ezeagu:


People can speak very good Igbo.

'Yes there was a civilization, but not as great as those in West Africa, or in and outside Africa.' What does this actually mean?

You're not getting what diglossia, the importance of language as the language of instruction and what the widespread use of a language means which results in this back and forth about the status of English and Hausa's dominance in the north, and now Yoruba. So in that case, is Yoruba among the more 'advanced' languages? Did it borrow grammar from Arabic and English in order for readers to write newspapers as you've said?

I've already alluded to it, but the majority of the scientific and medical terminology in English aren't even of English origin, they're loanwords deliberately taken from other Romance languages and Greek and Latin. So, yes, languages can take on massive amounts of loaning, just like I've said for Japanese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gairaigo_and_wasei-eigo_terms .

All this was discussed because I did not see the need for certain affixes which were shoehorned in on certain words. If this is a discussion of the progression of Igbo language, then it should be a discussion on how to best mould it to the modern world while not completely alienating speakers, and if you think Igbo speakers don't learn or try to speak better Igbo now, it will be very hard to completely switch the grammar on them and others who speak Igbo very well and have been for more than half a century.

The reason most scientific words in English are of Latin and Greek origins (50-55% of English words are of Latin origin) maybe tied intimately to the status of Latin in England (and Europe). England was conquered and ruled by the Normans, a French-speaking group, for centuries, who introduced floods of Latin-based words through French. French was used in high society. (Latin had inherited Greek learning in antiquity.) The same thing applies to all romance languages. They were once pidgins of Latin. The Igbo language has only been in intimate contact with English for less than 200 years, it isn't in the same socio-political situation that English was vis a vis French, Greek and Latin. When Igbos borrow from English they do so because they have no choice. There isn't a proper word base nor is there a refurbished grammar. Sure the Japanese has adopted words from English but they have also created plenty of local equivalents. No language sits back and allows every word enter the language unless specific historical examples like English and the romance languages. Languages borrow and create. Today robust languages find native words for many words.

When I write that nobody speaks Igbo well, I mean that the grammar and vocabulary do not permit the full expression of the sciences, politics, economics etc. The Igbo language doesn't allow serious communication (only in low-hitting areas.) The Igbo language needs the full and new vigour of fresh affixes covering every aspect of human life, to marry with the old.

ezeagu:


The whole Arabic influence on Hausa making it more 'advanced' and therefore easy to spread is something I'm not going to buy, so agreement to disagree maybe. The fact that English is spoken in southern Nigeria more than it is spoken in northern Nigeria is evident in the fact that Hausa is a lingua franca in itself. The level or form of English is not really relevant because people still use a form of English in southern Nigeria as a lingua franca. English is not widely spoken in Zinder and Kano how it is in Port Harcourt or Warri. I'm certain of that. And when I talked about schools, I was talking about instruction, not subjects.

A 'classical English register' is different from classical English works. Classical English doesn't exist and there's no 'simple German' in the sense that you can get a simple English.

The presumed affixes in the medical terms are compound words, or even pseudo-affixes like in Chinese, I've not argued against compounding, or even the use of 'ọnọdụ', what I've warned about was the one-size-fits all approach of adding English-transliterated affixes to all forms even when it is unnecessary and the idea that Igbo grammar can't work for today. What I've spoken for was the use of the present affixes in Igbo which are very clear and rational to Igbo speakers. Now I can't remember talking about sophisticated words, because I wouldn't describe words in such a way. I wasn't going to talk about civilisation. Civilisation is very irrelevant to this discussion because we are talking about vocabulary and the expanding of it, the only words we have trouble with are post-industrial words, apart from geographical and cultural words like tea. Most languages in the world, including European ones had to follow English' lead for industrial words and everything that followed. The stuff we're doing here trying to find terminology for post-industrial words isn't even done by languages like Japanese for many cases, they just adopt a loan word and 'Japanify' it, and I'm talking about common words like engine, motor and machine. Not saying this is good or bad, just that the idea that Igbo's lack of post-industrial terminology signifies a backwardness in the old society isn't really putting everything in perspective, especially with the introduction of industrial age going hand-in-hand with British imperialism and therefore education. If you believe this is wrong then give me examples of pre-industrial words that do not exist in Igbo which aren't obviously geographical and cultural words like ice. Most of the medical terms in English itself were coined from only around 300 years ago via Latin and Greek because the English believed those to be the classical languages of civilisation.

This whole trajectory of this discussion was my contention in the first place: that we are assuming that the way Igbo words are formed is 'backward' simply because it doesn't follow the method used in the languages of 'more advanced' civilisations. There are people who speak Igbo really well, I mean really really well. They usually just use loan words and they communicate perfectly fine, if you came up with the vocabulary to simply replace these loans it'd work for them perfectly. Again, I don't see why we need to compeltely change the grammar of Igbo. I don't think that's the problem and I don't think that will solve the wider issue of people not speaking Igbo because they 1. they don't have to, the fact that this whole conversation is in English shows that 2. English is the official language of instruction and the most widely spoken language, in whatever form, in southern Nigeria.

I am not after making people speak Igbo or advocating for parents to teach their children Igbo or stopping the tide of people abandoning Igbo. These are beyond the purview of what I am about. People who refuse to teach their children Igbo or speak Igbo poorly (and happy with the situation) do so from conscious decision. I have never been drawn to the advocacy for people to learn Igbo (or the call for parents to teach their children Igbo), I see it as childish. People have abandoned languages for new ones. America is a good example. People from different linguistic backgrounds have adopted English. What I am doing is for people who speak Igbo and want to use it in every area of life robustly (or those who want to learn).

There is no Igbo that speaks Igbo well because Igbo doesn't have the vocabulary or grammar for serious modern discussions, in the sciences, politics, economics etc.

Stop giving excuses about English. English is Nigeria's lingua franca but the Hausa language employs many people in newspapers, radios etc. English is spoken all over the North, in many cases better than the East, yet the Hausa is an economy on its own there. The Yoruba language has 6 newspapers. Whereas Igbo spoken natively in 8 states doesn't have a single Igbo language journalist. There are many multi-language countries like South Africa (Zulu etc), Switzerland (Italian etc) were languages live together and prosper. English can live well with every language in Nigeria, as the Hausa example shows (and other multicultural settings in the world show). The Hausa language has profited from borrowings from Arabic, grammatically and vocabulary-wise. Find out about people you share the same nationality with.

Concerning vocabulary, no people with brains would cede 100% of their words of science or any discipline to any language, not even 50 percent. Languages - Chinese, Japanese etc - do a mixture of borrowing and finding native words.

Affixes are indispensable to language growth as the Igbo medical affixes show; every language has borrowed them, Chinese, Japanese etc. A new vigour would charge Igbo.

ChinenyeN:
Scholti, the plural indicator among the Igbo lects is not umu or gazie. At least, not in any of the lects that I'm aware of. For the Ngwa-Mbaise-Ikwerre axis, the plural indicator is we.

Ex.
-- unu ntere miiri we m di-ihu? (did you all cook the soups that I am seeing?)
-- iri we e ghevara tokwara piai (the flash-fried foods also tasted exquisite)
-- ma aka we ma ukwu we ma isi we ghasachara l'ala (even arms, and legs and heads where completely scattered and spread all over the ground.)

The construction exists and is an actively used part of our lects, but it isn't something we employ in every instance as it isn't an obligatory part of constructing the sentence. But, if someone wanted to specifically say chairs, the functionality is there to say it.

As for uloworo, I'm not sure how you can believe that it should be perfectly normal Igbo. Perfectly normal Igbo is centered around the verb and verbs begin with roots, except in instances in which the modifiers a-, e-, i- are used. So, uloworo as it is will not be recognized as the active part of a sentence. I wonder if you're actually understanding me. Uloworo wouldn't be perfectly normal Igbo, unless the u- modifier is dropped and lowo becomes adopted as a root in order for it to be recognized as an active part of the sentence construction.

Ex. a loworo we l'onodi rerere we (they were housed in decrepit conditions)
**if I may so adapt your example to Ngwa

In which case, ilowo would be to house and ibi will retain its meaning of to reside. Do you understand the point I'm making?

I want to multi-dimensionalize Igbo. We can't be doing the same things always. We have to welcome a new layer of grammar. 'Uloworo' (housed) should be normal in Igbo. A language must have flexibility, what I call '360ization.' It must be unpredictable, reinventive. Forget the old ways of doing things in Igbo, we must reinvigorate it with a new life.

I am aware that there are different ways of indicating plural, in the dialects or popular forms of Igbo, like 'Ndi-', as a plural for people; but they do not have the compressive qualities of a suffix in tight, charged situations.

I am after taking Igbo out of its complacency. I should be able to say 'onyonyoworo (televised)' or 'akpaworo (bagged)' in Igbo. I know these contravene traditional aspects of the language but that is my point, I want to normalize a new vigour, a new grammar that marries with the old. The old can no longer subsist alone. Change is here. We need to create a laddered language, we many registers, made possible by affixes.

nwanlecha:

I actually agree completely with your line of thought concerning the modernization of the Igbo language to get on board with the changing times. I believe your approach will make it easier for the Igbo language to become more useful in various areas of learning like physics, chemistry, etc. It may need a little getting used to but i know it will be more than effective in the long run. The approach taken by Chinenye and Ezeagu are not bad either but yours seems to be more progressive in my own humble opinion. Really, it would be nice if y'all can adopt favorable ideas from one another to bring about the desired result.
Personally, i feel that we Africans failed woefully earlier on by allowing the white man to colonize us with their own language. It is only in Africa that you see students learning with a foreign language. Whereas in other parts of the world like China, Japan,India and Spain, students are taught with their own language. We need to ask ourselves why these people (including the rest of the developed world), are on the fore front of new everyday inventions, while we keep playing catch up. I believe strongly that if our kids are taught in school with their mother tongue, they will begin to understand a lot of the courses being taught in schools better than they are doing currently, and thus stand a better chance of being more innovative.
The earlier we return to our own God-given language and bring it up to speed with other international languages, the better for us. Our fore bearers already made the fatal mistake of abandoning our own language for a foreign one which they foolishly thought was superior to their own, and now the onus is on us to right that wrong.
PS, I promised not to get involved on Nairaland forum again. However on logging in today, i just couldn't help but comment on this thread and commend y'all for the wonderful job you are doing. God bless you.

Thank you very much. Your words are wonderful. Indeed, languages are indispensable to the growth of a country. Research upon research have shown that people learn better in their native tongues. In Nigeria, we have people who can't speak English or their native tongue.

I love the Igbo languge so much. I have been enveloped it virtually all my life and that is why I embarked on this project to further take it greatness. I am working on a list of affixes covering every aspect of human life as well as a comprehensive Igbo dictionary befitting a language spoken by 40 million people.

I want to take the Igbo language from villages and ime ulọ to serious conversations of physics, civil engineering, sociolinguistics etc, in native words.

Keep in touch, I would soon release the list of affixes and there are more goodies in store. I want to start a movement that would take the Igbo language to an unprecedented; I don't care if there are only fifty people on board initially. Languages like French, German etc were greatly shaped by a few people.

No Igbo person discusses microbiology, economics, etc in Igbo, because the vocabulary and grammar are not there. There are many Igbos who believe that the Igbo language shouldn't communicate these fields.The Igbo language languishes in a low order of existence, it is shameful. I want to bring it up, spoken- and written-wise.

Phut:


Why would di be confused with "Is" in this instance? Especially since it would not be a standalone word. It would be dieze. Diokpukpu. Di means master

The word 'di' is an ubiquitous Igbo word, heavily involved in its grammatical mechanism; a unique alternative would be better, any.

ChinenyeN:
Adding to kpe-derived words, there is nkpe, which we use in Ngwa to reference the traditional clan charter/constitution. We clearly don't need to look too far to build vocabulary. The foundation exists. Whether or not it mirrors other languages is of no consequence.

Scholti, there is a reason for terminology. It is so we can be on the same page. If you've got one thought in mind and you use a word that elicits a different thought in my mind, then we achieve nothing other than confusion. That's simply the reason why I want us to be on the same page with terminology. With regard to high-level discourse, you can't just talk about being above technicalities. Also, there actually does exist a plural marker in Ngwa and many other lects. It just isn't an affix, but rather a demonstrative. It achieves the same purpose as \-s\, just not in the same way (again, no need to think in English). Finally, I'd like to understand what you mean by bi being burdened. Would you mind explaining?

The reason I wrote that 'bi' was burdened is that, it is used wherever 'shelter' or its synonyms are mentioned. We cannot be using one or few words to signify accommodation and its synonyms. We must develop a robust dictionary with more word alternatives and also extend words like 'ulo' through literary devices. That was my whole drift in introducing 'wo' and 'woro' for unusual situations. 'Uloworo' should be perfectly normal in Igbo, as well as 'mmaduworo (peopled)'.

Again, I chose 'sis' for illustrative purposes to illustrate 's'. We are not better than the Greeks who borrowed, 's' from English. The language hasn't died. There is no modern, breathing language on earth that hasn't borrowed affixes whatever its grammar 'type'. It is already happening in Igbo with the medical dictionary affixes.

Igbo does have ways and words for indicating plurals like, 'umu' and 'gazie'; but these do not work well in compact, complex word situations; hence my advocacy for a suffix that complements the existing ways of indicating plural; I am fine with whatever term or letters the suffix takes, as long as it is there.

ChinenyeN:

This is why I encourage people to really know their lects. We don't need to go round masquerading agglutination as inflection. I know, for example, that an equivalent of \-able\ exists in Ngwa. It's simply rendered during verb construction, like roots during 'progressive suffixation.' And just as I know the equivalent exists in Ngwa, so also would I like to believe that it is present in other lects. I'd be surprised if it weren't.

I advocate for a fixed Igbo affix rendering '-able' (the remaining Igbo words would still be used to signify 'able' but in other registers) that can faithfully adapt to new situations. I am open to a consensus on it, whether it is the Ngwa affix for it or any other. The affix would be able to adapt to words like - written in different registers - 'roadable', 'doorable', 'motorable', 'housable', flagable.'

Phut:
Hey guys, I bought a couple of dictionaries off Amazon and by comparing and from them, I was able to compile the attached dictionary. What do you guys think of the work, so far?

I want to make it an online, searchable dictionary with audio pronounciation for all the entries. I only attached the A entries but it is currently 525 pages long. I will add Biribiriga - Rainstorm as well as Iga - Fortress, akpede-crossbow and Agwa - Island. Can any of you make any recommendation(s) as to whom to hire for the development of the site?

cc: ChinenyeN
Ezeagu
Cheruv
Scholti
Radoillo
Melzabull

A friend bought an Igbo dictionary on the internet a year ago and it was atrocious (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Igbo-English-English-Igbo-Dictionary-Phrasebook-Hippocrene/dp/0781806615/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1440018359&sr=8-2&keywords=igbo+dictionary). For instance the entry for toilet roll is, 'akwukwọ e sie hicha ike'.

In your compilation, there are some entries that didn't accurately reflect the meanings of the words or would conflict with other Igbo words that properly define them like the entry, 'Attack v: Nụsọ ọgụ = To assault/To fight.
Pronounciation:/nu-soe/~/or-gu/
Root: Ọgụ = Fight
Variant: Lụsọ ọgụ

Fighting in Igbo is called, 'Nụsọ ọgụ' (at least a popular variant of it). A new word should be sought for 'attack' in the dialects or other registers of Igbo. I have heard someone call 'attack', 'jaọgụ.'

Abdicate wasn't fully rendered, 'Abdicate v: Hapụ = To leave.
Pronunciation:/ha-poo'. 'Hapu' means leave in Igbo while abdicate means 'leave a position.' So the proper definition would, 'hapuọkwa.'

The Igbo language needs a proper dictionary that respects it and defines words in every category, the sciences, politics etc. Many 'English' words are easy to define; in many cases searching for their origins would enable translation. Here are some English words I have translated:

1.science- nzammuta
2.chemistry- ngbanweta
3. theory- nkọwata
4. hypothesis- nwunwata
5. physics - nzaọdinandu

ezeagu:


Okay, first of all there's not classical English. I think you misunderstood me saying Chinese and all do not have those prefixes, not prefixes in general, to function. This is what your sources says on Chinese affixes in relation to English ones.

"An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Words with
multiple affixes (WMAs) such as “translatability”, “postmodernism” and “surrealism” are
very common in English. But in Chinese most WMAs are borrowed from Japanese which
were also influenced by English. In recent years, research such as in Pan et al. (2004) and
Shen (1995) has been conducted to explore the new phenomenon of adding affixes to
Chinese words to form new words in scientific literature, which are mainly translated from
English or other western languages. Although these words have an English origin, they
show their own characteristics. To distinguish them from their counterparts in English,
Chinese linguists call them “quasi-affixes”. The concept was first proposed by Lu Shuxiang
in The Analysis of Chinese Grammar in 1978, which turned a new leaf of study Chinese
affixes. For this Xu(1997) also remarked: “In Chinese-Tibetan languages, the derivation
that plays an important role in new word creation is not those affixes whose senses are
fading and that only serve as formal markers, but those quasi-affixes that retain their certain
senses”. Because quasi-affixes emerge very fast, many new words have been created in this
way, especially in scientific literature. As we mentioned above, many Chinese compound
words were borrowed from Japanese (more than 20,000) in late Qing Dynasty by
introducing Japanese textbooks. In the process, WMAs became a part of Chinese lexicon,
e.g. words with common affixes like “-性(-ity)” and “-度(-dom)”.

"By comparing the WMAs in both English and Chinese, their features that can be used
for automatic translation are summarized into the following three categories: First, in
English the part-of-speech a word is generally shown by derivation and many multiple
affixes are used to indicate their syntactic functions. But this is not true for Chinese.
Therefore, when an English WMA is translated, the stem word is usually kept while the
affixes will be taken off. For instance, the structure of the word “modernization” is “stem
word+suffix+suffix”. Its Chinese translation is “现代化(modernization)” and the last
suffix has to be omitted and corresponds to the empty character ε.
In contrast, English words with a single affix may be translated to Chinese WMAs.
For instance, when a word like “usable” is translated, the Chinese prefix “可-(-able)” has
to be added and its translation becomes “可 利用 的 (usable)” (with the structure
“prefix+stem word+suffix”）. When analyzing this type of words, new characters need to be
generated. Some WMAs correspond very well in both languages, e. g., word
“nongovernmental” with the structure “prefix+stem word+suffix” and “ 非 政 府 的
(nongovernmental)” with the structure “prefix+stem word +suffix”.
The work in this paper considers only verbs and adjectives, the majority of WMAs.
Ordinary dictionaries usually cannot collect all the WMAs, especially in scientific literature.
They often become “unknown words” in machine translation and cannot be translated
successfully. Section 5 provides a few examples for such words."

So the point is Chinese may have been influenced by the scientific words in English by way of Chinese, but their affix or quasi-affix system follows the way established way of affixing. I don't know why I need to say 'ọnọdụnwanyọ' when I can just say 'nwanyọ'. The nature of Igbo itself flows and removes redundancies in order to harmonise words. I see this as a classic example of what this process of affixing will do, which is to attach a one-size-fits-all English-derived affixation system to everything regardless of whether it is needed or not. Reading the Chinese affixation system makes it clear that theirs is different enough from English and works with the language how it has always done. Chinese didn't 'take from English and nativized' in the sense you're talking about, rather it looked at English and provided a suitable Chinese response.

On Hausa and the Igbo languages use in media, again: I am 99% certain if you were to switch the language of all the Hausa speakers to Igbo and the language of the Igbo speakers to Hausa, we would still see a phenomena where Igbo would be used in all types of media. I am equally certain that Hausa is used in schools in northern Nigeria in a way Igbo isn't in southern Nigeria, in fact, speaking Igbo was/is often times punishable in some schools. The problem is diglossia and the rubbish orthography Igbo has, Igbo speakers don't need to speak Igbo because English is widely spoken, while in northern Nigeria Hausa is really all they've got. Even taking the Hausa example, we see that they did not need to change their grammar much to have a language that everyone uses comfortably in all or most areas of life. I'm not even going to talk about grades of civilisation, partly because it's quite irrelevant in the discussion of expanding vocabulary today.

The Hausa grammar and vocabulary have been influenced by Arabic.The Hausa language was part of the Songhai-Timbuktu civilization and it has writings going back centuries in the Arabic script. 'The problem is diglossia and the rubbish orthography Igbo has, Igbo speakers don't need to speak Igbo because English is widely spoken, while in northern Nigeria Hausa is really all they've got.' I knew you were going to write this because your whole direction has been narrow-centric. Many Northerners speak better English than many Igbos. The Hausa language is taught in secondary schools in the North just as Igbo is in the East. The Hausa language enjoys more dynamic grammar and vocabulary than Igbo, because it came under more sophisticated linguistic influences from Arabic over the course of centuries. Many people are employed as journalists in and out of Nigeria, in the Hausa language media. It is the Hausa people proud of their centuries of written civilization that are propping up the language. There are many scholars of Northern origin whose works are published in local or foreign journals in English. Many Igbos speak English atrociously, so we enjoy no advantage over anyone that speaks their native tongue and English. Infact, there is a generation of Igbos are can't speak any language well, Igbo or English.

The article on the Chinese language was only saying that after borrowing affixes from English, it undergoes native adaptation in the Language. So you agree that the Chinese borrowed affixes, which was my earlier point on the need for affixes. Here is a quote from the article that the Chinese language borrowed English affixes indirectly from Japanese as well as creating new affixes as a result of its contact with English scientific literature, 'But in Chinese most WMAs are borrowed from Japanese which
were also influenced by English. In recent years, research such as in Pan et al. (2004) and
Shen (1995) has been conducted to explore the new phenomenon of adding affixes to
Chinese words to form new words in scientific literature, which are mainly translated from
English or other western languages.'

Ofcourse languages try their best to adjust their borrowings to suit already settled practice, but it is not completely possible, something must give. Here is an article about the grammatical changes in Chinese, titled, 'Modern Chinese and Linguistic Change' http://journals.cambridge.org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=3232528&jid=CQY&volumeId=92&issueId=-1&aid=3232520&bodyId=&membershipNumber=&societyETOCSession=

For your information the English language has a huge body of classical works. http://literature.proquest.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/createCompleteContents.do#works

And you conveniently ignored the 41 medical affixes created by the Igbo medical professionals in the Igbo-English medical dictionary, because they do not suit your excusatory trip. All your arguments, whether it is the Hausa part or the Chinese part, have been geared towards leaving the Igbo language as it is. You earlier hinted that the Igbo has a stock of lost 'sophisticated words and grammar' until I pointed out that the Igbo couldn't have had a high scientific tradition given their civilisation. Yes there was a civilization and the discovery of more than 100,000 objects of glass, iron etc hint at a flourishing past civilization of royalty, trade etc, but things should be put into perspective and not exaggerated beyond what they are.

The fact remains that the Igbo language must admit a new layer of grammar in the way of affixes, covering every aspect of life, the sciences, politics, economics, etc, to interact with the old. They are certain situations in a sentence where you can put 'nwanyo' while there are others where you must use 'onodonwanyo'. Langauge has to be laddered: you can't respond to compact sentences with explanations. Not saying that the Igbo language isn't layered, it just has to add more to confront new realities. The Igbo language has to match Shakespearian English with its equivalent, scientific English with its equivalent etc, and not verbose sentences and ridiculous coinages like, 'mbukachara' for substantiation.

Duplicate.

Duplicate.

ChinenyeN:
Part of the problem with people who put Igbo down is that they in fact do not truly understand it. Sure, we have plenty of native speakers with an intrinsic understanding of their various lects, who can communicate effectively. However, as generations continue to come and go, we continue to realize the hard fact that Igbo is no longer the means with which we conceive of, experience and describe our world. This essentially creates and ever-growing population of native speakers who intrinsically know what to say, because they understand how it's said, and not necessarily because they understand why it is said that way.

One cannot grow a language with that understanding or lack thereof. It is never as simple as just tossing new features at a language. Those features need to be functional within the framework of said language. Therefore, if we want to add an extra layer of grammatical construction to encourage sophistication, we'd have to understand the already established grammatical structure. This way, all the new and sophisticated features we toss at Igbo will have functionality and not end up bouncing off like nothing ever happened.

Brief on the Affixes

Igbo has prefixes, suffixes, infixes and interfixes.

Ex.
-- akpa - prefix is the initial \a\
-- nkari - suffix is the \ri\
-- choputa - infix the \pu\
-- okomoko - interfix is the \m\
note: The infix category is probably a misnomer. For Igbo, infixes are typically just verb roots with another verb root affixed after it. So, it can be argued that Igbo has no true infixes and what we see is just the manifestation of 'progressive suffixation' (for lack of a better term).

For the sake of this discussion, I'll focus solely on the prefixes. Then I'll tie it back in with Scholti's proposal for a new layer of grammatical construction. A total of six prefixes exist in Igbo (not accounting for variation among the Igboid lects). Ezeagu listed them earlier, so I won't rehash what those prefixes are. Now, recall that Igbo is a verb based language. These prefixes are verb root modifiers. They work to fulfill a verb's meaning in different ways. I'm sure that for most of us (if not virtually everyone), these prefixes and their usages would seem annoyingly arbitrary. In trying to understand how Igbo words/expressions were created, one could easily get frustrated wondering why one word uses \a\ and another with the same root uses \u\. Surprisingly enough, I've found that Igbo people intrinsically understand the functions of these prefixes as verb modifiers. They just don't have a conscious realization of it. It simply makes sense to them. Anyway, I'll just quickly run through them all so we can get a brief understanding.

a/e - These two vowels fulfill the meanings of the verbs they modify. They show the process being captured in speech as active & ongoing.
Ex. anwu \a\chagbuo ya ... o ma \e\che ndu ya.

They also function as pronouns.
Ex. \e\ mere ya ... \a\ si na o bu mu mere..

In English this is called the indefinite pronoun. This function as an indefinite pronoun is made possible by the fact that these two vowels fulfill the action of verbs without any regard to the source of such action. From this, words like akpa are created. Translating to English, it means anything from bag to pouch to pocket (there's that "it's like.." all over again). However, thinking in Igbo, we see that it is the fulfillment of the process of gathering (the root kpa is collecting, gathering, handling), without considering the source of that process. In other words, the activity of handling, gathering and collecting occurs in that bag, regardless of who or what initiated or was involved in the process.

i/ị - Technically this is just one vowel. Pre-European contact Igbo speakers likely saw no difference between \i\ & \ị\, but retroactive vowel harmony and the onset of writing has us now differentiating the two. Anyway, this vowel is used to indicate an active state of a verb construction without necessarily showing any fulfillment, while at times ascribing that active state to someone or something. In fact, this is the only modifier that is used to directly associate an activity or process.
Ex. \i\ji mee atu ... Chuka si na ike \i\gba gburugburu adighi ya. This is the vowel used for second person singular (i.e. you).

o/ọ - Just as with \i\, this is also just one vowel, but it is rendered as two. This vowel is used when the verb construction is being ascribed to something or someone previously mentioned or easily identified.
Ex. Uche, \o\ mere gini? ... \o\ bu Uche ka a na-akpo?

From this, words like ole are created. Translating to English, it means anything from onlooker to bystander to observer. However, thinking in Igbo, we see ole as the fulfillment of le by something or someone concrete or easily identifiable. This vowel also gives us our third person singular (i.e. he, she, it).

u/ụ - This vowel isn't used in sentence construction, but it does show up as a modifier in verb construction, when turning verbs into nouns. In simple terms, where \o\ often describes a concrete association, \u\ describes an archetypal or abstract association. You can more easily see this when comparing these \u\ words with their \o\ counterparts, though this is not always necessary.

Ex.
-- ji (blacken, darken) -- ojii (black) -- \u\ji (darkening)
-- cha (shine) -- ocha (white) -- \u\cha (clean, white)

m/n - For all intents and purposes, I will call these two vowels (or pseudo-vowels, if you will). In a very simplified explanation, \m\ & \n\ are very similar to infinitives in that they indicate an active state for the verb construction. The difference being that \m\ & \n\ do not induce any tense or mood and they can also bind these active, mood-less, tense-less verbs to a subject.
Ex. \m\mezi ala ka \m\ma ... ihe \n\kea di \n\fe ibuli elu.

Here, we see a pretty well-rounded verb construction system. Combined with agglutination, this can be used to describe all sorts of activities and processes. The problem again is that we tend to think too much in English while describing these activities and processes.

We see now how the verb is the center of all activity, and part of the reason why Scholti's affixes don't seem easy to appropriate is because they seemingly break the fulfillment of these verbs.

Ex. They were housed in decrepit conditions. ( Ha ulọworo ha na ọnụdusis lelele.)

Reading the above sentence, we actually see no evidence of verb based speech at all. Though I get what's going on in that sentence, it still seems empty, because no verb constructions are used to indicate the processes being ascribed to the initial ha in the sentence. Essentially, this new grammar doesn't actually sit as an added layer of grammatical construction, but instead encroaches past the layer of agglutination and past the layer of conjugation and down to the layer of verb construction. Now let's compare a verb construction saying the exact same thing.

Ex. They were housed in decrepit conditions
-- Ha uloworo ha na onodusis lelele (new grammar)
-- E biwara we l'ajaghara onodi (verb construction)
*The above verb construction is the actual equivalent construction in the Ngwa lect.

The two statements above are saying the exact same thing. The only difference is that the second sentence provides a more compact translation, thanks to the verb construction. In simple terms, there already exists a way of conveying this message. In fact, the verb construction does such a good job conveying that message and still gives me room to do more.

Ex.
-- e bimawara we l'ajaghara onodi (they were well-housed in decrepit conditions)
-- e biwakwara we l'ajaghara onodi (they were again housed in decrepit conditions)
-- e biwasikwara we l'ajaghara onodi (they were still being housed in decrepit conditions)
etc.

So, now I'm left wondering why I would want to replace the verb construction for something else that will do the same job, albeit not as compactly. Basically, reinvention of grammar at this level is unnecessary. So now, Scholti, would it be possible to consider going a level higher with the new grammar construction as opposed to having it break through the current layers that already exist? Of course, it may mean having to substitute the idea of prefixes for more standalone lexical items. Maybe, a new grammatical class of adverbs.

Have you considered writing an Ngwa dictionary? A friend recently drew my attention to an Abiriba-English dictionary: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1505445760?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00. It is a pity we don't have an active written culture via newspapers, that would archive and spread every aspect of Igbo dialects. The Igbo dialects are the powerhouses of the language, however, they fall short on truly expounding the modern realities we live in. One obvious lacuna is the lack of affixes for specialist areas of learning (the list I posted in #51 demonstrates the importance of affixes in specialist areas) and mundane areas of existence and the subsequent grammatical infrastructure that they need to function. Also missing are subtleties of rendition, for example, in your translation, 'E biwara we l'ajaghara onodi', 'onodi' is left singular; whereas the Igbo rendition (in the new grammar) is pluralled. Now this is a typical Igbo language silent treatment of 's', it implies it, which is inadequate.

Secondly, you make use of another burdened Igbo word 'bi'. There is a reason why I came up with the affixes, 'wo' and 'woro'; I did it to extend the Igbo language to non-traditional usages. The English language or any robustly used modern language, Japanese, Arabic, etc can take any word and do what I would term '360ize' it. That is, they can vest it with multi-flexibility, thereby rendering it eternal/reinventive. The word 'housed' is one of such processes of '360ization.' By appending house with '-ed' it invigorates it. The English language can take any word, whether common or uncommon and invest it with with an arsenal of affixes: '-ed', 'under', 's' etc. So house can become 'underhoused' (an appendage of two affixes). Sand can be become 'sanded', 'path','pathed', uncountable nouns can be plurals etc. This is what I simply want to achieve for Igbo. A laddered way of speaking and writing. By taking the best practices and injecting them into Igbo to cohabit with the old, because the old still seethes with life, albeit limitedly.

Now back to the word 'bi'. Like certain Igbo words 'obodo', 'mma', 'ọma', etc, are overburdened; because very few words have been created to sit side by side the huge chest of English synonyms. I look forward to the time when ulọworo or akwukwọworo (booked), can be normal. This is what I call '360ization', the complete freedom of words to mutate, become unpredictable and break monotony. And this is why I am creating a new layer of affixes most of which are nativized Igbo words, with less than one percent borrowed or made up like '-vi' standing for '-er', or '-or' in 'akaravi' (marker), 'Mgbakọtavi' (coordinator).

Phut:

ChinenyeN said they are examples of verb agglutination as opposed to affixes. I don't believe he and Ezeagu have anything against verb agglutination. Is it possible to work together to come up with some standard verb agglutination?

Also ChinenyeN asked:


What say you, Scholti? Two heads are better than one

An affix is simply any word or term that reoccurs or can be appended to words for convenience of meaning. In the English language for example, whole words like 'under-(understaff, underpaid etc)', 'sub-', 'life-' are used as affixes.

I got these affixes from chapters 4 and 5: 'Basic Medical suffixes', and 'Basic medical prefixes' (respectively).

I am not bugged down by technicalities, he can use whatever term(s) he wants on them, as long as he accepts their roles and appendage, because one affix can create and nativize many new words, and ofcourse inject their own grammatical mutations.

ChinenyeN:
Alright.. where to begin... WARNING: THIS WILL BE LONG

First let's try to be on the same page with regards to terminology. It will be important for what I have to say afterward. Igbo is what is known as a verb based language. This means that the morphology of words and the grammatical structure of the language emphasize flow, movement and constant transformation. This is the number one reason for the difficulty in translating a great deal of Igbo expressions into English. When asked to say what so-and-so means in English, an Igbo speaker will give a response akin to "it is like..", before they go on describing the complex interplay that the expression captures.

English, in contrast to Igbo, is a noun based language, great for discussions on concepts and classifications. As language is simply a tool for communication, it is impossible to say that one language is inherently better than another. So, in reality, grammatical structures, morphology, etc. are not features of a language that ultimately decide it's degree of sophistication.

**Interesting Fact: There is a school of thought with a large following in the Physics community that believes English to be unsuitable for the discussion of quantum theory. This school of thought claims that a verb based language structure would actually better express the ontology of quantum theory and so they introduced a verb based mode of the English language for that purpose. It's called Rheomode. It's interesting to read about, but eventually, as Igbo, we see that it is no news to us. This is not to put one language type above the other, but merely to emphasize the fact that language is simply a tool, which is often reshaped as needed to capture and express new things.

Now, there is no denying that Igbo is indeed not up to par. I've said it before several times, and I'll say it again. Igbo is treated by Igbo people as a relic, rather than something with the potential for growth and specialization. This is not an inherent fault of the language. If it were, then we would have to ask ourselves why our ancestors had no problem continuously coining terms and expressions until contact with Europeans. Fast forward from pre-European contact days to the present and we see that the treatment Igbo has received from Igbo people over the past 100+ years has created a problem that is two-fold.

1) A good deal of lexicon has fallen to obscurity. Some lexical items have even been lost to oblivion. An example of this is the expression biribiriga, which is the Ngwa equivalent for storm/rainstorm. When asked for a translation of storm, most Ngwa today will not have a response. Few will attempt to coin a phrase, and biribiriga remains a forgotten relic. This regression in lexicon then leads to the second part of the two-fold problem.

2) People have now developed the notion that Igbo lacks a robust and sophisticated vocabulary. This notion is oddly prevalent, despite the fact that these same people who carry the notion know only a fraction of the words and expressions used by those who lived just two generations earlier. These same people then progressively switch their mode of speech to English.

From my observation, the current state of Igbo has little to do with grammar and nearly everything to do with lexicon. If people knew half the lexicon of those who lived two to three generations ago and beyond, the state of Igbo would be significantly different [read: 'better'].

Now, back to the terminology. Igbo is a verb based language with an agglutinative structure. An agglutinative structure is a structure in which expressions are created from the stringing together of words, whose forms do not change once the words have been strung together. For example, nchoputa oria is an agglutination of two expressions, nchoputa and oria. Barring the morphological rules behind the conjugation of nchoputa, both expressions will retain the same form whether they are agglutinated together or not. In other words, the full meaning of nchoputa is still attested for, even when separated from oria and vice versa. There is no attested level of grammatical construction after this, among the Igboid languages. From my understanding then, it's not so much that Scholti wants to completely undo the grammatical structure of the languge, but rather, it is at this point [post-agglutination] where Scholti wants to introduce a new layer of grammatical construction.

Now, I have no problem with the introduction of a new layer of grammatical construction, so long as it works. However, this particular sort of grammatical addition that Scholti is suggesting is unlikely to be well-received, like Ezeagu stated. This isn't because it is ineffectual, but rather because it doesn't sit well in the mind or roll off comfortably from the tongue, and the reason for this is because it reflects an attempt to think simultaneously in English (just a case-in-point here) and Igbo. In other words, inflecting words/expressions after they have already been strung together. That is where the hiccup lies (if I can even call it that).

In reality, expressions such as mmuta in mmutandu, puru in puruome, onodu in onodumma, etc. actually do not qualify as examples of affixes, but rather examples of agglutination. It's important that we make this distinction now. Affixes are morphological aspects of certain languages that are used to modify meaning. Affixes typically cannot stand alone, as they are only modifiers. For example, \-s\ doesn't mean anything by itself, but affixed to a noun it does. In direct contrast, the mmuta, puru, onodu, etc. can all stand alone, and as such do not represent affixes, but rather instances of whole words in an agglutinated structure. This distinction is important to make, before I discuss the affixes in another post.

Right now, I want to bring our attention back to the reason for this thread, being that Igbo needs to become more robust. Overall, this topic is loaded and I know I stated a lot in this post that relates more so with the nature of Igbo, rather than addressing the point of the thread. However, I did so, because I believe that having that foundation is important. It will help when it comes time to make sense of my upcoming posts. It's late now, so I will be back to post later. In the meantime however, I will close out this post with the below:

I believe the problem with Igbo is a combination of lost lexicon and Igbo speakers' inability to effectively coin new words and expressions. Grammar, I believe, is a non-issue. In my opinion, the verb based structure of Igbo is particularly effective. How would we judge that, one might ask? Well, ask yourself why we often have so much trouble translating from Igbo to English. It isn't because English is short of words, but rather it is because the verb based structure of the language allows for us to capture and express processes in a compact manner. Igbo has the foundation necessary for robust discussion and for the addition of sophisticated lexicon. It simply won't be the same with how English has developed, and I believe that is where people fall short in their understanding.

To drive this point home, I'll tell a story about an experience I had with my grandmother a long while back. She is not an avid computer user. In fact, she's simply a petty trader in Aba, but she visited us here in the States a while back and I had to help her use the computer (my father set up an email for her so she could remain in contact with us once she gets back home). She actually understands and speaks English, but prefers to speak Ngwa (she's more comfortable with that). Anyway, in the process of her doing whatever it was she was doing on the computer, something happened and she could no longer get back to where she was. Of course, she calls me over in Ngwa, telling me how the computer is behaving sickly. I'm going through everything with her, describing what happened and why it failed, telling her where to click, etc. Eventually, in the process of me explaining and helping her, she made a statement that I will never forget. She said.. "a gbaketighita ya ta a gbaketighitaghi ya?", which for all intents and purposes translates as "is it recoverable or is it unrecoverable?". I turned and looked at her, and my mind just starts reeling, because I had long since known the verb construction, but it had never occurred to me to think of it in that way. I simply smiled and replied "mm a gbaketighita ya" (yeah, it's recoverable).

That moment with my grandmother opened my eyes and gave me a better understanding of things that I thought I already knew. I began to see the very same verb based structure I had always been making in a new light. Things that I innately knew to speak made sense to me on a conscious level. Psychologists say that there is a different thought process for every language. After that incident with my grandmother, I began to pay more attention to Ngwa, and little by little, I began to think differently when I thought in Ngwa (I mean, thinking in my head in Ngwa as opposed to thinking in English). I then realized that in this verb based structure lies the potential for compact and sophisticated constructions. What is missing (or our problem) is that we want to think in English and speak in Igbo. That is a mentality that we should do away with.

I'll be back to post about the affixes.

Mandarin is a verb-based language and it uses affixes actively, both borrowed and native. Whole words can stand as affixes, an example is the English '-able' borrowed from French in the middle ages. Affixes are inevitable in the construction of words and invigorating languages. My post in #51 listing 41 affixes in the Igbo-English medical dictionary, demonstrates that there are people who recognize the need for affixes.

The Igbo didn't have a sophisticated civilization like others in and outside the continent, to have developed a large stock of scientific words. True, words have been lost but they wouldn't be sufficient to supply the full corpus of words for academical disciplines, like chemistry, physics etc, if recovered.

The Igbo language does harbour a lot of potential that can create a lot words and channels. I have coined many words from the native Igbo stock, but the fact remains that it exists in a new milieu where it is must admit a new vigour to fully make sense of it. Other languages that have borrowed grammatical aspects like the Chinese, Japanese etc are not inferior. There are many fields of human learning and many registers of language usage that the Igbo language is simply incapable taking on as it is.

I am not advocating the doing away with the traditional Igbo grammar, I am simply calling for a new layer that would interact with the old. It is not thinking in English and writing in Igbo. The changes would interact with the old to create a new fusion that would respond to the grammatical and vocabulary mazes of academical English, the classical repertoire of English, Hindu, French, Chinese etc in written and spoken forms and give the voices of Igbo speakers a solid vocabulary and grammar to communicate the sciences, philosophy, etc in Igbo.

We started on the equal footing that languages borrow morphological aspects. It is a natural and noble thing. It is a sign of greatness. The Chinese language with millennia of civilization hasn't been diminished by borrowing '-ing', nor has the Japanese lost its sheen by borrowing grammatical aspects from English. It is simply a natural course of growth. Ofcourse every introduction, however nativistic, would register unwieldy, in the the settled processes of the language, but this is only a small prize to pay for the amount of expressive power the borrowings or more properly nativization brings (the affixes I am coining are mostly Igbo words). Languages must grow. The Igbo language wouldn't be diminished by nativizing affixes; they would help tremendously in the laddered production of the language. Every language, that has aspired to growth, has done it, whether, noun- or verb-centred.

I am a native speaker and I have as much love and knowledge of the language and its dialects as anyone else out there. I only long to see a language that lives up to its potentials. I have read its writings, listened to its words and I know with more prodding, it would further blossom.

A friend of mine lent me his Igbo-English medical dictionary today, created by a team of Igbo professionals in 2009. I am posting all the affixes in the book here, as an example of the necessity of affixes to drive growth in a language and to demonstrate that it isn't a capricious idea. You cannot have growth in any language without affixes. http://www.amazon.com/Translation-NTAP-1eca-AS-1ee4S-1ee4-1ee4F-1eccD-1ee4-D-1eccK-1ecaTA/dp/1441590269/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

1.-itis (inflammation) amaahia| otitis - amaahia nti
2. - osis (in increated state -ọnọdu| necrosis - ọnọdu ure
3.-iasis (condition of) onodu oria| ascariasis =ọnọduọriaokpo
4.-pathy (suffering from disease) mgbu| encephalopathy-mgbuuburu
5.-ectomy (surgical removal) mbepu |splenectomy- mbepu apupa
6. -oma(swelling, tumor) akpu| leiomyoma- akpuajienyi
7.-otomy (cutting onto) Ọwuwa| cystotomy= ọwuwa akpa amiri
8.-ostomy (surgically create an opening) nkwanyonu
9.-pexy (fixation) nkwusi | colpopexy-nkwuzi otu
10. -megaly (enlargement) mbufe oke| acromegaly- agba mbufe oke
11. -lysis (destruction, dissolution) mgbali| osteolysis - mgbali ọkpukpu
12. -ectasis (dilation) okuko-afọ|
bronchiectasis -okuko-afo obere opi
13.dynia (pain) mgbu
14.-algia 9pain) ufu | myalgia - ufu anu aru
15.-rrhea (discharge) nrisi |otorrhea- nrisi nti
16. -emia (blood) ọbara| anemia- ọbara ọtita
17. -penia (few) mkpuru one n'one |neutropenia - ọbara ọcha di mkpuru one n'one
18. -ology (study of) ọmumu maka| rheumatology - ọmumu maka nkwo
19.oligo- (small, few) uko| oligimenrrhea - ukọ asomezi
20. poly(many, much) imirikiti| polyphagia- imirikiti riri nri
21.hyper -(excessive) okanku| hyperemesis - okanku agboo
22. hypo- (below normal) nsunani| hypotension - nsunani ike uje ọbara
23. sub ( under, incomplete , less than) | subcutaneous -okpuru akpukpọ anuaru
24. super ( above, excessive) nri enu| superovulation - akwa nri enu
25. pre- (before) tupu/nkwadebe| preeclampsia - nkwadebe ose ime
26.post ( behind, subsequent to) aghasia| postpartum- aghasia imu nnwa
27. ante -(before) odinihu |antepartum- odinihu omumu nwa
28.bi-(double,two,twice) uzọ ibua/mkpi
29. anti-(against, counteracting) ogbochi| antibiosis -ogbochi njepeka
30.an-(absence of) ezughi oke |anencephaly-isi ezughi oke
31.dys-(bad status) njọ, ntọkiri, nsogbu |dysphagia - nsogbu ilo nri
32. a-(without) enweghi |enweghi nmetuta n'obi
33.endo-(inside) ime |endometrial-ime akpa nwa
34.eu (good status) enweghi nsogbu| euglycemia - shuga enweghi nsogbu
35. hydro-(water) miri | hydrorrhea-miri nruputa
36.intra -(during, within) n'ime| intraperitoneal - n'ime afọ
37. macro-(large)
|Macrognathia- agba buru ibu
38. micro-(very tiny) pere mpe, peka| microbiology - ọmumu maka opeka ndu
39. neo-(ohuru) |neonate- nwa ohuru
40.pyo-(pus) abu|

pyorrhea- iruputa abu
41. ad- (motion toward) njekwute, mmakọdo| adhesion - mmakọdo ime aru
|

ezeagu:


Maybe I didn't explain well since it was a quick reply. I know most languages have affixes, what I'm saying is that they deal with affixes in their own way. That Chinese journal for example gives us affixes and sudo-affixes which in the first page introduction has been described as different to English, these affixes I'm seeing on this thread look like a transliteration of the Latin/Greek/French affixes. Chinese may have taken its own process of affixation and extended it to other words and semantic fields influenced by English, but that's exactly what I was explaining you can do with Igbo now. Also every type of affix does not work interchangeably in the Chinese and English version for example. For instance, in Igbo, -ise/-ize is already covered by mẹ-, 'doing', so the word synchronise can be mmẹnyikọ. To use what ChinenyeN was saying, the affixes you used sound like we would be thinking in English and writing in Igbo. In some language affixes can stand alone, like -gate in the Chinese example given in the PDF we're talking about.

As I said before, I don't think rigid affixes should be added that ignore the system already in place because it would overlook the differences in Igbo and assume the Enlgish mode as superior, also when we then start using the different type of affixes they'd become confusing. I actually do not believe that Igbo speakers are abandoning Igbo, there are more Igbo speakers everyday. The phenomena of Igbo not being passed to children is the problem, although this is usually for those outside of Igboland, and there are a number of reasons for this that have little to do with Igbo itself. One reason is that Igbo speakers suffer under diglossia, which means even the most well versed Igbo speaker would write a notice board for example in English or would write a novel in English. This is because the language they are taught is English, there are no Igbo language schools in terms of teaching literature and priority subjects in Igbo. The dominance of English and the dominance of 'thinking in English, speaking in Igbo', as well as what we're saying about forgotten terms, has lead to perception of Igbo as archaic, even though people continue to speak it, also there's the perception that learning in Igbo or even teaching your children Igbo would hinder their chances at speaking good English which is dressed up as the worlds language, meaning opportunity. All of this boils to the point that even if you were to add all the vocabulary needed for the 21st century, or even completely change Igbo you would be hard pressed to find a 'middle-class' Igbo speaker who would send their child to an Igbo-language school, even though many "elite" send their children to French-language schools. It's because of perception, just like Latin was the only language of academia in Europe for hundreds of years. Like the example you gave of Hausa, it's flourishing in media because it's a lingua franca for millions of people who are from diverse backgrounds in northern Nigeria, as opposed to English most times. A problem with Igbo, however, is that its writing system isn't the best.

In terms of registers of language, English may have a simple and complex form for example, but German does not. Chinese may have a classical form, but English doesn't. It all depends on the history and function of the language itself.

German doesn't have simple and complex forms? English doesn't have a classical form? Did you really write these? Really? You are just throwing around hazy thought processes and inaccuracies and hoping that they stick. For your information, English and German, have, high, low, classical and other forms of register. I thought you were a traditionalist fighting a rearguard action, but now I believe you do not understand the profundity of what I am about. You are just lost in a localized way of thinking. Even if Igbo has lost words and aspects of grammar, they wouldn't be half enough to supply a modern vocabulary or grammar (if recovered). The simple truth is that the Igbo didn't have a robust civilization, to boast of lots of scientific terms or a high-powered repertoire of words.

Your refutations only reinforce the points I am making. The article I posted was about the borrowings the Chinese language took from English and nativized. I posted that article in response to your assertion that Chinese doesn't work with affixes: they do, massively, both native and foreign ones. The article is simply saying that it nativizes the borrowings it takes from English as I am doing. I am simply nativizing affixes from English as Chinese and plenty other languages have done. If your accusation that I am simply transliterating English words to Igbo is based on my proposed affixes like 'sis', I only chose them for illustrative purposes. 99.9% of the affixes I am working on are Igbo words . Guess what, I am not the only one thinking along the lines of affixes; today, a friend of mine, lent me an Igbo medical dictionary that was created in 2009 by a team of Igbo medical professions and it contains 41! affixes. ( Here is the book on amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Translation-NTAP-1eca-AS-1ee4S-1ee4-1ee4F-1eccD-1ee4-D-1eccK-1ecaTA/dp/1441590269/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8).

I am going to copy out the affixes here in another post. Every language that aspires to serious usage borrows/nativizes/creates affixes and words. The Chinese are not fools for borrowing '-ing'; nor are the Greeks fools for borrowing '-s' for their plurals; nor are the Germans fools for borrowing 'welt' from English (a nativized word denoting conscious or wide.) Affixes help the expressive powers of a language. And if you shelter under the argument that Igbo 'belongs to a different language family or is different', I would reply that language families are arbitrary, all languages share the same fundamental features.

I am not out to prove that the English language is superior, I am simply out to take the Igbo language to the next level, out of domestic settings to serious oral and written usages. Many Igbos do not believe that the language should be used to communicate biology, physics etc; they are content in the language being a local champion (and thus dying.) Languages must be made relevant to the times we live in, if they are used at all; that means we must create affixes that communicate every aspect of human experiences, the sciences, politics, economics etc. Yes we would incur a little awkwardness in the grammar structure initially, but it is a prize worth paying to advance the language. There is no alternative. And schools that teach exclusively in Igbo are not mandatory for the language to prosper: the Hausa language proves my point. Despite not having schools exclusive to it, it is a bounding, prosperous language. Many people make a living in Nigeria as Hausa journalists, radio hosts, media personnels etc; whereas the Igbo language spoken natively in more than seven states cannot even muster a single newspaper. There is simply no excuse for the Igbo language not to take on the next level of growth; it would do so with a new layer of grammar.

Phut:


I like this. Would Puta and putara also be substitutes?

The beauty of the Igbo language is that it is oceanic, never-ceasing, spoken across many dialects. However, we must move towards the codification of certain words. We must have one answer to the English suffix '-able.' I am quite happy with any consensus developed for it, whether it is 'pụrụ' or 'puta' or 'putakwara.'

ezeagu:


Yeah, citadel, or walled enclosure like a fortress is iga, cross bow (Onitsha) is akpẹde (Bini: ekpede), and island is àgwà (more common) or àgwè.

The thread was about exposing the role of affixes in Igbo word creation. We were trying to figure out what the connotation of the affixes gave a verb root. We will use the verb má, to be beautiful, for example.

a - affix for either past tense, or for an institution, like an institution of beauty, if tha makes sense, so: àmá, past tense, 'was beautiful'; ámá, 'the beauty (in an abstract sense)'
i/ị - affix for being in the state of, or for the 'dictionary entry' of a verb, so: ịma, 'to be beautiful'
e/ẹ - affix for the inherent action of something/someone, so (maybe not used here so much, but): ẹmá, 'beautifying' ?
u/ụ - affix of the appearance of the verb, or the archetype, so: ụmá, 'beautiful', 'beauty thing'.
o/ọ - affix for he/she/it and something continuing the verb, so: ọma, good, do good; ọmá, they are/become beautiful.

n - affix for continuation, so: nma, beauty
m - different version of 'n', sometimes dialectal.

Maybe I didn't use the right translations, maybe I'm adding extra there, there was a wider discussion, but this is what I remember.

As I wrote earlier, the Igbo language does have its native affixes (every language does), but they are not enough. A new energy must be added to the Igbo language for it to be a serious language, if not it would remain a language of domestic usage, and one that its natives run away from whenever they want to discuss politics, the sciences, philosophy etc.We need new accelerated affixes that cover the multidimensionality of human existence.

One of the affixes I am advocating for is 'pụrụ (can, able).'

Understandable - pụrụnghọta
doable - pụrụome
livable - pụrụobibi
justifiable -pụrụezi
eatable - pụrụoriri

1.The house is livable. (Ulọ a pụrụobibi.)
2.It is actionable in court. (Ọ pụrụomume na ulọikpe.)
3. It is perfectly understandable. (Ọ pụrụnghọta nke zuruoke.)

Phut:

Ugboulo is a better word for camper because it's a vehicle in which you can live. Ezi doesn't do it since most of not all vehicles operate na Ezi.

Ugbo mgbati (which I believe u used before) is better for Limo's. Ugboak u is too vague since any expensive vehicle could fit that bill

I already have ugboulo down for caravan. I never gave limousine a name.

ChinenyeN:
Ezeagu is hitting a point that I plan on discussing. Ezeagu, I remember that discussion very well and I actually made notes on it, fortunately before the data loss. That is something that I actually intended on including in my response to Scholti. Also, for hospitalization, I would actually suggest nno as opposed to ndo, due to the relationship -do has with inanimate object, but that is only a passing thought.

Scholti, there's no need to apologize. We all live lives outside of NL that would typically hinder us from immediate response. Also, this topic is loaded and requires thought. So, I don't expect you to always have an immediate response to a post I make. I don't have time now, but I will certainly be back to post my response. I believe it'll prove interesting.

Yes sometimes, events intervene. Thanks for understanding.

Phut:

I don't think "beautifuness" is a good test case
@ Ezeagu: Thanks for the translation.
Ezeagu and Scholti how do we say the following words. Is there an already workable affix for these words or is there a need to extend the already existing:

biliousness, wantonness, manliness, faithfulness, freshness, wretchedness, trimness, abruptness, aggressiveness, righteousness, attentiveness, craftiness, fastness, fieriness, genteelness, gratefulness, greasiness, grouchiness, haughtiness, humbleness, indebtedness, queasiness, spaciousness, squeamishness, awareness, graciousness, ọnọdu, braveness, brawniness

Biliousness ọnọduigbọagbọ/ọnọduajọiwe
wantonness - ọnọduaghara
manliness - ọnọdunwoke
faithfulness - ọnọdujuruokwukwe ('juru' is the suffix for '-ful')
freshness - ọnọduọhuru
wretchedness - ọnọdunkirika
trimness - ọnọdumma
abruptness - ọnọdubiaọsọ
aggressiveness- ọnọdujaọgu
righteousness- ọnọdueziomume
attentiveness-ọnọdunyeanya
craftiness -ọnọduaghughọ
fastness- ọnọduọsọ
fieriness - ọnọduọkuuhie
genteelness - ọnọdunwayọ
gratefulness - ọnọdujurunabaọma
greasiness- ọnọdummanu
grouchiness - ọnọdujupi
haughtiness- ọnọduobielu
humbleness - ọnọduumeala
indebtedness- ọnọdujiriugwọ
queasiness- ọnọduahugiri
spaciousness- ọnọduefe
squeamishness - ọnọduaguzona
awareness - ọnọdumara
graciousnes - ọnọduamara
bitterness - ọnọduilu

ezeagu:


I guess if you taught onodu and its words people would get it, but currently onodu is a word on its own so the compound words onodu ohuru and onodu oriri would mean 'new position' and 'eating position' currently, but I can see where you're going.

I chose 'ọhuru' (crisp) because of the poverty of Igbo vocabulary. Ọhuru is one of those Igbo words that is overburdenned with responsiblities. Seriously the Igbo language has to get into the business of proper word creations. 'Ọnodu-' is the strongest word for '-ness' in the Igbo language. 'Ndu-' is for '-hood' (childhood, ndunwa), 'okwa-' is for '-ship' (friendship, okwaenyi).

Sentence examples
I appreciate his friendship. Ọkwaenyi ya masiri m.
He had a good childhood. O nwere ndunwa di mma.

Phut:
@scholti: some of us (me included) don't know much about affixes in Igbo language. So why don't you use this as a teaching tool?

Make up a list showing the already existing affixes and how they are used. If there is a shortfall in an area, point it out and what can be done to fill that need.
I think what you are doing is great. But people will not accept change for change sake. You have got to make a case for it

The Igbo language has its affixes; it is embedded in it, hence many of its native speakers may not recognise it; but I am interested in a higher order of affixes that cover every aspect of humanity, the sciences, economics, lingusitics etc. There is nothing wrong with the Igbo traditional affixes like '-ri' (-ed), '-chacha' (completely) i.e mechacha, richacha; '-wapu' ( finished, completely) i.e tiwapu, kewapu etc; all I am advocating for is that the Igbo grammar is too poor to carry serious conversations in any specialist area of humanity on its own feet, therefore it has to admit a new vitality. Affixation is a well-known linguistical tool that every language that has ever aspired to serious usage has used to expand its vocabulary. They can be natural or borrowed.

To be blunt the Igbo language doesn't have a choice, it has to change dramatically if it intends to survive for at least two more generations. Already no one uses the Igbo language in any serious capacity because the vocabulary and grammar are not there. It would cost Igbo a little awkwardness/rigidity - existence isn't simple -but it is a little prize to pay to advance the language. Spoken Igbo is already heavily hybridized a, subconscious admittance by the native speaker that their language is simply underdeveloped. Languages do borrow words but in an ordered fashion; in Igbo's case, it does so because it has no choice, the grammar and ofcourse vocabulary isn't there. There isn't a single Igbo newsite on the internet, Hausa has dozens. I cannot write an article on linguistics in Igbo for instance, because the specialist vocabulary and grammar locomotive aren't there. The same thing applies to every field of study on earth.

So in conclusion, the old grammar is simply insufficient, it must cohabit with a new transfusion to survive. I am not advocating for childish, domestic Igbo, I am advocating for a robust Igbo that has the sufficient affixes and vocabulary to take on any area of human knowledge, biology, engineering, physics, chemistry, philosophy, economics etc, in written and spoken form.

Phut:

Is the affix not "fe" instead of "efe"?
Me = Do. Mefe = overdo
Zuo = Buy Zufe = overbuy

Also the affix is "gharia" not "aria"
Me = do. Megharia = Redo
Zuo = buy. Zugharia = Rebuy
Efe and aria threw me off

I apologize, I was typing quickly, I committed some typos. Your spellings are correct.

ezeagu:


From the little knowledge of other major, thriving languages in modernity I know, the Greek/Latin affix style in English isn't a necessity, in my opinion, to 'modernise' a language. For me, this transliterating the Greek/Latin/French prefixes doesn't modernise Igbo, but Anglicises it, and to be honest, it doesn't run smoothly with the current grammar of Igbo and I don't think people would pick this up. I can talk about Astrophysics in Igbo perfectly if you give me the vocabulary. There are ways Igbo handles words that English may handle in a different way, not because English is more 'modern', but because they are completely separate languages and should be left as such. For example certain words in Igbo do not have complete translations in English in terms of meaning, there may be words in Igbo that are more specific to something, there may be those that are more general than the English term, and because Igbo may use (compound) words instead of a single word doesn't mean it doesn't work. I would recommend looking at major languages from other language families if you haven't, and also looking at the etymology and development of the English language to see where I'm coming from. Look at Spanish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb#/media/File:Conjugaci%C3%B3n_de_correr.png

In my opinion English is more rigid and inflexible than Igbo, this inflexibility can seem more 'scientific' and hence 'modern', but I would disagree and say this comes from the bias of the status English language has in our education system. Chinese is like Igbo in the sense that it doesn't have these affixes and it uses compound words instead, yet it is spoken with minimum loan words by more than a billion people for instance who are sometimes leading in technology in recent times without knowing a word of English. English uses those affixes because it has to. And again, Igbo is actually a growing language, but the problem is only with a few vocabulary words like computer and other words which have been forgotten. Which brings me to my next point.


http://wenku.baidu.com/view/4d58d5240722192e4536f656.html

For the supposed needed affixes, the ones you listed such as da, aria, and so on are actually verbs that have adopted the role of an affix, this is unique to Igbo in terms of English, and in that way you can make any verb an affix, or correctly, a compound word. It's good you brought that up because this works for Igbo, and I honestly don't think anything needs to changed in Igbo because of this.

With all due respect, there is not a single modern language that doesn't use affixes, from 'Greek/Latin/French', if you choose to see them as the birthplaces of affixes. Affixes are universal to all languages including Igbo, they come from frequency or convenience. It is not true that Chinese doesn't have 'those' affixes. As well as having native affixes, it has borrowed many affixes from English directly and indirectly (through Japanese).(http://www.colips.org/journals/volume21/21.1.2-WangLei.pdf). There is not a single language that is breathing,- Arabic, Hindu, Russian, Lithuanian - that isn't robustly affixed. As languages modernise they become rigid, it has been the case for every language in serious usage; because they leave their simple ways of existing to more challenging topics and settings. It has to do with civilisation. Look at all the technology in the world and all the issues it faces; they must necessarily impact language.The Igbo language would incur a little rigidity but it is a price that every living language pays.

I have to read academic journals everyday and often they feel like a completely different language to common English. Every language on earth are the same, they may have different ways of saying things but they are all the same, that means they all share similar traits. English and Igbo belong to the same human language family, but the Igbo language is so poor in vocabulary and grammar that no Igbo discusses, Astrophysics, Economics, Biology, Engineering etc in it. You can't have vocabulary without grammar, the two move together. Grammar regulates word mutations. My sights are not just on English but in at least 15 languages that I have studied their grammars (I speak 6 international languages). Some of the affixes I am compiling, come from the bowels of the language.

Ghettosizing and refusing to modernise the Igbo language is why no one takes it serious even in traditional Igbo settings. The grammar is simply poor and results in comical translations by Igbo translators in an attempt to ring around English. Igbo is only used in domestics settings, farms and children playgrounds because it has failed to modernise. It has failed to do what Sankrit, Japanese, French etc did to bring their language to serious usage. This is not time for sentimentality, if the Igbo language must survive, it must create a new grammar and many new words. Grammar regulates words. Affixation is a well-known linguistical tool used to create words; languages have used them from time immemorial. No one that knows anything about languages would even suggest otherwise. The Chinese, Japanese etc are not fools to have borrowed lots of suffixes from English to enable them translate and use their languages robustly. Affixes are not unique to Latin or French or Greek, they are found in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Zulu etc.

A language must have many layers of registers, classical, literary, scientific, idiomatic, slangy etc, if it must be a truly dynamic language its speakers want to use for the sciences, economics and multi-variegated human experiences (if that language wants to survive.) I give the Igbo language two more generations and if serious changes do not happen in its grammar that would enable the dynamic production of language (as well as a solidly developed vocabulary, not all the comical dictionaries around), it would either die or morph into a something that would even be avoided in domestic settings. Already, its speakers have mostly abandoned it. There is not a single functioning Igbo news site. I don't really blame anyone because after seeing what a language is capable of by learning world languages, nobody wants to tarry long with a diminutive language. Neither is the claim that the English being our national language impedes the progress of the language: the Hausa language is flourishing with many newspapers, in Nigeria and internationally; and many works of fiction and non-fiction are published each year in the language.

ezeagu:
You see things like 'beautifulness' are simply 'nma', from the verb 'ma' to be beautiful, for example.

Yes, this is one instance, where the old Igbo grammar works well without the need for an affix (the new also works).
Her beautifulness shone throughout the room. (Mma ya chakwa na ulọime nile (traditional grammar)). I advocate for the intermingling between the old grammar and a new grammar. But in other instances appending '-ọnọdu (-ness)' is inevitable for a compact meaning.

Sample this sentence.The gameplay trailer was also unveiled prior to the release, showing the bread's quest to find the perfect level of crispiness and edibleness. (Egwuregwu ngosiizizi kpugherekwara tupu mwepụta, na-egosi ọchịchọ achịcha ịchọta larịị zuru okè nke ọnọduọhuru na ọnọduoriri.)

*trailer - ngosiizizi

ezeagu:
There was a thread I made on affixes in Igbo, unfortunately nairaland suffered massive data loss which affected the thread and it's gone.

To summarise, Igbo already has its affixed. From my experience, the problem isn't with Igbo grammar in general, but modern vocabulary. I'm also wary that many words we think do not exist do exist but have simply gone obscure because of the influence of English. For example, there are Igbo words for citadel, crossbow and island, but many people don't know these words now.

The affixes we talked about that already exist in Igbo word creating were the vowels, u a i e o, and m and n.

For a quick example, I'll try and makeup words for the terms you were considering using the affixes.

Agronomist - òdóùgbó - o [affix of him/her/it] + do [arrange, maintain] + ugbo [farm]. alt òdúgbó, òdómúgbó.
Hospitalization - ǹdónańgwọ - n [affix for continuing] + do [place, keep, stay] + na [in] + n + gwọ [heal].

And so on.

The Igbo language does have its native affixes like '-efe' (over, excess)', '-aria' (repeat), '-da' (reduction) etc, but more needs to be created that would span every field of human endeavour,like the sciences, philosophy, economics etc as well mundane aspects of existence. We must have readily codified answers (affixes) to 'Hydro-', 'astro-', 'bathy-', 'chrono-', 'chromo-' 'mis-', 'dis-' etc. We must be able to translate the word 'deactivated' (Sepuomumewo) in one compact word rather sentences. 'Sepu-' or 'wepu-' is my proposal for 'de-'; 'omume' stands for action; while 'wo' is my proposal for unusual or unorthodox manifestations of past tense (-ed) in Igbo. 'Misdiagnosed' is 'Ajọnchọputaọriawo', one compact word, with 'ajọ-' standing for 'mis-'.'Underrepresented' is 'Okpurunnọchitewo, with 'Okpuru-' standing for 'under-'. I am working on a list of more than 1000 Igbo affixes that covers all aspects of human life. The Igbo language must move towards codification, certainty.

The affixes you have written are interesting. I have heard and used 'ǹdóna-' in a running way to signify keeping (dobe, ndobe); 'òdó' is great. As I have written, the affixes I have come up with are blueprints. I want to create a conversation, a movement, to take the Igbo language to a new level, gramatically and vocabulary-wise. I am quite happy with any affix created, codified or rediscovered and put back to popular written and spoken usage, as long as they are there. They must be there if the Igbo language would belong to this century. So if 'ǹdóna-' stands or '-ization', it is fine; in fact I can see it working with words like militarization (ǹdónaagha), internalization (ǹdónaime), internationalization (ǹdónammekọobodo) etc. It is a good suffix for '-ization.' 'òdó' is also a good prefix for '-ist': economist (òdóakunauba), physicalist ( òdómmetuanya), activist (òdóomume) etc.

Sentence example
It's a long-held internalization that I, and so many of us, have. Ọ bụ ǹdónaime jidewo-ologolo, mu na ọtụtụ n'ime anyị, nwere.

I have just edited the lists at no. 1 and 9, to reflect corrections, for example I have changed ugboulọ (camper) to ugboezi. Use the first list for a more expansive list (258 items) of vehicles and aircrafts, while, no.9 (64 items) for a truncated list - for everyday usage. I have also added two new words I missed in the first list (limousine - ugboaku; Segway - Ugboọkpa).

ChinenyeN,

I apologize profusely for the lateness of this reply. My work delayed me from replying on time.

I am glad we agree that languages have been altered to suit the trajectory of their users. It really is the only way. Languages are not simply organic developments, they must undergo deliberate changes if they desire to attain a higher strata of usage. And the changes do not have to take place over a long period of time. The modern Hebrew grammar is in certain respects, different from the old Hebrew and it is a recent language. The modern Russian language that was hewn out of the old was achieved from the middle of the nineteenth century and by the twentieth century became a language of science and other disciplines. As long as there is a will, change is possible.

I chose 'sis' and 'iki' deliberately for easy recognition. I wanted Igbo speakers to look at the words and know what is happening. Any term can be used in the place of these affixes. I expect that in the future new terms for the affixes - whether it is 'ba' for 'iki' or 'ga' for 'ist', etc - would be chosen as long as the positions of the affixes are maintained.

With all due respect, the sentences you gave me to translate are not typical of advanced writings. I make a living reading journals written in turgid proses that would embarrass the Igbo language with their maze of grammar and vocabulary. The Igbo language simply lacks the grammatical resilience to take them on (whether Izugbe or the dialects.) If you want me to demonstrate what I am advocating, give me a lengthy passage, where I can demonstrate the interaction between the traditional Igbo grammar and my proposed affixes. I am not advocating for the doing away with the Igbo traditional grammar, I am simply calling for a new layer of commonsense additions, attune with the times we live in now. The Igbo traditional grammars - dialects and Izugbe - have had their day; it is time for them to co-habit with a new vitality.

Igbo dialects are the storehouses of the Igbo language, they hold the treasures and genius of the Igbo language from the ages and in the dispensation of quickening Izugbe, -I long for a greater rapport between the dialects and Izugbe - they would play an absolute role, but they still suffer from the frailties that afflict Izugbe. While Izugbe is an artificial language, it is the only answer we have to the many Igbo dialects and most new Igbo words that have been been coined have been done in Izugbe; it is the language through which Igbo is written. Your dialect is beautiful and I could tell the meaning of many of the words but like Izugbe, your translation relies on expository rendition in place of compact English. For instance, your, 'Oru aka ya di egwu.' doesn't tally with the register 'incredible' functions in. The word 'incredible' is made possible by two affixes, 'in' and '-ble.' Your 'di egwu', only achieves an idiomatic or colloquial register.

'Egwu' is an overburdened Igbo word that is called to numerous responsibilities that strains at its aboriginal meanings and lays open the paucity of grammar and vocabulary that the Igbo language (and dialects) wallows in. The word 'egwu' is used by Igbos to mean everything from fear to extraordinary, simply because they haven't like others come up affixes that enable them create new words (but instead recycle Igbo's existing words to the point of comicality.) So even if I think that the sentences - you gave me to translate - do not belong to the advanced levels of usage, I encounter in typical academic or advanced writings, it does contain words with affixes, which your translations mostly explains rather than supply whole chunks like the English equivalents. Languages are pyramidal, they incorporate many layers of usage, classical, technical, high, low, idiomatic, slangs etc. The Igbo language cannot answer high English with explanations; it must like others develop its own ladder of words, it must have its own words with compact meanings.

I didn't just come up with these affixes to destroy the Igbo language. I came to this with a native speaker's concern that the language is just not up to par and needs serious restructuring like every other language that has aspired to serious, multidimensional usage has. Even Igbo speakers recognise the poverty of their grammar and vocabulary, hence whenever they want to speak of specialist areas like philosophy, the sciences etc, they revert to English or they maintain a pretence of speaking Igbo while most their conversational vocabulary is English. The English language has done its homework by creating a language where all sorts of conversations can take place, hence the preference of Igbos for English.

On average, English supplies 50-60% of spoken Igbo content. In some cases I have observed, up to 90%. I cannot really blame them, because the Igbo language has failed to recognise that it lives in a totally different milieu than it did in the seventeenth century. The lesson in all this is that if a language fails to modernise its speakers would desert it for more fulfilling languages, as is the case with Igbo. It is happening with Hausa vis a vis other Northern and Middle-belt languages. Right now the Igbo language is mostly used for trivial or non-heavy settings and even in the gatherings of traditional Igbo events, English is used for the simply reason that Igbo is insufficient. The English language, despite all its richness in vocabulary and grammar still welcomes hundreds of words - made possible by its ample affixes - and to some extent new grammar, every year. For example it borrowed the prefix, 'uber' from German in the nineties. A living, breathing language has to absorb new words and grammar and be useful in the written and oral communications of the sciences, philosophy, economics, etc or else its speakers would abandon it. It must live up to the contemporaneity of the times for retention.

I am a native speaker of Igbo and I was raised by natives of the language. The changes I am advocating, would cost the Igbo language some awkwardness and a little disruption in its organicity, but it is a necessary prize to pay to shake it out of its complacency into a fully-powered modern age. I am not advocating a transliteration from English. At the end of it all, the Igbo language would emerge with its old and new grammar, radiating with a dynamic glow. English is just one of the 15 languages I have studied to bring me to this point and all the languages I have studied, have the affixes I am advocating for, which help them share and impart, words, senses and meanings. If I mention the English language more often, it is because the Igbo language inhabits an intensely English-speaking milieu and the Igbo native speaker being bilingual, can key into the concepts I am advocating. If I had used Urdu affixes, how many Igbos understand the language?

And there is nothing wrong in taking a bit from English (and other languages, as despite language families all languages are the same; they all display continuities and affiliations of expressiveness), it is a language that was formed and shaped by multilingual men and women like Noah Webster and Samuel Johnson, and centuries of usage and adaptation into a language that is the most powerful on earth today. If the English language had still stuck to its Anglo-Saxon grammar, it may not have reached the level it is today, being a language with words from more than 200 languages and significant borrowings from Latin grammar. Affixes enable the creation of words and the compacting of meanings and subtleties. Their absence only leads to explicatory word formations as is the case with Igbo. I am not advocating a mass of obscure rules, but simple affixes every speaker can use. There is nothing harmful about these words and sentences for which the Igbo alternatives would be circular or inconclusive:

English- Igbo
1. Standardization- mekọburuizugbe. ('mekọburu-' stands for '-ization') 'The standardization of Igbo grammar...' 'Mekọburuizugbe ụtọasụsụ nke Igbo...'
2.Agronomist- Ugbositi ('siti' stands for '-ist')
3.Energeticist- Ikeciti
4.Passengers- Ugbovi ('vi' stands for 'er'; the 'vi' stands for role(s))
5.beautifulness- Ọnọdumma ('Ọnọdu-' stands for '-ness')
6.He backpacked around Nigeria.- Ọ akpaazuwo gburugburu Nigeria.('-wo' stands for '-ed', in situations, that are not usual)
7.progressivist- Ọganihusiti (again '-siti' stands for '-ist')
8.accountant- Egositi (again ('-siti') stands for professional role)
9.Librarian- Ọbaakwukwositi
10.translator- Nsughariavi ( '-vi' stands for '-er' or '-or')
11. Engineer- ígwèsiti (Ọ bu ígwèsiti.)
12. Engineering- ígwèsitiin (The '-in' stands for '-ing' and would be used in unusual situations. The engineering work began yesterday. Ọru ígwèsitiin malitere ụnyaahụ.)

ChinenyeN:
Scholti, I've read through this thread as carefully and as thoroughly as I could to understand your project. To be honest, I don't know where to begin. There is a lot going on here. I will first say that I applaud your effort. It takes time and commitment to take on a task like this.

Now, I understand you underlying objective [modernizing/advancing the language], and you aren't the only who wants to achieve such an objective (or at least see it completed). However, I can't help but wonder about your method. Granted, you're correct. History is full of examples of whole communities actively engineering language to suite their needs. However, even in your given examples, the resulting change didn't represent too much of a deviation from what was the preceding language structure, unless over time.

Your efforts though, seem to show a full 180-degree turn from the inherent agglutinative, verb-based language structure. In essence, you're not just suggesting a tweak. You're suggesting a complete overhaul. I don't believe such an overhaul to be entirely necessary, and I'll explain why. Before I do though, I'm curious about something. If you don't mind, translate the below statement for me, using your affixes and the new, grammar structure you're suggesting.

Statement: Due to the irregularity of his symptoms, I recommend you visit a specialist. I know one with excellent diagnostic skills. I trust him to not misdiagnose your son. He does incredible work.

Languages, at an advanced level are as much artificial as they are natural. Take English for instance, the most-spoken language on earth; it's grammar was regularized alongside Latin, hence the proliferation of Latin affixes like 'mis-', 'dis-', 'un-', 're-'; not to mention, that 50-55% of its vocabulary comes from Latin. Language reflects the state of a people's civilization or level of development. As people move into a more sophisticated form of living, they introduce new concepts into their grammar and do away with those that impede the process of expounding and sharing knowledge or communication. It happened with Latin. Rome was dependent on Greece for its scientific vocabulary, until, the Romans, mustered courage to create their own scientific vocabulary, hence the creation of words like 'quantum' and many more that still reverberate today in English vocabulary. The creation of Latin scientific vocabulary was a deliberate act, scientific language wasn't natural to it (it isn't natural to any language). As a matter of fact every area of humanity that has been reduced to study by humanity - philosophy, medicine etc - has been achieved by the creation of grammar and vocabulary.

French, Spanish and all the Romance languages are really artificial languages. They began life as pidgins of Latin until they were standardized. There is very little in those languages of their pre-Latin past, much of their vocabulary and grammar are borrowed. In fact a look at all the international languages would reveal a deliberate engineering process of creation. Japan worked on its grammar and created thousands of new words, to be a language of politics and science that it is today. It didn't just happen with folded arms. It was a swift process to answer to the changes that their progressive march brought. The Igbo language is still in its traditional state, and suffers from the absence of affixes that would enable it to function wholesomely. Its traditional grammar provides no effective succour, it is incomplete and stale and impedes the in- and outflow of words in the language in a multi-variegated ambience. Colloquially, it works well in many settings but even here it is highly short-changed by the lack of a synergy between sophisticated writings and spoken forms, hence the language's resorting to tired idioms and proverbs that have been repeated for centuries, which in the English language would be called 'clichés'. There is a paucity of invention in the language. There is very little variety in spoken Igbo because it has failed to properly modernise. The Igbo language doesn't reflect the high state of civilization that the Igbo live in today compared to the one our forebears lived in the seventeenth century. It must be jump-started into this century with grammatical changes. A great deal of its traditional grammar would remain intact and constitute one layer of the language.

Here is the translated sentence.

N'ihi na adinsoroadi nke mgbaàmàsis ya, akwadorom gi i je obia na puruichesiti. A mam otu nwere nzasis nchọputaki magburuọma. M na-atụkwasị ya obi ka ọ ghara ajọnchọputaọria nwa gi. Ọ na-eme ọru di ịrịba.


Word list and methodology

1. (adinsoroadi; irregularity ) adi+nsoro+adi ('adi-' is a short form of adighi; nsoro means order; 'adi' is the suffix of '-ity')
2. (mgbaàmàsis; symptoms) mgbaàmà+ sis ('sis' means 'is')
3. (puruichesiti; specialist) puruiche+siti (the suffix '-siti' is the equivalent of '-ist')
4. (Nchọputaọriaiki; diagnostic ) Nchọputaọria+iki ( the suffix '-iki' is the english 'ic')
5. (Nzasis; skills) Nza+sis (again '-sis' stands for 's')
6. (ajọnchọputaọria; misdiagnose) ajọ+nchọputa+ọria ( 'ajọ-' represents 'mis-')

Phut:
Nkiti means one of a kind/unique. It does not mean nothingness. Nkirika means raggedy. I feel that is where the word okirika (for 2nd hand clothes comes from). So nkirika may apply to a jalopy or clunker.

I still feel your thread about prefixes and suffixes was a good idea. You just have to get more people on board and get the collaboration going

One strain of the usage of the word 'nkiti' means nothing or bare. Sample these sentences, 'awo anaghi agba oso ehihie na nkiti', ' Ma o bu onye agha ma o bu nwoke nkiti.' All its facets can co-habit.

Yes it was, the prefixes and suffixes. I have been doing researches about Igbo groups to send them to.