₦airaland Forum

The overhead tank of a mini-water project at Ukana Iba, Essien Udim Local Government, Akwa Ibom State, on Thursday collapsed, killing one person and injuring another.

Eyewitnesses told our correspondent that the water project was supposed to be inaugurated on Thursday (yesterday).

One of the eyewitnesses, Etim Eyo, said, “The men were trying to get the water project ready before the inauguration when the tank suddenly collapsed killing one person and injuring another.”

Eyo added that the victims were pumping water into the tank when it collapsed.

He said one of the victims, who climbed up the ladder to check the level of water in the tank, fell down with the tank on the person on the ground.

He added that the person on the ground died instantly while the one who fell with the tank was severely injured and taken to a hospital around the area.

He said, “Suddenly, we saw the man who had climbed the tank falling with the tank. He crashed on the man who was on the ground. The tank that was full of water smashed the man on the ground.”

Residents of the community, who were thrown into mourning, blamed the tragedy on substandard equipment used by the contractor and called on the state government to investigate the incident.

The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Etim Dickson, confirmed the incident.

He said, “The Divisional Police Officer in the area told me that one person died. The other who was critically injured is still receiving treatment at a cottage hospital there in Ukana.”

fnep2smooth: my school ( abia state poly) was on strike so i went to d village to see my people before it happen..... I wish i can write it all how it happens but am typing with my phone so its really hard.... There are many tins to say but i cant type it all..... But all i no is the woman and d driver are innocent.... D police guy has a criminal record n he always stay in d lonely road only him to collect moni from people without uniform n always with gun

tonychristopher: ust like I've observed from Agbotaen's past Ika sentences, Ika is very similar to pure Oratta dialect of Owerri. The question on my mind is "How come?". They share no direct boundary with Owerri and the people between them and Owerri speak more of Isu and Nri dialect groups.



its simlmple.... ika speaks like owerri,they ven call their king dein and in owerri oratta dialect thy call elder dee and woman daa..i was born in owerri of Anambra origin so i know this.. the issue of why dont they have a boundry is migration... i am from Amichi NNewi south.. we migrated from Aro Ndizogu(Ndi ogbuonyeoma) our dialect is ndizogu but we are far from imo so its migration...... yes ika has benin migrants but they are not benin.... my friend who from oguta even told me that ukwuani are their relatives...i was like NO WONDER UKWUANI SOUNDS LIK UGUTA. but are the close


POPL SHOULD TRAVEL AROUND.... I DONT KNOW WHY I AM SO PROUD BEEN AN IGBO BOY FROM ANAMBRA

tonychristopher: Ehinze – Language Contact: Ika Igbo and Esan pp: 104-111
Journal of Igbo Language & Linguistics (JILL) No. 3 December 2011
104
Language Contact: The Influence of the Esan Language on
Ika-Igbo
S. N. Ehinze
Abstract
Language contact phenomenon has a lot of implications among which are
bilingualism, multilingualism, borrowing, code switching, pidgin etc. Such
occurrence between Ika Igbo and Esan language has not only linguistic
implications but cultural and socio-political implications. Esan and Igbo language
have linguistic boundary like other languages. Language contact phenomenon
presupposes exchange of linguistic and cultural features between the two groups.
This work therefore is a study of the linguistic features that are amenable to
socio-linguistic analysis. It seeks to discover the extent to which Esan language
exerts linguistic effects on the Igbo language. The results of the analysis show
that the effect of the contact between the Igbo and Esan languages is bi
directional.
1. Introduction
In a speech community, when two languages come together, certain
linguistic changes or developments occur. Language contact between two
people speaking different languages can have a wide variety of outcomes.
In some cases only a few words are borrowed; in others whole new
languages may be formed. The result of such language contact differs
according to several factors, including the length and intensity of contact
between the groups, the types of social, economic and political
relationship between them, the functions which communication between
them must serve and the degree of similarity between the languages they
speak.
Ika-Igbo language has been influenced at one time or the other by
Esan language contact, resulting in varying degrees of transfer of features
from one to the other. Against this background, the need arises to
investigate the possible linguistic and cultural influences existing in IkaIgbo language due to contact with Esan language and to determine
whether it is bi-directional or uni-directional.
Esan and Igbo languages share boundary like other languages.
Urhobo-Igbo, Edo, Yoruba Languages etc. The phenomenon of language
contact presupposes exchange of linguistic and cultural features between
the two groups. This paper seeks to determine the extent to which Esan
language has influenced the different linguistic levels of the Igbo
language. It is equally important to know whether linguistic changes from Ehinze – Language Contact: Ika Igbo and Esan pp: 104-111
Journal of Igbo Language & Linguistics (JILL) No. 3 December 2011
105
the contact between Igbo and Esan affect Igbo alone or Esan alone or both
and the level of significance
2. Literature Review
The bilingual nature of some speech communities has made it
possible for two or more dialects/languages to be in existence, in such
speech communities. This has been a universal phenomenon in world
languages. The use of one dialect/language vis-à-vis other
dialects/languages derives from the attitudes of the language/dialect users.
Mbah (2005:276) in her study of sociophonology in Oba Igbo opines
that one of the factors that influence the selection of a particular variant is
contact. The degree of contact which speakers of Oba dialect have with
speakers of the more mutually intelligible dialects of Igbo is of great
significance in influencing their choice of the binary variant of the lexical
and morphological variables. It appears that contact factor works hand-inhand with the regional factor in Oba. Ugwuona (2004:23) in her study of
language choice and attitudinal differences in Nsukka Urban, discovers
that Owerre and Onitsha dialects of Igbo language are the prestigious
dialects among other dialects of Igbo including the host dialect, which is
Nsukka dialects. The reason for the dominance is that Owerre and Onitsha
dialects have historical, economic, educational and political advantage
over other dialects. In her conclusion, Ugwuona affirmed that there are
multiplicity of different Igbo dialects which influence one another. The
interaction of the different dialects has given rise to the phenomenon of
code – switching and code – mixing, among the dialects. As a result,
hardly can any educated person in Nsukka Urban engage in a sustained
discourse especially in a relaxed, informal context in Igbo language
without mixing some elements of his indigenous dialect.
Uwalaka (2001) in Igboanusi (2001:50) investigated the anguish of
Igbo as a mother tongue. Internal and external conflicts and revealed
crucial issues on factors affecting and underlying language choice
especially in Igbo as a mother tongue. One of the interesting things in her
study is the Igbo internal conflicts. Uwalaka defines language internal
conflicts as “the phenomenon in which for political, economic or socio –
economic reasons, dialects of a given language vie for ascendancy”.
Language external conflicts are cases in which for whatever reasons
language of a given country competes with one another or compete with a
foreign language or languages, she concluded. Okeke (2006) studied
language attitude and language shift in Nkpor dialect and reports that
there is complexity of dialect. stuation in Nkpor – Agu region of Nkpor.
Some of these dialects are Nsukka, Owerre, Umuahia, Udi, Abakaliki, Ehinze – Language Contact: Ika Igbo and Esan pp: 104-111
Journal of Igbo Language & Linguistics (JILL) No. 3 December 2011
106
Onitisha, Ohafia, Mbaise, Oyigbo, Ikwere, Ngwa, Oka, Nteje, Ogbinuike,
Aguata, Obosi, Ogidi, Ezeagu, Enugu, Ngwa, Izzi, Ibagwa, Efiom, Nkpor
etc. The attitudinal indifference of the language users in Nkpor dialect is
similar to that of Tamil dialect speakerss because that dialect situation in
Nkpor is complex, and these different dialects have different traditional
backgrounds as it is in Tamil.
However, he concluded that because of urbanization that came to
Nkpor – Agu through the influence of the commercial city of Onitsha, the
town is affected linguistically by urban life. Again, a lot of people
migrated to the town for the purpose of commerce and as such made the
town multidialectal (because they all came with their languages and other
Igbo dialects). This influenced the dialect greatly. From the discussions
about language contact, it comes out clear that the field of language
contact in African languages in general and Igbo language in particular
in particular has not received much attention in spite of huge
amount of data on the subject in other languages. By this token, it
becomes necessary to advance the field knowledge in the area of Igbo
Language contact.
3. Lnguistic Influences
The various Linguistic changes of the language contact exercise
between Esan and Ika-Igbo are discussed in this chapter. They are,
however, being discussed under two headings vis a viz Linguistic and
cultural influences respectively. The linguistic influences are further
categorized under such sub-headings as lexical variations, phonology and
morphology and syntax.
Lexical Variation
ENGLISH IKA-IGBO EKPON
You Yu Yuno
We Enyi Eno
All Welecha Enolecha
Many Oda Ebuke
Bird Nnunu Ununu
Dog Nkite Itite
Louse Izu Ezu
Tree Osisi Osi-h
Seed Mkpuru Akpuh
Egg Ekwaran Ekur
Tongue Ire IgheEhinze – Language Contact: Ika Igbo and Esan pp: 104-111
Journal of Igbo Language & Linguistics (JILL) No. 3 December 2011
107
Ear Nti Itin
Hair Ntutu Ururu
Moon Ifon Okegwe
Water Mmiri Umi
Ash Ntu Utu
Round Okiriokiri Ghahime
Claws Mbuo Ubuo
Although these differences in words are all free variations but they
came about due to a proposed deviation (unintentional) from normal,
which was not achieved by these Ekpon speakers. The intention to drop
the Ika-Igbo words and perhaps substitute them with that of Esan or
probably new inventions, but this was to be a hard task as they are caught
between where they were coming from and where they are going to.
However, they have only succeeded in creating sub – Ika dialect from the
main Ika dialect of Igbo language.
Phonology
In this domain, we discovered some deletion of sounds and segments
as the case may be.
m – deletion
Mme me = me
o – deletion
Okpoho Okpoh
= woman
Syllable deletion:
Osisi Osi-h
= tree
Ekwukwuo Ekhwo = leave
Ekwaran Ekun = Egg
The last sounds in these cases are aspirated. This is because most of Esan
words are aspirated and have short and very fast levels of pronunciation,
mostly followed by high tones. Most of Esan words begin and end with
high tones e.g. Ekoh (ear), eke (belly), Inyie (breast), Oria (person) aran
(blood) awa (dog), ehen (fish), ibe (liver) akon (Tooth) anyo (drink)
eloloh (eye) okppia (man) etc. All these have affected the Ekpon dialect
in terms of tone and aspiration of sounds.
In summary, we can affirm that the speakers of Ekpon have a peculiar
pronunciation which tends to influence their contiguous speech
communities.Ehinze – Language Contact: Ika Igbo and Esan pp: 104-111
Journal of Igbo Language & Linguistics (JILL) No. 3 December 2011
108
Morphology and Syntax
There are few instances of variations in sentence constructions and
production of words as evident in the following examples:
1. Enyi a nu we ebuo (Ika) enyi a nu welebuo (ekpon)
We do understand the two (languages). The difference here is the “L”
insertion in the word “welebuo”.
2. Me ri Agbor eben (Ekpon)
‘I live Agbor here’
‘Agbo ebeni ke mbi’ (Ika)
‘Agbor here I live’
I live in Agbor
The first person pronoun “M” (I) does not appear in initial position with
“Me” form but “M” form and in some cases “Mme” form. The “Me” form
in Ekpon is borrowed from the Esan language. For instance the above
sentence in Esan will read;
Agborme yie
Agbo Iive (I live in Agbor)
3. Onye Ekpon ya me wu (Ekpon)
I Ekpon that I am
Onye Ekpon ke m wu (Ika)
I Ekpon that I am
I am from Ekpon or native of Ekpon.
The “ya” and “ke” are variants as they have the same meaning. The
pronoun changes form in Ika due to position in the sentence viz a viz
initial, middle or final but it remains Constant in form at whatever
position in Ekpon which is a characteristic of Esan for e.g. will read –
“Ovwie Ekpon me khin” from (Native) Ekpon I am.
4. Cultural Influences
The socio political status of Ekpon people is one that is rooted in Esan
culture. This is a society of people whose origin is traceable to Ekpon in
Esan west local government area of Edo State while they live in Esan
South – East Local Government Area of the same Edo State but
linguistically they belong to Ika dialect of Igbo language and live at the
linguistic boundary between Ika (Igbo) and Esan languages. Their
traditional institution is rooted in Esan culture. They have no Obiship or
Eze system of leadership like Igbos but an Onogie who is appointed or
approved by the Oba of Benin. To rule with the Onogiie are Chiefs –Ehinze – Language Contact: Ika Igbo and Esan pp: 104-111
Journal of Igbo Language & Linguistics (JILL) No. 3 December 2011
109
Ogele, Ihiami etc who help the Onogie to carry out his royal functions and
tributes to the Oba who made all of them who they are in the land.
The mode of obtaining chieftaincy titles in Ekpon is synonymous
with Esan ways. Every festival taking place in Ekpon is according to Esan
tradition. For instance, ceremonies like marriage, child naming are in no
way similar to Ika culture. The burial ceremony for example which runs
for seven days in Ekpon is what obtains in Esan land contrary to four days
burial activities in Ika/Igbo culture. This shows that apart from language,
the Ekpon life style is similar to that of Esan.
5. Summary and Conclusion
Language contact phenomenon has a lot of implications among which
are bilingualism, multilingualism, borrowing code – switching, pidgin and
so on. Such incident between Igbo and Esan languages has not only
linguistic but cultural, and socio-political implications. From the study of
the influence of Esan language on Igbo due to their contact, it was
discovered in the first place that the speech community at the language
boundary between Igbo and Esan – which is Ekpon could neither identify
themselves as Ika nor Esan speakers but Ekpon speakers. However, from
the linguistic point of view they belong to Ika dialect speakers of Igbo
language.
It was discovered also that there are a lot of variations between the
Ika dialect speakers and that of the other speakers of Ika that are residing
in Agbor and its environs. For instance, there are changes in words like
“Okele” for Ekele (greeting), “Onwole” for “Onweni” (nothing). There is
change in syntax e.g. “Me ri Agbor ebeni” for “Agbor ebeni kemri (I live
in Agbor).
Culturally, there is little or no relationship with the Igbos (Ikas) as
their culture is in consonance with Esan culture. The various festivals and
rituals running from the beginning to the end of the year are synonymous
with Esan culture. Politically, they are affiliated to Esan style of
traditional leadership.

Odenigbo Aroli: Dude,stop making these bogus claims;You haven't been to Umuoji,yet. When you visit Idenmili ask them to take you to Urumkpu ndiagu so you can shut up. You claim to have visited every part of Anambra like its the first time you are lieing. If you know Anambra villages very well you won't be arguing like this. In Anambra,we believe in that old adage that say "Aku luo uno,amali onye kpalia". You haven't even seen a good 5% of Anambra wonders. Nwoken,jee suo ike na oche. Just post the danm pictures make we see. I wish I was in Naija make I show you the pictures of Alor-London.

Odenigbo Aroli: Dude,stop making these bogus claims;You haven't been to Umuoji,yet. When you visit Idenmili ask them to take you to Urumkpu ndiagu so you can shut up. You claim to have visited every part of Anambra like its the first time you are lieing. If you know Anambra villages very well you won't be arguing like this. In Anambra,we believe in that old adage that say "Aku luo uno,amali onye kpalia". You haven't even seen a good 5% of Anambra wonders. Nwoken,jee suo ike na oche. Just post the danm pictures make we see. I wish I was in Naija make I show you the pictures of Alor-London.

babyosisi: [size=14pt]I can almost guarantee that another news item will surface by tomorrow to tell us otherwise[/size]

Imo State Police Command, weekend, nabbed a bus driver at the border between Imo and Rivers States, conveying about 18 school children suspected to have been abducted.

Vanguard investigations revealed that the pupils were allegedly abducted from Umuohie Primary School and Baptist Secondary School, Umuohie, all in Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of Imo State.

According to reports, the bus driver refused to stop when he was flagged down for routine check and this fuelled suspicion among the policemen on duty.

A villager, who spoke on ground of anonymity, told Vanguard that a female teacher, the bus driver and the school children were first moved to the Divisional Police Headquarters, Umuneke, before being taken to the state Police Headquarters, Owerri.

It was gathered that the female teacher and the driver, whose names could not be ascertained at press time, were already telling the police all they knew about the movement of the school children.

Meantime, residents of the area have appealed to security agencies in the state to extend their surveillance to the border road, which they described as "very lonely."

According to them, the road was gradually turning into a get-away route for criminals operating across the border communities.

They particularly named the Umuneke-Elele-Obike-Eche road which is called "Abuja Expressway" as prone to criminal activities and urged the authorities to beef up security along the road.

slimghost: Please am not in the mood for this. The chap with inferiority complex understands my post.

kingthreat: everywhere has prostitutes. But the desperation of Ibo girls in SE makes prostitution so alarming. No tribal talk here but lets face the facts. 70% Ibo girls are willing to sell their bodies for money.

mike404: HAHAHA YOU MUST BE HIGH ON CODEINE

EASTSIDAZ: Leading who and who?? You are pathetic..

Maybe in commercial se.x hawking. There is no single private investor in Imo state. Government is the highest and only employer of labor. The state is in a huge mess. Its pitiable.

So what made you think that standard of living is high in a state that only has charlets for jobless youths?

The last I checked imo state people are migrating to other neighboring states of Rivers, Anambra, Enugu etc without nobody going to Imo state either to live nor to work. Figure it out.

ketoprofen: Abagworo, i wu disgreace. o kwa ezigbo disgrace. ya bu i mepere ya bu thread, ka i kojoo Anambra. o tego aka mu bidoro notice we ya bu ihe. o nwere ihe na eme gi n'isi? so, a anyachaa ndi nuu, anyakwuo gi?

i ga agbadokwa anya o

EASTSIDAZ: Hahaha

I don't blame them most time, because its as a result of poverty inherent in their state.

pazienza: Believe me,i am not one of those that go around preaching about nri being the head and purest of igbos,cos none of that make sense to me. There is nothing like pure and im pure igbo.



Why can't you guys down south take this same disposition?

ak47mann: I challenge Igbo businessmen to beat what I have done in Igboland’

An igbo successful woman announced,here is her crip in ebony state

Les: you lie, look at the roads,very muddy and untarred... But come to Anambra state, my village in Idemmili to be precised, almost if not all the roads are tarred and then see houses, no tok am again o..