To see or join this process go to
http://igbodefender.com/groups/igbo-and-afro-american-culture//forum/topic/new-igbo-words/

English form: Internet
Igbo form: Interneti

English form: Satellite
Igbo form: Sateliti

English form: Impeachment
Igbo form: Impichimenti

English form: website
Igbo form: webusaitu

Not really new, but okay.

@ezeagu,
then let us all contribute to the survival of our language by forming at least one new word. Chetakwa na, if we lose our language we lose a part of our culture.
We can create a free compendium of new Igbo words for prosterity by going to http://igbodefender.com/groups/igbo-and-afro-american-culture/forum/topic/new-igbo-words/

All I can say is that those are very poor translations.

The Igbo word for spider web(onya) could be worked around to get Igbo words for Internet, Webpages, etc. Let's emulate the japanese and israelis who always convert western terminologies into distinct equivalents in their own language.

I think experienced Igbo linguists with vast knowledge of Igbo diction will do a good job, I'm limited in that area for now.

Still on this topic, I've been having a problem with the Igbo translation of Jesus(Jizos). It sounds too 'copycat'/'bekee' to me. I'm suggesting we re-translate it to Jachuya. For example, Onye nwe-anyi Jachuya(meaning Our Lord Jesus)

It's just some manipulations around the original Hebrew for Jesus Yehoshua

No one needs Igbo linguists with 'vast knowledge' to develop new words, just fluent Igbo speakers. All it takes is the need to express something, and then someone finds a way to express it. After some time of using the expression, and if it catches on, people begin to dwindle it down into a contraction or contractions, until eventually new vocabulary is coined. We shouldn't have to engineer new words. Neither should people have to wait on SPILC or Igbo linguists to try to tell you or anyone else how to view, interpret and understand their world. It's your language. Use it to interpret and understand your world. That is what language is for.

ChinenyeN:

No one needs Igbo linguists with 'vast knowledge' to develop new words, just fluent Igbo speakers. All it takes is the need to express something, and then someone finds a way to express it. After some time of using the expression, and if it catches on, people begin to dwindle it down into a contraction or contractions, until eventually new vocabulary is coined. We shouldn't have to engineer new words. Neither should people have to wait on SPILC or Igbo linguists to try to tell you or anyone else how to view, interpret and understand their world. It's your language. Use it to interpret and understand your world. That is what language is for.

We are not talking about slangs here. You need good linguists who understand the roots of words with translation if you want a good job done. This is the same reason why many English words were badly translated into Igbo in the past.

If we need slangs, these can be developed on the streets by just about anybody. But translation of technical words is not something you can get on the streets.

mbatuku2:

All I can say is that those are very poor translations.

The Igbo word for spider web(onya) could be worked around to get Igbo words for Internet, Webpages, etc. Let's emulate the japanese and israelis who always convert western terminologies into distinct equivalents in their own language.

I think experienced Igbo linguists with vast knowledge of Igbo diction will do a good job, I'm limited in that area for now.

Not always, everything doesn't have to be given an Igbo word, but I understand what you mean. The japanese word for soup is supu, wine is wain and there are hundreds of words they've borrowed from China.

We should be more worried about losing Igbo words which we have already lost thousands in daily speech.

Mbatuku, let's be on the same page first. Are you talking about development of new words/new coinages, or just translating words from other languages into Igbo?

ezeagu:

We should be more worried about losing Igbo words which we have already lost thousands in daily speech.

This was actually going to be part of my next point. Reviving those old/nearly forgotten words. That's how we've done it in our family. We've begun using many of the old/ancient words and they've effectively displaced much of the English that we used to use in our house in daily communication.

I was looking through an old (early 1900s) Igbo dictionary, and I found an Igbo (Onicha) word for tower, crossbow, and hemaphrodite. I wonder how many of these words and their equivalents in other dialects have survived, does anyone know these words in their dialects? Or even other languages?

belltwelve:

@ezeagu,
then let us all contribute to the survival of our language by forming at least one new word. Chetakwa na, if we lose our language we lose a part of our culture.
We can create a free compendium of new Igbo words for prosterity by going to http://igbodefender.com/groups/igbo-and-afro-american-culture/forum/topic/new-igbo-words/

These new words wouldn't stick because Igbo isn't used in the work/professional/academic domain where these words survive. Igbo is an informal language, vernacular, that has no serious education system backing it and no serious national status in any nation. Until there is a move to make Igbo an actual language used in work (formally) and in education, which means teaching children in the five state mathematics, science, argic, home economics, engineering, university courses, and the rest in Igbo.

ChinenyeN:

Mbatuku, let's be on the same page first. Are you talking about development of new words/new coinages, or just translating words from other languages into Igbo?

I believe this subject of discussion has to do with translation, which is also forming of new words.

Let's try new Igbo words for the suggested words above.

Internet. Ubuigwe (Ubigwe)
Satellite. Onwaigwe (Onwigwe, that's, if there isn't already satellite in Igbo)
Impeach, isn't that just blame or charge? Ta ụta (that's, if there isn't already impeach in Igbo)
Website. Ihu/Iru ubigwe.

Yours?

And we have to consider that every word in English isn't automatically translatable into Igbo, and the reverse case. Igbo could use one word to mean several different things in English, and the other way round, and the connotation of things are different.

@Ezeagu, I don't know about hermaphrodite or crossbow. I know though that there is a word that was used for generally tall-like structures/buildings.

@Mbatuku, okay well if it is about translations then I can understand the purpose of Igbo linguists, but if it is about new coinages to be used in daily communication, then I still say that Igbo linguists are unnecessary. Language is a community tool; how people interpret and make sense of their world. We don't need 'Igbo linguists'.

ezeagu:

These new words wouldn't stick because Igbo isn't used in the work/professional/academic domain where these words survive. Igbo is an informal language, vernacular, that has no serious education system backing it and no serious national status in any nation. Until there is a move to make Igbo an actual language used in work (formally) and in education, which means teaching children in the five state mathematics, science, argic, home economics, engineering, university courses, and the rest in Igbo.

I dont quite agree with you that the new words wont stick because Igbo is a language of education. Are you saying that there are no written works in Igbo? No written examination in Igbo?

If there are incorporated into Central Igbo that is taught in Igbo language classes, students will somehow learn this new words and adapt them into their own dialects and everyday speech. Things like this will even get people in rural areas(including elderly ones and preteens) who are literate in Igbo to become familiar with technological advances with their subsequent terminologies.

.

ezeagu:

I was looking through an old (early 1900s) Igbo dictionary, and I found an Igbo (Onicha) word for tower, crossbow, and hemaphrodite. I wonder how many of these words and their equivalents in other dialects have survived, does anyone know these words in their dialects? Or even other languages?

This is one area where Igbo Izugbe comes useful(No disrespect to Chinua Achebe and his likes for their criticism), such words can be preserved in dictionaries and publications. It's not really compulsory that they are used in everyday speech. Even speakers of the English language dont use all words in their day-to-day communication.

mbatuku2:

I dont quite agree with you that the new words wont stick because Igbo is a language of education. Are you saying that there are no written works in Igbo? No written examination in Igbo?

If there are incorporated into Central Igbo that is taught in Igbo language classes, students will somehow learn this new words and adapt them into their own dialects and everyday speech. Things like this will even get people in rural areas(including elderly ones and preteens) who are literate in Igbo to become familiar with technological advances with their subsequent terminologies.

Maybe, but with using other words that have been created recently as an example, no one calls university "mahadum". There are examinations and written works in Igbo, yes, but when was the last time your read an Igbo novel or faced a maths/science/agric/non-Igbo-studies examination, or even a test, written in Igbo?

mbatuku2:

This is one area where Igbo Izugbe comes useful(No disrespect to Chinua Achebe and his likes for their criticism), such words can be preserved in dictionaries and publications. It's not really compulsory that they are used in everyday speech. Even speakers of the English language dont use all words in their day-to-day communication.

When I said day-to-day I mean't daily life, when they needed it. An English person isn't going to use a Chinese word for tower instead of tower, but I can bet 90% of Igbo people say tower as tower.

Reviving or retaining is the most important thing.

Translate to Igbo/your dialect:

Girl                              Boy


Woman                       Man


Female                        Male



And please, lets not take to obvious words and mash them together. I chose this words because lots of time the same word is used for them all which means the originals are being slowly frustrated out.

ezeagu:

Let's try new Igbo words for the suggested words above.

Internet. Ubuigwe (Ubigwe)
Satellite. Onwaigwe (Onwigwe, that's, if there isn't already satellite in Igbo)
Impeach, isn't that just blame or charge? Ta ụta (that's, if there isn't already impeach in Igbo)
Website. Ihu/Iru ubigwe.

Yours?

 

I really like the '-igwe' part of those examples you gave here. But just to add, isn't there an Igbo word for spider web? I saw something like 'onya'(which I remember means 'trap') though I have doubts that 'cobweb' = 'onya'.

If there's an actual word for spider web, adding it to an '-igwe' suffix will be very appropriate translation for 'The Internet'.

Chyz*:

Reviving or retaining is the most important thing.

Translate to Igbo/your dialect:

Girl                              Boy


Woman                        Man


Female                        Male
And please, lets not take to obvious words and mash them together. I chose this words because lots of time the same word is used for them all which means the originals are being slowly frustrated out.

Girl:                              Boy:
Agbogho.                     Okorobia

Woman:                       Man:
Inyom.                         Ikom

Female:                      Male:
Nwanyi                         Nwoke/Oke

Is this what you mean? I'm guessing you're trying to see if we use the same words for everything or if certain words have phased out.

Chyz*:

Reviving or retaining is the most important thing.

Translate to Igbo/your dialect:

Girl                              Boy


Woman                        Man


Female                        Male



And please, lets not take to obvious words and mash them together. I chose this words because lots of time the same word is used for them all which means the originals are being slowly frustrated out.

Chyz, I do not think that words like the examples you gave are a big deal to people with a strong command of Igbo, especially those in Igboland. It's people like us who live in the diaspora that see such simple words as needing revival/retention. Anyway, a good Igbo dictionary can be of help to us.


Girl-nwata nwanyi                             
Boy-nwata nwoke


Woman-nwanyi             

Man-nwoke


Female-nne (I cant vouch for the correctness of this one

Male-oke

Nne is correct.

Nwoke is 'male person'. Any male person (be he 'boy', 'son', or 'guy') is nwoke. The same goes for nwaanyi. Any female person (be she 'girl', 'daughter' or 'gal') is nwaanyi.

Agbogho and Okorobia should suffice for young adults/adolescents in that case.

odumchi:

Girl: Boy:
Agbogho. Okorobia

Woman: Man:
Inyom. Ikom

Female: Male:
Nwanyi Nwoke/Oke

Is this what you mean? I'm guessing you're trying to see if we use the same words for everything or if certain words have phased out.

Yes. This is perfect, as far as the separation goes.

ChinenyeN:

Nwoke is 'male person'. Any male person (be he 'boy', 'son', or 'guy') is nwoke. The same goes for nwaanyi. Any female person (be she 'girl', 'daughter' or 'gal') is nwaanyi.

This is what we commonly use today but I do think these are the originals. Odumchi's listing looks more in place.

Let say:

Nwoko/Nwoke- male child(baby)

or

Oko/Oke- male

Also, I noticed that people have almost completely stop saying Udushi for night. Instead, Abali has almost comletely taken over.

Who says udushi?