a 'central Igbo' which should be more pronounced in writing.

I must also confess that I do not know much except the little I can gather from some literature I could lay my hands on.

As for the examples you gave, one or two of them can be the accepted variants in a 'central' Igbo just like you sometimes have it in English where two pronunciations or spellings are considered correct. e.g American and British English variations.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by asha2: 9:24pm On Feb 13, 2011
look the issue of written igbo is just for reading and a bit of literature and not necessarily spoken.the preservation of a dialect of igbo depends on the people that speaks that dialect.

i am sure people here do not know that the written german you see is based more on the dialect spoken in hannover axis.people from bavarian region( where munich is the capital and largest city) speaks a different kind of german that someone that was born and brought up in hamburg might not be able to understand up to 60%.

i understand achebe's point of view but he(as a literature great) did not give a solution of how eg someone from Ogidi will write(not necessarily speak) what an Afikpo person will comprehend.


Abagworo:

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00fwp/igbo/achebe/speech.html

Every Igbo need to read this article.My reason is that I have come to discover that many people consider the spoken Igbo of today as the real Igbo whereas it was manufactured by fusing many dialects to create a new language.Many people have lost their dialects and are ignorant of this fact.

not entirely true.the more common igbo you keep hearing is more of springing up of cosmopilitan igbo cities and towns rather than voluntary manufacture of a new language you are trying to paint here.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by Abagworo(m): 10:26pm On Feb 13, 2011
not entirely true.the more common igbo you keep hearing is more of springing up of cosmopilitan igbo cities and towns rather than voluntary manufacture of a new language you are trying to paint here.

Yes it was influenced by the Church and has polarized into North Central Igbo and South Central Igbo.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by asha2: 10:31pm On Feb 13, 2011
Abagworo:

Yes it was influenced by the Church and has polarized into North Central Igbo and South Central Igbo.

how did the church do that?
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by Abagworo(m): 10:55pm On Feb 13, 2011
asha 2:

how did the church do that?

The Standard Igbo was created by the church and they were using it to worship at various parts of Igboland.

Catholic Igbo was based on Delta.Changes have been made to the central Igbo in recent times.Previously Catholics used Osebulua in place of Chi in all parts of Igboland.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by Abagworo(m): 9:27am On Feb 14, 2011
There is this saying "Igbo n'asu n'olu n'olu".Can anyone interpret?
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by ChinenyeN(m): 2:06pm On Feb 14, 2011
I side with Achebe on this one, but I go further to say that it is the job of the people to preserve their own speech form(s).
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by asha80(m): 2:57pm On Feb 14, 2011
ChinenyeN:

I side with Achebe on this one, but I go further to say that it is the job of the people to preserve their own speech form(s).

it is that simple.


Abagworo:

There is this saying "Igbo n'asu n'olu n'olu".Can anyone interpret?

we are more interested in written ones used in primary and secondary schools not spoken ones.for spoken ones to remain it depends on the speakers.


meanwhile you have not answered the bolded

presido1:

^^What if you have an Igbo teacher from Ogidi teaching Igbo in a school in Owerri, Afikpo, Ohafia or Ngwa. Which dialect will he teach them. If he teach them Ogidi dialect it defeats your argument of preserving dialects.

If you are not from Afikpo u can hardly understand their dialect, Now you are a WASC examiner for Igbo Lang, You are presented with Igbo exam papers from Afikpo written in Afikpo dialect what will you do if you can't read the dialect? Are you going to pass all of them or fail all of them.

Advocates of central Igbo did not tell you to abolish your dialect rather it provides a way to communicate to those ndigbo that don't understand your dialect and you don't understand their's. Its that simple.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by Abagworo(m): 5:32pm On Feb 14, 2011
What if you have an Igbo teacher from Ogidi teaching Igbo in a school in Owerri, Afikpo, Ohafia or Ngwa. Which dialect will he teach them.

An Ogidi man does not need to teach Owerri,Ohafia,Ehugbo or Ngwa man unless he knows their dialects.Remember all these dialects have sub-dialects too.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by asha2: 9:43pm On Feb 14, 2011
Abagworo:

An Ogidi man does not need to teach Owerri,Ohafia,Ehugbo or Ngwa man unless he knows their dialects.Remember all these dialects have sub-dialects too.

so if he is an igbo teacher in these towns schools apart from the written igbo we know what should he use to teach them?i think it is not easy find a 'solution' to this .

criticizing is easy but providing solution is where the real brainwork is is.
Re: The Need To Preserve Our Dialects- Chinua Achebe by EzeUche2(m): 7:30am On Feb 15, 2011
presido1:

^^What if you have an Igbo teacher from Ogidi teaching Igbo in a school in Owerri, Afikpo, Ohafia or Ngwa. Which dialect will he teach them. If he teach them Ogidi dialect it defeats your argument of preserving dialects.

If you are not from Afikpo u can hardly understand their dialect, Now you are a WASC examiner for Igbo Lang, You are presented with Igbo exam papers from Afikpo written in Afikpo dialect what will you do if you can't read the dialect? Are you going to pass all of them or fail all of them.

Advocates of central Igbo did not tell you to abolish your dialect rather it provides a way to communicate to those ndigbo that don't understand your dialect and you don't understand their's. Its that simple.

Wonderful post concerning the topic. Very well thought out response.

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