₦airaland Forum

macof:
not only do we have but it can even be broken down. Yoruba has even done a better job at retaining the use and meanings of the etymons of these common words.

Ùgbé from Gbé - to live /reside
Mímọ́/Mímá - holy, goodness. from mọ́ - to be clean, without blemish

They will not accept these as evidence for cognacy because they don't understand how linguistics work.

samuk:
There are numerous Edo words in modern Igbo language but most Igbo are only familiar with the four market days.

Some examples:

Ise- amen in benin

Ise- amen in ibo

Okhorkhor = fowl in Benin

Okuko - fowl in Igbo

Okuta = rock in benin

Okute = rock rick in igbo

Oma---good in Ibo

Oma---good in Bini

Ndo---sorry in Igbo

do---sorry in Bini

Ogbe--quarters in Ibo

Ogbe--quarters in Bini

Ugbo - farm Bini

Ugbo - farm ibo

nkịta - dog in Igbo

Ekita - dog in Benin

And many more.

You did something similar with Urhobo and Edo language in a different thread. You can see how old Edo language are embedded into most southern Nigeria languages.

I am just seeing this. The only word here that can be argued to have diffused into Igbo from Edo is Ise.

Every other word here is attested in YEAI and even Niger-Congo proto languages. *kuko words from cock are even found as far away as Zulu in Southern Africa.

UGBE634:
Do you also know the word Oduma means Lion in Benin. cc samuk.

Yes, I know. I will not be surprised if Yorùba also has a similar 'du' word for Lion as well. Because all these are sister-languages.

If you look at linguistics, you would know about something called YEAI languages. These are Yoruboid (of which Igala is a branch), Edoid, Akokoid and Igboid. Linguists tell us that these languages all descend from a common language in the distant past called Proto-YEAI. Thus, there are cognates found throughout the languages.

Now having cognates doesn't mean that there are no words that were still borrowed across these sister languages in later times.

For example, Igbo borrowed the word ugegbe for mirror from Edo. The etymologically Igbo word for mirror is enyo. Ugegbe was borrowed. Igbo also borrowed several titles from the Edo.

There were also linguistic items that were borrowed from Igbo to Edo, even though people never seem to want to talk about that, and get agitated when it is brought up, and think you're attempting to attack or belittle their culture/civilization.

Etymological analysis of the Edo word for skirt, (ubuluku) for instance, suggests the word has Igbo roots. If you ask an Edo person to break the word ubuluku apart and explain it, he wouldn't be able to. But an Igbo person can. To a linguist this would suggest the direction of diffusion of the word

Which brings us to Idu. I am still to meet an Edo person who can etymologically explain it, the way it is explainable in Igbo. All I have been told by you all is that it has a very long antiquity among the Edo. A lexical item might exist in a language community for 20,000 years and still have its roots outside that language community. Antiquity is not really a counter-argument against foreign provenance.

One question to keep in mind is: Why your other neighbours don't use that word for you. Why is it only recollected by your Igbo-speaking neighbours.

Ogamysamo:
pls what does the idu means in igbo cause it is also an igala word which makes me almost ask if the man in question is an igala man

Idu in Igbo means "a group of people" or "a bush". When we refer to Benin as Idu n'ọba, what it literally means to us is 'The Oba' s people' or 'the people under the Oba'

I'm aware that in Igala, Idu could mean a lion or a task.

Note that in Igbo, lion is odum or eduke. Notice the du root, which also found in the Igala word for it, suggesting that the Igbo and Igala words for lion are cognates.

Anyway, it appears that the Igala 'idu' is cognatically different from the Benin 'Idu'.

UGBE634:
We bear Osayi strongly but I don't know of Ossai and it means God create

The etymology is this Osa ore yi- which means na God dae create or na God create

Okay, Good to know. It seems to be different from "Igboid" Ossai/Ohai which refers to a shrine/deity.

IgbuduMonkey:
My narration of Aboh displacement of the Akarais is not for the hype but for the purpose of making it undeniably clear that the
Abohs came from elsewhere to their present location.

Esumei Uku is said to have had 2 sons, Ogwezi and Ugbo. Ogwezi and three of his sons, Ojugbeli, Ozegbe and Ossai, constitute the ruling houses of Aboh. Ugbo, Ozegbe and Ossai are clearly Edoid. Another fact you habe to have in mind is the naming pattern in those days. Many people were known by nicknames then which stuck. Infact, Aboh has a unique culture of greeting people with a greeting name which is unique to each individual. Thos name eventually becomes more popular than the persons given name. It is possible that some of these Igbo names were given by the people living there who were clearly Igbo speakers.

Note also that Oputa Uku, the founder of Ozoro is said to be the brother of Esumei Uku. Going by your argument, are the Ozoro people Igbos?

Excuse me. You say Ugbo, Ozegbe and Ossai are clearly Edoid.

Ozegbe, I know to be Edo, meaning patience.
Ugbo is a shared word meaning farm in both Igbo and Edo. Both languages are related Niger-Congo languages and share a good number of words in common. It cannot be taken for granted therefore that the Ugbo in question indicates Edoid roots.

Now, how did you come to the conclusion that Ossai is an Edo word? This is a name/word that exists as Ossai/Ohai/Osayi across a number of Igbo-speaking spaces (including Nsukka in the East) and which also penetrated Igala as Ochayi.
According to an Igbo dictionary by professor Echeruo, it means Juju.

Can you explain what it means in Edoid and also find one Benin/Edo person who answers Ossai.

IgbuduMonkey:
gbam

The thing is, if you knew what my whole perspective is on the Benin origin theory, you will not be gbamming me oh.

flowerpower23:
Is there a word for Caribbeans in any of our languages? Particularly, Yoruba or Igbo? I know akata refers to African Americans and so I was wondering if there were any words that refer to the Caribbean of the Diaspora. I think there was a word involving the sugar they had to pick but I'm not sure.

Speaking for the Igbo, I would say, No. There's no word for them in the language.

Probz:
RedboneSmith bounced back with an alter-ego just to do something he’s obviously perfectly-capable of doing (sticking up for himself)?

You really are a demented little spanner.

People who maintain multiple accounts on this forum tend to think everyone does the same. With the way he is riled up by a simple non-aggressive contribution I made on mutual intelligibility across the Edoid lects, you can tell that we've clashed here before, where he was apparently using another account because I certainly don't remember this particular account.

AutomaticMotors:
I don't have time to wallow in dirt with you!! It is what you have been known for since all the years you have spent wasting away on nairaland! Keep being the same non-entity year in year out when you are tired you would delete your account!!

You don't have time to wallow in the dirt. Yet you have the time and the effrontery to come on a faceless forum and jump on my comment to tell me what posts I should and should not comment on, as the god, keeper and guardian of Nairaland that you are, abi? Onye ala.

I am a nonentity but at least you know me. How else would you know I have been here for years? I on the other hand had no idea of your existence until you jumped on my comment seeking for attention this morning. I will also forget you the second I log off. But I apparently live rent-free in your head.

Ukpana!

AutomaticMotors:
And who are you to speak on this?? Don't say what you don't know !! Stick to your lane!!!

Oh please, shut your whole arsè up. If what I said was incorrect, then point out the inaccuracies and correct them. Otherwise, shut the fvck up.

I've never bought into this 'homecoming'/'back-migration' theory. It seems just like an attempt to get around the 'Benin origin' theory.

Eze Chima was not an Aro or an Nri priest who lived in Benin and then 'back-migrated'. That's an invention of contemporary times.

A Benin speaker will not understand an Urhobo speaker and vice versa. I think some Isoko people might be able to understand some Urhobo speakers, but I am not sure. Even within Isoko and Urhobo, there are some dialect groups that cannot easily understand each other.

RestructureNig1:
The OP is wrong, the Fulanis don't have more population than the Igbo people in Africa.

The Fulanis that are Nigerians are not more populous than the Igbo. But Fulanis are nationals in more than 18 countries in Africa. Add their total population and you may begin to understand how they could be more in number than the Igbo.

laiperi:
Please forget about Herodotus and answer the pertinent issue.

Herodotus is superfluous here.

Herodotus (a pioneer Historian of the Ancient World) was mentioned more than twice and false quotes were attributed to him. I fact-checked them, and the best you can come up with is "forget about Herodotus"?

Boy, you're a joker. Did the writer lie with Herodotus' name or not?

laiperi:
Herodotus writings before or after Christ has become a distraction to sidestep the main facts published by the writer.

Did Ogiso and Ijaw come from Ife?

How is it a distraction or don't you understand chronology? Explain how someone who died around 425 BC could have written about an attack on Benin that happened in AD 1897. A full 2,321 years before the fact! Na Nostradamus im be?

Show us where Herodotus wrote the things you people are claiming. The book is available online. Screenshot the page and bring, let's see. Stop telling unintelligent lies.

Syogbe:
Father of history Herodotus, put in his record that the Europeans only attacked Bini kingdom due to disagreement, it is not that there are no other neighbouring kingdoms.

Herodotus who lived hundreds of years before Christ recorded the European attack on Benin which happened more than two thousand years later, in AD 1897? Ahn Ahn, boss. Fear God small na.

Syogbe:
Greek Historian, Herodotus, the father of History who lived from 4824 BC until 424 BC said about Ife: " According to history there were five ancient cities in Africa between 3000 and 1000 BC of which one was Ife".

Again. This recently-minted lie that you people are spreading without shame. I have asked you people countless time to tell me where in his 'Histories' Herodotus mentioned Ife, let me go and check it out. I've had his book for years. It is on my shelf right now. I have read it. There was no mention of Ife in that book. There is no way Herodotus could have written the quoted sentence up there. How could somebody living in the BC era have written "between 3000 BC and 1000 BC"? People in his time were not reckoning time by BC and AD since Christ hadn't even been born yet. That quote is a fake, and an unintelligent fake at that!

Tell us where in the book Herodotus said that, or share a screenshot of the page and let us read the words for ourselves.

Legendforte:
Ok but what is nkita ofia in english

Nkịta ofia is not supposed to mean anything other than a wild dog or a feral dog.

Some writers erroneously misidentify it as a fox, which it is not.

Legendforte:
What is fox in igbo

The geographical spread of fox in Africa is limited to parts of North Africa and Ethiopia.

Why should Igbos have a name for an animal that is unknown in their territory? It's like asking the Igbo name for penguin or kangaroo.

4teenblaq:
ehikwe22, I am from ikaland, I can't relate with most of the thing you are saying.

Even the names you gave to the guy seeking for Ika names, i can tell you I can't relate to 98% of them despite living in Agbor for over 20 years. For example : the name; KPANMIOSE(Thank God). I have never heard this name before. The "thank God" we bear as a name here is "KELECHI".

I am just wondering where your Ika language and its bearing are coming from.

Some of them are Benin names borne by Ika people in the old days when the influence of the Benin Empire in Ika land was still strong. Most modern Ika people don't bear them anymore or identify with them or know what they mean. But when Ika people are arguing with southeastern Igbos, they still like to refer to those names/words as if they are still current in Ika land.

But you should be able to relate with names like Ehiedu and Ehiwario if you've lived in Agbor for over 20 years.

NSNO:
Let me start by saying that i am not a tribalist, i am a pan Nigerian who believes in the equality of tribes in the nation. That being said i have a question. Is it true that the igbos used to be cannibals (some say they still are)? Is this true or it is the work of rumour mongers? Thank you for your answers.

Yes, it is like the Serengeti in the east. Once your bus crossed the Niger into Onitsha, a pack of flesh-hungry Igbos will run after your bus, crying for your meat. God help you if your driver is not skillful with the wheel!

This is a weird post.
You haven't heard of:

1. Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther
2. Reverend Samuel Johnson, the descendant of ex-captives, who wrote the incomparable 'History of the Yorubas'
3. Frederick Haastrup who later became the Owa of Ilesa
4. The multimillionaires Candido da Rocha and
5. Deinde Fernandez who are descendants of Yorùba slaves who returned from Brazil
6. Pacifico Licutan, who was part of the Male slave rebellion in Brazil
7. Carlota Lucumi, who led a slave rebellion in Cuba
8. Osifekunde of Ijebu
9. Candido da Fonseca Galvao

The list long. Most of the Yorubas of Lagos with English or Portuguese last names are descendants of slaves who returned, and they were some of the earliest educated professionals that Nigeria produced, including the grandfather of Nigerian nationalism, Herbert Macaulay

If you are looking for an original Africa-derived name for the continent, you won't find it. Nobody in Africa was conscious of the fact that we were on one continuous landmass, until cartographer and travellers from Europe and Asia charted the continent.

Logicisfree2:
I am always amazed by the intellectual lazyness of Nigerians and Africans in general.
1) the notion of ethnicity didn't exist before colonization, so @redbonesmith asking for the ethnicity of people who lived before colonization is only exhibiting intellectual lazyness.

And I am equally amazed by the inability of Nigerians to comprehend English and follow a simple argument. This is why they ask you people to write IELTS. I am the wrongest person to try to school on how colonialism contributed to creating most modern African ethnic groups. I've been saying it on Nairaland before it became fashionable to say it.

Your Edo brother was actually the one insinuating that Asaba was linguistically and ethnically Edo up to 1875 (he didn't use the word 'ethnically', but the implication was in his post) , and my comment was asking for proof of that. If you're gonna come at me you have to at least be able to understand what is being said.

samuk:
Are you really serious right now? There is no likely or maybe, forget you wishful thinking and go back to the page, it clearly states that Benin word for salutation and other phrases were still in use in 1875 Asaba by Asabans who claimed they migrated under the sovereign of the oba of Benin.

No matter how you try to spin it, Ajayi Crowder who was the linguistic that help the Igbo language a great deal knew who was Ibo and who was not in 1875, and according to him, the Asaba people of 1875 were not Ibo, they were people who were still using Benin word and phrases and whose habits were different from that of the Ibos.

Whoever you wish Asabans of 1875 to be, they were not Ibos according to Ajayi Crowder. Unless you can produce an eyewitness historical evidence that was written earlier than 1875 to support your position on this matter, you have no case.

History is not guess work or wishful thinking, you have to supply material evidences to support your position and at this point none of you have any material to counter my Ajayi Crowder 1875 eyewitness historical accounts and evidence. All you have so far are, maybe, more likely, I think or I believe.

In summary according to Ajayi Crowder 1875

1. Asabans were not Ibo
2. Asabans have habits that were different from Ibos
3. Asabans traditions says they migrated from the sovereign of the Oba of Benin
4. Asabans still used Benin word and phrases.

Who was Samuel Ajayi Crowder?

He was a linguistic giant who helped standardised the Yoruba and Igbo languages, his work help in the translation of the Bible in both yoruba and Igbo languages, so linguistically speaking, Ajayi knew who was Ibo and who was not in 1875.

Side Note:

The Ibo move in large numbers from their heartland of the south east to dominate Delta North and start to rewrite the history of the area, this was exactly what the Sadauna feared and spoke about in the 1950s that made him pursue his Northernization policy that put the North and her interests first to the exclusion of the Igbo who migrated to the North in large numbers. Igbo military boys eventually killed him and made Nigeria a unitary system under Ironsi, which later backfired.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6coimsqIyw

There's a whole lot of mischaracterization in this lengthy write-up. Taking it piece by piece would be depriving myself of my much-needed and getting into an argument loop. Yes, you're over-reaching, sir. And that's that on that.

bigfrancis21:
Thanks for sharing the article. I wanted to see the original article to understand your original statement about: ‘Asaba fast loosing their edo language’. Your earlier statement does not appear induced nor insinuated in Ajayi’s writing that you referenced. Understood, a few words and cultural practices may have been borrowed from the Edo, plus maybe some later Edo migrants may have settled in Asaba, however it remains unlikely that the entire Asaba people originated from Edo.

His conclusions from Crowther's writings are over-reaching. Crowther writes about a migration from areas under Benin's sovereignty. There's nothing there about the ethnicity or linguistic pedigree of these migrants. Not every area under Benin's political sphere of influence was Edo, as every scholar of Benin history already knows.

Asaba traditions actually speak of one of the pre-Nnebisi ancestors as Eze Anyanwu, who was connected to the royal line of Eze Chima. This 'Eze Anyanwu' is doubtless the embodiment of this migration from 'under Benin sovereignty' mentioned in Crowther's writings.

It remains to be proven that this Eze Anyanwu, just like Ezechima, was ethnically Edo. The names would suggest not. And like Ezechima, it is much more likely that the migration was from more westerly parts of the Igboid-speaking Anioma area.

samuk:
The king we now know as Obi of Obolukwu was known in Benin as Ogie Oboro, if the title Obi existed then, Benin would have known and call him Obi Oboro.

Here we go again. The king now known as Oba of Benin was known among many Igbo-speakers as Eze Obodo Idu, so this means the Oba of Benin was formerly called Eze before he now started using Oba, abi?

It is cultural arrogance on your part to think that what you call a foreign king was his original title and not the one he actually uses for himself. The Yoruba called the Etsu of Nupe 'Elempe'. I don't see anyone arguing that Elempe was the Etsu's original title. Ogie is king in Edo, so you simply called him the word for king in your language, just like an Igbo man would call King Charles III Eze ndi England, not because the British royal family uses 'Eze'. Logic 101.

And you have already been told several times that the Obi of Ubulu-Ukwu is not one of the Obis of Anioma that claims Benin origin. The founder of the Ubulu ruling line was called Ezemu (note the Eze in his name) and he came from Afor.

I guess the first thing I should say here is to respond to the question: why didn't Ewuare seek refuge in Agbor?

As a matter of fact, according to Agbor oral traditions, Ewuare actually did seek refuge at Agbor and not at Issele-Uku. I don't know how Aisen came to the conclusion that Ewuare fled to Issele-Uku; I'll very much like to read his book and his sources. Issele-Uku doesn't have traditions of Ewuare coming to their town, but Agbor does. Read the history of Agbor compiled by Iduuwe. Agbor tradition goes as far as to say that Ewuare's mother came from Agbor and that Ewuare merely took refuge at his mother's village.

Issele-Uku's dynastic connection with Benin came in the 18th century, during the time of Akenzua. Nowadays, Issele-Uku tries to pretend their Benin connection is much older by claiming it goes as far back as Oba Ewedo. If you look at a list of Issele-Uku kings, there was no Benin name until the 8th king called Odia. This indicates the point at which the kingdom began to forge/cement dynastic links with Benin, probably under Akenzua.

OP, you said some things on this thread that I'll like to respond to, but let me finish reading first.

PrayWills:
Hey Guys, I naturally have a very high libido but I currently participating in a local spiritual cleansing and have to bath this soap for some days. I have been warned to start away from women for the durations of the cleansing. But I feel the urge every now and then.
My question is can masturbation spoil the work and shame dey catch me to ask baba.





Help me out guys!

I just asked my native doctor friend. He said that if you drink the semen after ejaculation there will be no problem, since it means your body will not really lose anything and it will be like you never even came sef.

Probably the first time in history someone won a quiz by not answering ANY questions.

This was just embarrassing.