₦airaland Forum

The Ijaw people are a collection of people from the Deep South Niger delta of Nigeria. They Speak Nine Closely related Niger congo languages which include Izon (The one thats most Popular) Kalabari Epie Ibani Defaka Nkoro etc. In this thread i will be telling you about some various quirks mostly linguistically.

1 Fis for Fish (Silent H): This is one of the most popular ways of identifying an Ijaw Person, the total destruction of the H sound and letter in their Speech because Naturally most Ijaw languages dont have H in them making Fish Sound like Fis
Shop to Sop, House to Ouse or As (If the Ijaw Person is from Yenagoa or Warri) John to Zon etc and adding the H to Words that dont have H Eg Sip to Ship Zip to Jip etc. Although this particular Characteristic isn't unique to Just the Ijaws only as you would find it among the Yoruba too the Ijaw people does it all through not only to Just Vowel sounds. Although This Trait is beginning to Vanish among many Ijaw people this days especially those of turning Fish to Fis others like House to Ouse or As still is very much Alive.

2 The Ehh Intensifier: Ever been to Bayelsa Before and never found your self adding Ehh at the end of your Sentences? If no then the place you went to Isnt Bayelsa you hear! In Yenagoa you'd hear everybody saying things like "Gimme ehh!" adding ehh to Intensify the Sentence it is very hard for a person to come to Bayelsa and not have that attached to his speech in a period of Two weeks different from colloquial Nigerian intensifiers like "O" and "Ehn" Its used to intensify pleas and make it sound a little bit more forcefull. Eg "Leave me Ehh!" "Abeg Ehh" etc.

3 Eyooo Eyoooo :This one is a very Funny one used by mostly Bayelsans its hard to explain but i can do it through an example. Eg "No reason all dem eyooo eyooo talk dem just do am." English translation : Dont listen to what anybody else says about it just do it"

4 No C word: All C words turn to S automatically like Church to Shosh even in the speech of Non Izon speaking Youngsters.

And Thats all fot now.

Abeeee! tiebara?

mercenary:
Abeeee! tiebara?

lol Your head deh DIA