₦airaland Forum

IamAtribalist:
glorified mounds (aka short pyramids) are a dime a dozen - they are scattered all across the world. They mean nothing. Don't take it personal. I was not that impressed with the one found in Scotland a few years back either. Yes. No evidence of the amala-eaters building tall mounds but again maybe they didn't see the point. Neither did the Bini empire (which you also glorified) have any record of one either - do you still see them as a significant civilization since they didn't have the akpu-peoples 'pyramids?' My point is a couple of mounds here and there does NOT a civilization make. No empire without a civilization, period. The amala people and Bini people had empires hence definite proof of civilization. The akpu-people on the other hand do NOT have convincing proof of precolonial civilization. This is nothing personal just historical facts.

The Nubians of Sudan also built pyramids of mounds/red sand which were as well re-built recently to regain their original shape. The same Nubians that constructed solid pyramids of Sudan. The Igbo case should not be any different.

bigfrancis21:
You do know that tons of Yorubas out there believe in that stuff right?

Of course I don't believe in that fairy tale. I deal with hard facts, not some fairy tale borne out by uneducated skeptics.

Probably -they are amala eaters what did you expect? What is even worst is when akpu-eaters claim to be a lost tribe of Israel - the urge to be anything but African is strong in those ones. What a bunch of deluded fools. But enough about the cone-heads and their flatt -head chest beating compatriots. I think a better understanding of the Nok culture can shed more light into the history of the origins of current day Nigerians. Unfortunately, we have no indication of the language they spoke, and the current Bini language tend to be original to the South South. My guess is that the key to the language of the Noks might actually lie with Igalla - I think this should be studied.

bigfrancis21:
The Nubians of Sudan also built pyramids of mounds/red sand which were as well re-built recently to regain their original shape. The same Nubians that constructed solid pyramids of Sudan. The Igbo case should not be any different.

The akpu-eaters mounds are nothing (absolutely) like the pyramids of Sudan - lets not get carried away here. Nobody will consider the ancient Sudanese as significant builders if all they had was mounds of red sand - lets be serious here. The Zimbabwean mounds are even far superior to the chest-beaters' mud work. Its like comparing a wooden toy car to a Ferrari - not close.

Or maybe who knows, my theory would have been taken more seriously had it been written by a white professor from Stanford University. Maybe, people would then begin to laud his work as 'good research' deserving of worthy acclaim.

Ok

bigfrancis21:
Or maybe who knows, my theory would have been taken more seriously had it been written by a white professor from Stanford University. Maybe, people would then begin to laud his work as 'good research' deserving of worthy acclaim.

dude your theory is lacking in logic and basic ethnography. We could switch Igbo for Yoruba and it would still be as 'convincing' as the other respondent mentioned. Yoruba can never be 'bastardized' Igbo and vice versa. What you lack is an inability to question you own assumptions (and that's all you've got) and place them in the light of constructive criticism from your fellow NLers.

bigfrancis21:
Or maybe who knows, my theory would have been taken more seriously had it been written by a white professor from Stanford University. Maybe, people would then begin to laud his work as 'good research' deserving of worthy acclaim.

Your theory would be taken seriously by Radoillo if you were an experienced researcher who had a PhD in Linguistics rather than a BSC in Engineering.

And I didn't mention any white professor here. Yes, white linguists like Professor Armstrong and Roger Blench have made immense contributions to Nigerian Languages studies. I won't overlook their work because they have the 'wrong' skin colour. I judge their work on its scholarly merit. But more importantly there are Nigerian linguists too numerous to mention (Arokoyo, Ekugbe, Aniche-Ohiri, Adetugbo, Aremo, etc, all PhDs in Linguistics) whose researches also lend support to what I've been saying.

The only scholar whose name I've mentioned on this thread, Bolaji Aremo, is not a white professor. Whoever put the plucked-from-the-sky idea in your head that I only accept information if it came from white men? I consider that an insult.

I'm also going to ignore the insult in that 'celebrating mediocrity' remark. I'm amused.

Carry on doing what you do - which is making us look like dumbasses while thinking you are doing us a good service.

this guy iamatribalist is really smart in a dumb way. a specialist in reverse psychology

I don't really believe all these Igbo is a spin off from language a or b theory.most Nigerian languages developed distinctly. proximity is the main reason for the few similarities we're seeing today.

Radoillo:
Your theory would be taken seriously by Radoillo if you were an experienced researcher who had a PhD in Linguistics rather than a BSC in Engineering.

And I didn't mention any white professor here. Yes, white linguists like Professor Armstrong and Roger Blench have made immense contributions to Nigerian Languages studies. I won't overlook their work because they have the 'wrong' skin colour. I judge their work on its scholarly merit. But more importantly there are Nigerian linguists too numerous to mention (Arokoyo, Ekugbe, Aniche-Ohiri, Adetugbo, Aremo, etc, all PhDs in Linguistics) whose researches also lend support to what I've been saying.

The only scholar whose name I've mentioned on this thread, Bolaji Aremo, is not a white professor. Whoever put the plucked-from-the-sky idea in your head that I only accept information if it came from white men? I consider that an insult.

I'm also going to ignore the insult in that 'celebrating mediocrity' remark. I'm amused.

Carry on doing what you do - which is making us look like dumbasses while thinking you are doing us a good service.

I didn't mean to insult you, it was only a joke. I have modified my comment. My bad.

However, I still maintain Africans tend to hold in higher regard theories and research from the European world than from Africans. This is a trend many will easily concur with me.

All it takes to establish my theory as fact is very little, very little. The search for a so-called proto-languuage has proven abortive - a mere assumption taken from a European trend. Languages often develop from each other to become standalone languages of themselves. It is not a new thing in our world today.

I do think that we need to open our minds to a world of possibilities and other possible ways by which things may have taken place.

IamAtribalist:
dude your theory is lacking in logic and basic ethnography. We could switch Igbo for Yoruba and it would still be as 'convincing' as the other respondent mentioned. Yoruba can never be 'bastardized' Igbo and vice versa. What you lack is an inability to question you own assumptions (and that's all you've got) and place them in the light of constructive criticism from your fellow NLers.

@bold...it is possible. Never say never.

The reverse may likely not be possible because children languages are often not 'heavier' in vocabulary or complex in word formation than their parent language or if there were to exist such proto-language, Igbo language would be much closer to this language than Yoruba or Idoma. This is something I didn't just wake up yesterday to write but a trend I have noticed in Igbo, Igala and Yoruba for a while now that I have researched deeper into and came across the Latin vs children languages, which happens to be a good example, and studied the word roots and formations in these language.

These are findings from some research made so far, not just hearsay.

If you think the reverse is possible, you would need to back it up with evidence explaining why you think it is so. So far, you haven't provided any factual objections to my theory though, only seeming to concentrate around the pyramid issue so far, but yet referring to my theory as 'lacking in logic and basic ethnography' without explaining why you think it is so.

bigfrancis21:
Bia nwoke m, who taught you how to speak Igbo?

That was some good Igbo up there. Though it was sounding like Ikwerre Igbo...'omu Chineke' (umu chineke)!

LOL Bigfrancis, you are missing by leaving christian fold! It is where languages are learnt in the beauty of devotion. Asusu igbo wu ihe chineke kele. I speak gentle igbo, some says it resemble ikwerre igbo just as you said, lol. Seriously, 'omu' is my townspeople's word for 'child' just like the igbos. Most of all, the Igbos have ibeku (ohafia), we have ibeku in my town too.

Radoillo:
Well, this is one heck of a speculation. The linguistic evidence doesn't quite support this. What linguistic evidence suggests is that Igbo and Yoruba (plus Idoma, Nupe, Edo, etc) are sister languages that diverged from a common ancestor-language, i.e., one sister language did not grow out of the other (Igbo did not grow out Yoruba, Nupe did not grow out of Idoma, etc, but all sprang apart from this common linguistic ancestor.)

Illustrating with an European example: French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian are also sister-languages that developed out of one proto-language. This doesn't mean that Italian grew out of Spanish, or that Romanian is a 'spin-off' of archaic French. They all separately grew out of one proto-language.

Ah Radoillo, bigfrancis is igbo supremacist since creation, give him a cross and ask for it the next moment, he gives you a swastica. I love him though, if you read his post you can always deduce intellect, although to the glory of igbo.

bigfrancis21:
You haven't provided any factual objections to my theory though, only seeming to concentrate around the pyramid issue so far, yet referring to my theory as 'lacking in logic and basic ethnography'. I am well versed in Nigerian languages and culture and left the country on 2013 as an adult. Everything is still clear in my mind.

Which of your 'theories' are you talking about?

A. That the Yoruba language is an up shoot of the Igbo language OR

B. That a glorified mound found somewhere in Enugu is proof of an Igbo civilization on par with the Oyo Civilization.

Note I put theories in quote. A theory, from a scientific point of view, is more than a whimsical idea. It is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the the world that is acquired through the scientific method and repeatedly tested and confirmed through observation and experimentation. In case (B) Based on cursory examination of both languages, one can easily see that you are embarking on a pointless endeavor. There are tons of unrelated languages across the world who share similar linguist traits but no linguist of any worthy reputation has ever used that as a conclusive link of one the language been the off shoot of the other. The most you can claim is that there is a common origin which puts languages like Igalla, Yoruba, Igbo etc in the SAME 'pot.' However, mistaking common origin with 'mother-daughter' relationship is absolute ethnographic fallacy.

Concerning (A) the existence of a mound ('pyramid') and a few intricately designed pottery in ONE location in Enugu does NOT a precolonial civilization make. My point been this is definitely not conclusive. Since these artefacts were found virtually in the same location and not widespread in the region, it probably suggests the remnants of trade with a more advanced society and NOT evidence of an old Igbo civilization. However, for the Oyo and Bini apart from the very widespread artefacts across their respective regions they also had empires which is impossible without some form of socio-political civilization of some sort. Hence I showed the fallacy is your claim with clearly understood examples.

Whenever you come up with an idea (however silly or baseless) the burden of proof is ON YOU, not those who find your ideas worthless. You sound like the theist who claims there is a God but when pushed for proof demands you proof there is NO GOD. How can one prove a negative. Again, I think you are taking this too personal. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Holding on to failed ideas smacks of a very small mind - don't go down that route, dude.

Antivirus92:
this guy iamatribalist is really smart in a dumb way. a specialist in reverse psychology

Buhahaha, this guy ehn, your own seperatism is a religion.

absoluteSuccess:
LOL Bigfrancis, you are missing by leaving christian fold! It is where languages are learnt in the beauty of devotion. Asusu igbo wu ihe chineke kele. I speak gentle igbo, some says it resemble ikwerre igbo just as you said, lol. Seriously, 'omu' is my townspeople's word for 'child' just like the igbos. Most of all, the Igbos have ibeku (ohafia), we have ibeku in my town too.

Nice. 'Umu' in Igbo refers 'children' and 'nwa/nwo' refers to 'child'.

Where are you from?

absoluteSuccess:
Buhahaha, this guy ehn, your own seperatism is a religion.

how? I just said the truth

bigfrancis21:
Nice. Umu in Igbo refers 'children' and nwa/nwo refers to 'child'.
Where are you from?

From Ado-Odo Ota LGA, Ogun State. I be omo Ogun.

Why is this even a discussion? It's long since been credibly established that Igbo and Yoruba are in the same language family as having developed from an earlier, proto language. I swear, Nigerians are notoriously poor scholars, for a people who make so much noise over education.

absoluteSuccess:
From Ado-Odo Ota LGA, Ogun State. I be omo Ogun.

Interesting egbon mi. Bawoni?

If there is this just one sentence I picked from a Yoruba movie I watched during my IT in Lagos in 2011 it is, mo ti fe ma lo (I want to start going). The sentence hasn't skipped my mind since then.

ChinenyeN:
Why is this even a discussion? It's long since been credibly established that Igbo and Yoruba are in the same language family as having developed from an earlier, proto language. I swear, Nigerians are notoriously poor scholars, for a people who make so much noise over education.

So you are insinuating that further studies or research cannot be made on an existing one or what?

bigfrancis21:
@bold...it is possible. Never say never.

The reverse may likely not be possible because children languages are often not 'heavier' in vocabulary or complex in word formation than their parent language or if there were to exist such proto-language, Igbo language would be much closer to this language than Yoruba or Idoma. This is something I didn't just wake up yesterday to write but a trend I have noticed in Igbo, Igala and Yoruba for a while now that I have researched deeper into and came across the Latin vs children languages, which happens to be a good example, and studied the word roots and formations in these language.

These are findings from some research made so far, not just hearsay.


If you think the reverse is possible, you would need to back it up with evidence explaining why you think it is so. So far, you haven't provided any factual objections to my theory though, only seeming to concentrate around the pyramid issue so far, but yet referring to my theory as 'lacking in logic and basic ethnography' without explaining why you think it is so.

'never say never' (It sounds like someone who wants something so bad and have thrown away every sense of objectivity). I suggest you go back to the books and re-learn basic ethnography/linguistics. My point is your ideas are wack since the reverse (Yoruba 'birth' Igbo) is as 'legitimate' as your baseless musings. Neither is based on linguistic logic or common knowledge of ethnography. You are forcing the issue. For example its a linguistic fact that Igalla is older than both (Yoruba (as spoken in Nigeria) and Igbo ) languages but yet no linguist worth his intellectual weight in gold would suggest an Igalla parentage for anyone of them. You putting the proverbial cart before the horse when you suggest that because Igbo is a more complicated language than Yoruba ( mere opinion if you ask me) then it fathered the language. That is like saying a 27 year old who just got his PhD is now older than anyone he meets who has a Masters degree or less. This is absolute nonsense and the fact that you are incapable of spotting this obvious fallacy is quite alarming to say the least. Read my response to you demand for proof and convince yourself that, in fact, you have no intellectual legs to stand on.

absoluteSuccess:
Ah Radoillo, bigfrancis is igbo supremacist since creation, give him a cross and ask for it the next moment, he gives you a swastica. I love him though, if you read his post you can always deduce intellect, although to the glory of igbo.

so he is an akpu-eater - I didn't realize that. That explains his inability to see the flaws in his now apparent Igbo-centric views of the origin of Nigerian languages. Mtcheeeeeeeeeew.

IamAtribalist:
'never say never' (It sounds like someone who wants something so bad and have thrown away every sense of objectivity). I suggest you go back to the books and re-learn basic ethnography/linguistics. My point is your ideas are wack since the reverse (Yoruba 'birth' Igbo) is as 'legitimate' as your baseless musings. Neither is based on linguistic logic or common knowledge of ethnography. You are forcing the issue. For example its a linguistic fact that Igalla is older than both (Yoruba (as spoken in Nigeria) and Igbo ) languages but yet no linguist worth his intellectual weight in gold would suggest an Igalla parentage for anyone of them. You putting the proverbial cart before the horse when you suggest that because Igbo is a more complicated language than Yoruba ( mere opinion if you ask me) then it fathered the language. That is like saying a 27 year old who just got his PhD is now older than anyone he meets who has a Masters degree or less. This is absolute nonsense and the fact that you are incapable of spotting this obvious fallacy is quite alarming to say the least. Read my response to you demand for proof and convince yourself that, in fact, you have no intellectual legs to stand on.

You need to take a break and relax. You are getting worked up over the issue. You are free to publish your theories so far as you come up with tangible evidence.

Did you know that the ancient Egyptian language and Igbo could be related or ancient Egyptian derived from Igbo language? Aha! I know you think I just made this up! Anyway, this was proposed by late Catherine Acholonu, a PhD holder by the way, who conducted her research to find similarities between both languages. Mind you, she did not assume a proto-language for Igbo and ancient Egyptian language, which some so-called researchers now are wont to do. From her evidence she proposed that one language may have derived from the other.

Or maybe in the same vein some so-called researcher in the future will study Igbo and Ekpeye languages in 200 years and decide to assume a proto-language for both languages.

Now tell me you are not going to try to dismiss her work below because you are just hearing it for the first time or it sounds 'wack' to you?

IamAtribalist:
so he is an akpu-eater - I didn't realize that. That explains his inability to see the flaws in his now apparent Igbo-centric views of the origin of Nigerian languages. Mtcheeeeeeeeeew.

My views may not be so Igbo-centric after all. Please read below:

WEST-AFRICAN ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE: THE CASE OF IGBO–DISCUSSIONS ON A NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ON THE WEST AFRICAN ORIGIN OF MODERN LANGUAGES

Professor Catherine Acholonu

Presented at the Conference on Indigenous Knowledge and the Challenges of the 21st Century, Institute of African Studies, UNN, Nsukka.

ABSTRACT

This paper was elicited by a recent article in the world renowned New York Times newspaper published on April, 14th, 2011, authored by Nicholas Wade under the title: “Phonetic Clues Hint Language is Africa-Born” (see below).

“Phonetic Clues Hint Language Is Africa-Born”
By NICHOLAS WADE
An Article Published in New York Times, April 14, 2011

A researcher analyzing the sounds in languages spoken around the world has detected an ancient signal that points to southern Africa (meaning Sub-Sahara) as the place where modern human language originated. The finding fits well with the evidence from fossil skulls and DNA that modern humans originated in Africa. The detection of such an ancient signal in language is surprising. Because words change so rapidly, many linguists think that languages cannot be traced very far back in time. The oldest language tree so far reconstructed, that of the Indo-European family, which includes English, goes back 9,000 years at most.

Quentin D. Atkinson, a biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, has shattered this time barrier, if his claim is correct, by looking not at words but at phonemes — the consonants, vowels and tones that are the simplest elements of language. Dr. Atkinson, an expert at applying mathematical methods to linguistics, has found a simple but striking pattern in some 500 languages spoken throughout the world: A language area uses fewer phonemes the farther that early humans had to travel from Africa to reach it.

Some of the click-using languages of Africa have more than 100 phonemes, whereas Hawaiian, toward the far end of the human migration route out of Africa, has only 13. English has about 45 phonemes. This pattern of decreasing diversity with distance, similar to the well-established decrease in genetic diversity with distance from Africa, implies that the origin of modern human language is in the region of southwestern Africa, Dr. Atkinson says in an article published on Thursday in the journal Science.

Language is at least 50,000 years old, the date that modern humans dispersed from Africa, and some experts say it is at least 100,000 years old. Dr. Atkinson, if his work is correct, is picking up a distant echo from this far back in time….Dr. Atkinson is one of several biologists who have started applying to historical linguistics the sophisticated statistical methods developed for constructing genetic trees based on DNA sequences. Some linguists have regarded these efforts with suspicion.

In 2003 Dr. Atkinson and Russell Gray, another biologist at the University of Auckland, reconstructed the tree of Indo-European languages with a DNA tree-drawing method called Bayesian phylogeny. The tree indicated that Indo-European was much older than historical linguists had estimated and hence favored the theory that the language family had diversified with the spread of agriculture some 10,000 years ago, not with a military invasion by steppe people some 6,000 years ago, the idea favored by most historical linguists Dr. Atkinson’s finding fits with other evidence about the origins of language. The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert belong to one of the earliest branches of the genetic tree based on human mitochondrial DNA. Their languages belong to a family known as Khoisan and include many click sounds, which seem to be a very ancient feature of language. And they live in southern Africa, which Dr. Atkinson’s calculations point to as the origin of language. But whether Khoisan is closest to some ancestral form of language “is not something my method can speak to,” Dr. Atkinson said.

A recent finding that the number of phonemes in a language increases with the number of people who speak it prompted his study. This gave him the idea that phoneme diversity would increase as a population grew, but would fall again when a small group split off and migrated away from the parent group. Such a continual budding process, which is the way the first modern humans expanded around the world, is known to produce what biologists call a serial founder effect. Each time a smaller group moves away, there is a reduction in its genetic diversity. The reduction in phonemic diversity over increasing distances from Africa, as seen by Dr. Atkinson, parallels the reduction in genetic diversity already recorded by biologists. For either kind of reduction in diversity to occur, the population budding process must be rapid, or diversity will build up again. This implies that the human expansion out of Africa was very rapid at each stage. The acquisition of modern language, or the technology it made possible, may have prompted the expansion, Dr. Atkinson said.

What is so remarkable about this work is that it shows language doesn’t change all that fast, rather it retains a signal of its ancestry over tens of thousands of years,” said Mark Pagel, a biologist at the University of Reading in England who advised Dr. Atkinson. Dr. Pagel sees language as central to human expansion across the globe. “Language was our secret weapon, and as soon we got language we became a really dangerous species,” he said.

INTRODUCTION

In several recent articles (see www.carcafriculture.org) presented by the Catherine Acholonu Research Center at various Fora including the 2011 Igbo Studies Association Conference, Howard University, Washington DC, USA; the 2010 World Igbo Congress, Philadelphia, USA and a recent lecture at the African Studies Center, University of Nigeria, we have continued to emphasize the thesis of an Igbo origin of language, argued most convincingly in volumes 2 and 3 of the African Adam Trilogy: They Lived Before Adam: Pre-historic Origins of the Igbo, The Never Been Ruled (2009) and The Lost Testament of the Ancestors of Adam: Unearthing Heliopolis/Igbo Ukwu – The Celestial City of the Gods of Egypt and Dravidian India (2010).

This recent article in New York Times, by Nicholas Wade ex-raying new research findings that use mathematical methods of biological DNA analyses to analyze phoneme frequencies (frequencies of sounds and tones of vowels and consonants) as they occur in various distant languages of the world to determine language origins, has not only lend much weight to our own conclusions, but it has made the Igbo language and cultural area a subject for international linguistic and historical discourse.

The conclusion by the Atkinson research team that language originated in the Western part of Sub-Saharan Africa supports our own thesis of an Igbo origin of languages because Igbo language is based in the Western part of Sub-Saharan Africa. Also the conclusion that this ancient mother-language left Africa during the earliest ‘Out of Africa’ migrations is the same as our own conclusions that Homo Erectus left Africa with a Language and a Culture intact, and not, as animal-like ‘primitive man’. Our thesis that the San (Khoisan) Bushmen of the Kalahari were among the earliest carriers of this Proto-Proto-Igbo mother tongue, was also confirmed in the Atkinson research findings.

We therefore call on Igbo scholars worldwide to seize upon this added scientific evidence provided by Dr. Atkinson’s research[1] to bring global research interest/funding to Igbo studies to save it from extinction and to restore its pride of place as the mother language of humankind. This will have powerful ripple effects on the study and development of Igbo culture, Igbo identity and on the restoration of the soul-essence of Igbo civilization as the mother of world civilizations, for as Dr. Mark Pegel, a biologist at the university of Reading, England, argues (see above), “language is central to human expansion across the globe” and as such central to human civilization.

EVIDENCE FROM PRE-HISTORY BACKING UP AN IGBO ORIGIN OF HUMANKIND, LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

Our claims to an Igbo origin of language, culture and civilization are not based on spoken language alone, but on the equally compelling fact that among the archaeological discoveries at Igbo Ukwu by British archaeologist Thurstan Shaw, were several inscriptions on pottery and bronze, which when compared with ancient Middle Eastern inscriptions (Egyptian and Cretan Hieroglyphics, Hittite, Old Phoenician, Old Sumerian, Proto-Palestinian, etc)[2] show several striking similarities. This shows that there was a civilization of note, based in Igbo land, now lost, which might have birthed the Middle Eastern civilizations and writing systems, but also their spoken languages.

Equally compelling is the discovery of an Early, Middle and Late Stone Age Homo Erectus (the ancestor of Homo Sapiens Sapiens or Modern Man) habitation in Ugwuele, Isuikwuato, Abia State in Igbo land in the early seventies by a team of archaeologists from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka[3]. This adds tons of weight to an Igbo origin of the ‘Out of Africa’ migrations of Early Man; but to also an Igbo origin of human language and culture; while the Igbo Ukwu inscriptions backed up by the mythologies and written records of the Egyptians, Sumerians, Dravidians, Hebrews and Kwa peoples of Nigeria lend credence to a Post-Deluge Kwa-Igbo origin of civilization[4].

INDELIBLE SIGNALS OF THE MOTHER-LANGUAGE ARE RETAINED THROUGH THOUSANDS OF YEARS

Dr Pegel noted[5], most interestingly, that “What’s so remarkable about this (Atkinson’s) work is that it shows language doesn’t change all that fast — it retains a signal of its ancestry over tens of thousands of years”. What we are about to demonstrate in this article is how signals of Igbo language has been retained in some of the most ancient as well as the most modern languages (and cultures) of the world, proving without any shadow of doubt that the Igbo was the mother of languages such as Sanskrit, Egyptian, Sumerian, English and Semitic languages[6], or at least that Igbo is the longest surviving child of a global mother language spoken by gods and men alike.

Linguists believe that when words from two or more separate languages share similarities in sound and meaning, it is a sign of borrowing or common origin.[7] Using this method, we have found hundreds of words of similar sounds and meanings with those of Igbo language across several languages of the globe, showing, indeed that signals of the mother language are retained “through tens of thousands of years”. In fact we gave over-weighing evidence in the Adam Trilogy[8] that every language retains traces of cultural and historical experiences it has lived through in the course of millennia. We even found several traces that Igbo was the language spoken by God when he ‘spoke’ creation into being and that it was the language spoken by the first Homo Sapiens family – Adam’s.[9]

Here we list words from diverse ancient and modern languages that have retained Igbo signals in the form of common sounds and meanings with the mother language, and in some cases, powerful evidence of having originated in an Igbo cultural environment.

EGYPTIAN WORDS OF IGBO ORIGIN

The Egyptian word for ‘gods’ is NTR or Neter. It means ‘Guardian or Watcher’. Its Igbo equivalent/original is Onetara (meaning – ‘He who guards and watches’ over a thing on behalf of someone else). The Igbo original is more explicit, for it shows that these lesser gods are answerable to a Higher Being.

The highest and oldest of the known gods of Egypt was Ptah. He was the father of all the other gods. His name, Ptah, means in Egyptian, ‘He who fashions things by carving and opening up”.[10] The Igbo original of this word is Okpu-atu (meaning ‘He who moulds/fashions things by carving and opening up’. Igbo word tuo/atu means both ‘to carve and to open a hole’). Ptah’s rule over Egypt began as early as 21,000 BC! If his name and the collective name for the gods of Egypt, Neter, were Igbo in origin, it implies that an ancient civilization of Igbo extraction existed in West Africa, where the gods, and not men ruled, by at least 22,000 BC; that Egypt was an originally Igbo-speaking civilization and that early Egyptians were Igbos.[11] These linguistic pieces of evidence suggest that the earliest Egyptian civilization (the time when gods and not men ruled Egypt) before Pharaohnic rule began in 3,100 BC was based in West Africa and not in North Africa – the civilization, now lost to which the Igbo Ukwu archaeological findings belong.[12] We have found several pieces of evidence supporting this assertion which will be published in subsequent articles.

Ptah’s son was called Ra, meaning ‘Sun/Daylight’. It’s Igbo original was Ora (which in Afa – the cult language of Igbo native priests, also meant ‘Sun/daylight’).

The grandson of Ra was called Osiris by the Greeks and Asar by the Egyptians. Osiris’ was associated with the number ‘seven’. No one knows the meaning of his name in Egypt[13], but in Igbo language Asaa means ‘seven’!

The son of Osiris was called Horus. This is a Greek version of a native Egyptian word Heru, which means ‘Face’, as in ‘Face of the Sun’. Its Igbo original is Iru – ‘Face’. Horus was known as the Lord of the Horizon. The Horizon being known to the Egyptians as the land of the Rising Sun, a place located in the Southwestern direction from Egypt - the original mythological home of the gods of Egypt. Our analyses shows that this land of the Rising sun was known in several other world mythologies as the Center/Navel of the Earth. The actual cartographical center of the earth, as indicated in all old maps of the world is ‘Median Biafra’, for median means ‘Center’. Biafra is the ancient name for the place now known as Igbo land. It’s location on world maps shows that Igbo land was the true ‘navel of the earth’. Igbo land was thus, that Land of the Rising Sun/that Horizon Land to which Egyptian mythologies and pyramid records refer as the Heaven of the Egyptians. The international word ‘Horizon’ is thus derived from the name ‘Horus’, which in itself is derived from Igbo word Iru – ‘Face of the Sun’. To demonstrate their genetic claim to being the true god-men who lived in this land of the gods, Igbo initiates marked themselves with the symbol of the sun – ichi, a word derived from another name of the Sun/daylight, chi, which is also the name of the spirit of God in Man and from which originated the Greek word Christ[14].

Egypt’s most ancient god is called Amun/Amen/Ammun. He is a god residing under the earth and his name implies ‘Hidden inside the bowels of Earth’. According to Martin Bernal[15] the word Amen is derived from imn which is pronounced Amana. These two words have Igbo origins. Igbo equivalent of imn (Egyptian words are usually not written with vowels) is ime ana, and means ‘inside the earth’, while amana is equally an Igbo word referring to the Earth religion, further supporting an originally Igbo-based Egyptian religion and civilization.

Egyptian words with Igbo sounds and meanings are legion. They include but are not limited to the following:
Egyptian: Musi/mose/msi – ‘to give birth’ (Igbo – mmusi ‘to give birth to many children’). From this word is derived names of Pharaohs such as Thoth-mose (‘Born of Thoth’), Rameses (‘Descended from Ra’), etc. The fact that many pharaohs of Egypt bear this word in their names would tend to add weight to an Igbo origin of Egyptian civilization and divinities.

Egyptian: tuf - ‘to throw away’ (Igbo: tufuo – ‘to throw away’)

Egyptian: akhu – ‘fire/light’ (Igbo: oku – ‘fire/light’). Akhu is the sacred vernacular name for the Giza Pyramid – one of the greatest wonders of the world. Its native Igbo name implies that an Igbo-speaking team of ancient engineers possibly constructed it, especially because as we demonstrated in They Lived Before Adam, many key words in Egyptian Engineering lexicon are cognates of Igbo language.

Egyptian: aru - ‘body/form’ (Igbo: aru - ‘body’)

Egyptian: ba - ‘heart’(Igbo: obi – ‘heart’)

Egyptian: Busiris ‘House of Osiris’ (Igbo/Nri/Nsukka dialect: ‘Obu Osiris’ – ‘House of Osiris’).

Egypt was known as ‘Black land’. Probably the word ‘Egypt’ could have been derived from the Igbo word Ojikputu, which means ‘Pitch Black’ (Orlu dialect)

Egyptian: hike – ‘power/strength’ (Igbo – ike – ‘power/strength’

Egyptian - hekau – ‘word of power’ (Igbo - ike okwu – ‘word of power’)

Eguptian xut/pronounced kut ‘sunrise’ (Igbo ukutu ‘dawn’ – Orlu dialect)

Egyptian sa ‘to shine’ (Igbo saa ‘to shine’ - Orlu dialect)

Egyptian satu ‘shine down’ (Igbo satuo – ‘ shine down’ - Orlu dialect)

Egyptian tua ‘glorify’ (Igbo too ‘glorify’ Orlu dialect)

Egyptian hru ‘the day dawns’ (Igbo horo ‘the day dawns’- Orlu dialect)

Egyptian xerkert (pronounced kirkir) ‘pieces’ (Igbo kirikiri ‘pieces’ - Orlu dialect

Egyptian transitive –k ‘you’ Igbo transitive –k ‘you’ as in si ku - ‘say to you’ - Nsukka dialect).

Egyptian borrowings from Igbo are in two groups: words borrowed from Orlu/Okigwe dialectal family are far older in chronological time that those borrowed from the Anambra dialectal family since Orlu/Okigwe are held by Igbo historians[16] to belong to the autochthonous (non-migrant descendants of Homo Erectus) group. This implies that the earliest roots of Egyptian civilization, when the gods and not men ruled Egypt, began among the autochthons of Igbo land, but did not end there. Latter-day migrant Igbo priest-kings continued to exert influences in Pharaohnic Egyptian civilization.[17]

http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/igbo/westafricanorigin.htm

bigfrancis21:
Interesting egbon mi. Bawoni?

If there is this just one sentence I picked from a Yoruba movie I watched during my IT in Lagos in 2011, it is mo ti fe ma lo (I want to start going). The sentence hasn't skipped my mind since then.

Bigfrancis, you so very intelligent (with thousand packs of antics). One love, thats how it should be. As to your Yoruba, you can do better. You have a secret and undeniable love for Yoruba Nwanem. I have equal love for my Igbo brothers.

bigfrancis21:
You need to take a break and relax. You are getting worked up over the issue. You are free to publish your theories so far as you come up with tangible evidence.

Did you know that the ancient Egyptian language and Igbo could be related or ancient Egyptian derived from Igbo language? Aha! I know you think I just made this up! Anyway, this was proposed by late Catherine Acholonu, a PhD holder by the way, who conducted her research to find similarities between both languages.

Now tell me you are not going to try to dismiss her work below because you are just hearing it for the first time or it sounds 'wack' to you?

Worked up? Not likely. I am here sipping my morning tea - I couldn't be more relaxed. This is 'light' weight stuff to me. Stop deflecting - the subject is YOUR theories which I have debunked severely. In my opinion, the closest West African languages to ancient Egyptian are the Ghanaian Ewe language and the amala eaters language. Yet it would be intellectually lazy to link them directly to Egypt. My cursory look of your akpu-eating chest beating PhD holder's Igbo-Egypt link suggests another one of those Igbo-Israel origin like stories that defy logic and common sense. I will try to look a little bit more into her work just to keep an open mind. However, I am ready to wager that Ewe and Yoruba are far more similar to ancient Egyptian than Igbo. YET it would be premature to draw a link based on this alone as your 'esteemed' akpu-eating PostDoc appears to be doing.

IamAtribalist:
so he is an akpu-eater - I didn't realize that. That explains his inability to see the flaws in his now apparent Igbo-centric views of the origin of Nigerian languages. Mtcheeeeeeeeeew.

I dont mean it that way, bigfrancis has proves to his claims, only that he uses proves that favor his side of an argument often that all his claims become just too perfect. Problems with perfect claim is, fringe ideas are suppressed. But such fringe ideas can be potent.

bigfrancis21:
My views may not be so Igbo-centric after all. Please read below:



http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/igbo/westafricanorigin.htm

By the way the first part of your word vomit suggests a propaganda to save Igbo language from extinction. Any suggestion that Igbo is the oldest African language is ABSOLUTELY laughable. Lets be serious here and stop posting garbage just for the sake of posting.

bigfrancis21:
So you are insinuating that further studies or research cannot be made on an existing one or what?

You're the one putting words in my mouth. I don't make insinuations. In fact, I make distinct efforts to ensure that I my statements are explicit and unambiguous. If there are any inferences being made, we can rest assured that they are not being made by me. With that said, I believe research and the pursuit of knowledge to be a perpetual activity, regardless of what someone thinks they already know. I also believe speculation to be generally healthy, as a thought exercise. However, I also distinguish between sound and unsound speculation, especially in the face of contradictory evidence.

absoluteSuccess:
I dont mean it that way, bigfrancis has proves to his claims, only that he uses proves that favor his side of an argument often that all his claims become just too perfect. Problems with perfect claim is, fringe ideas are suppressed. But such fringe ideas can be potent.

He seems to be more of a copy and paste merchant. Not particularly capable of much critical analysis. He engages in one sided arguments - he is more of a lawyer than a scientific intellect. Too biased to engage in serious analytical thought. Nevertheless, its interesting to see you (an amala-eater) getting along with an akpu-eater.

IamAtribalist:
Worked up? Not likely. I am here sipping my morning tea - I couldn't be more relaxed. This is 'light' weight stuff to me. Stop deflecting - the subject is YOUR theories which I have debunked severely. In my opinion, the closest West African languages to ancient Egyptian are the Ghanaian Ewe language and the amala eaters language. Yet it would be intellectually lazy to link them directly to Egypt. My cursory look of your akpu-eating chest beating PhD holder's Igbo-Egypt link suggests another one of those Igbo-Israel origin like stories that defy logic and common sense. I will try to look a little bit more into her work just to keep an open mind. However, I am ready to wager that Ewe and Yoruba are far more similar to ancient Egyptian than Igbo. YET it would be premature to draw a link based on this alone as your 'esteemed' akpu-eating PostDoc appears to be doing.

To be honest, I don't think you have debunked anything serious. Your stance is more of on the defensive line rather than that of scholarly objection. To debunk is to come up with a stronger counter evidence to an earlier-proposed theory and so far you have not come up with tangible evidence, references or articles whatsoever to support your view. Nothing. You have barely touched on the subject matter, albeit cursorily.

All it takes to get this theory published is very little. It is very easy. I have more evidence than I have posted up here to support this theory. I am doing this for the sake of posterity. Hopefully, future generations have a better idea or glimpse of what the world was like thousands of years ago.