Talk:Igbo language

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Archive 1

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kgondim. Peer reviewers: Cythirixs, Reanna.shah.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 22:49, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Grovercleveland17. Peer reviewers: DanniiYarbro, Cephalopod.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 00:15, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Eight Igbo adjectives

BRD: User:Lfdder

First of all, I want to say that this discussion is more than just references and sources, so I've added google searches in links of Igbo phrases to buoy some points a little further.

There aren't only eight adjectives in the Igbo language. Just pointing out a few problems in the source itself: Welmers claims that possible adjectives like /ógólógó/ are only used in front of nouns like /ógólógó ósísí/ 'a tall tree' as nouns, and other colours are "clearly nouns" because they use the the verb /ị́'cá/ 'to shine'. This is incorrect, you can say /ósísí ógólógó/ and gold is called /ọ́là èdò/[1], meaning 'yellow[ish] jewel/ornament'.

These eight adjectives are conjugates anyway and have various other forms, one such is /ọ́má/ which has the variation /mma/ n., /ójí/ 'black' has the root /jí/ v. 'to be black' 'ńjí' n. 'dark', 'black'. Some of these variants like /ḿma/ are listed as 'nouns' in the source when they can be used as a noun and an adjective. Then there's the part where Igbo has different colours like /èdò/ 'yellow' or 'golden', and /ọbara-ọbara/ 'blood red', lit. 'blood-blood' or 'bloody-bloody'. It doesn't even elaborate on the issue of dialects and how it relates to the adjectives.

How would you even explain words like /nwá óké/ 'man', a joining of the words for 'male' /óké/ (an adjective) and /nwá/ literally meaning 'child' but which often make a descriptive word an adjective?

The articles expansion will inevitably run into the adjectives that the article claims are nonexistent. The user Kwami did not attempt to make any reasonable discussion outside of accusing ignorance and implying that I do not understand what an adjective is. I am a user that actually speaks Igbo fluently so the claim is even more ridiculous to me. "basically saying references don't count if he doesn't believe them", no, I'm looking for evidence of such a major feature of a language than a 30+ year old reference, especially when mostly everything else says otherwise. Ukabia - talk 21:40, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We don't accept OR. Perhaps Igbo has more adjectives, perhaps it has none. But you need a source to counter a source. — kwami (talk) 21:55, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's alright reciting original research for specific facts that aren't as generic, but the claim of eight adjectives is a result of the original authors identified words, plus other sources citing the author read like this is a theory. This wikipedia article already lists another loaned adjective /blu/ right before the claim that there are only eight adjectives so the basis for accepting original research or not is not a case here. What is the case here is that there are hundreds of sources with Igbo adjectives, numbering well over eight, that will eventually (and have already apparently) lend some of those words to this article. Someone is going to have to explain why /óké/ for example is not an adjective while at the same time maintaining the criteria for the eight adjectives. I've already provided actual words that are adjectives in Igbo, including one that is in the article. I don't have a hard time finding a source for /óké/, I have a source for /ogologo/ being a postmodifier (English in Igboland: A Contrastive Study of English and Igbo Syntax, Oluikpe (1978)) and there are dozens of other books based on Igbo learning that explain adjectives. Ukabia - talk 23:56, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It wouldn't surprise me if the number were wrong. The point being made, though, is that Igbo adjectives are a small closed class, which is typical of the area. — kwami (talk) 03:14, 10 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's a different case to how the article read which was certain there were only eight adjectives. The count wasn't something that should have been added as absolutely certain and I can pretty much guess this was added by someone who read about it and thought to add it to the article. The article shouldn't be 100% on the amount of adjectives when the original source isn't 100% and terms like 'extremely low' should be avoided because there's question to whether Igbo has adjectives in the first place. Ukabia - talk 06:43, 10 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps we could say "Payne counts just eight". If you want to say it has none, you'll need a ref.

Sorry if I didn't have much patience with you: we've had some really bad edits to some of the Nigerian language articles, and I don't cut people much slack any more. — kwami (talk) 07:02, 10 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The text is fine. It was just a slightly misleading line that needed some tweaking so I'll have to look at a source more carefully next time. Ukabia - talk 12:43, 10 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. My initial assumption was that you saw a linguistic claim as an attack on the language, esp. when you checked the dictionary [the English translation is an adjective, so the Igbo word must be an adjective too]. — kwami (talk) 05:00, 11 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sranantongo

The examples "unu" and "soso" mentioned have the same meaning in Sranantongo, spoken in Suriname. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 186.179.236.191 (talk) 13:46, 30 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Grammar and Citations

A couple of suggestions for improvement:

Aside from the phonology section and the discussion of the adjective class, the article contains next to nothing on grammar, be it morphology, syntax, even something like basic word order. Any of this would make a valuable addition.

On another note, several of the claims made throughout aren't linked to any particular source and probably ought to be. In particular, the claim about apparent dialect leveling should probably be supported, and, regarding the discussion of tone, Goldsmith must have used Igbo to promote autosegmental phonology in a publication of some sort. Surely it can be included in the references as well? Grovercleveland17 (talk) 06:28, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed contributions

I think the diaspora and usage section could be further developed to include a forward looking section that discusses the potential for Igbo's extinction. I plan to pull from the following articles and am open to any suggestions:

Azuonye, Chukwuma, "Igbo as an Endangered Language" (2002). Africana Studies Faculty Publication Series. 17. http://scholarworks.umb.edu/africana_faculty_pubs/17

Igboanusi, Herbert. "Is Igbo an endangered language?" Multilingua - Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 25.4 (2008): 443-452. Retrieved 7 Jul. 2017, from doi:10.1515/MULTI.2006.023

Obadan, Maria I. “Language Endangerment: Issues of Igbo Proverbs.” English Linguistics Research, 4.3 (2015): 1-12. Retrieved 7 Jul. 2017, from http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/elr/article/view/7283 Kgondim (talk) 00:26, 7 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Semi-protected edit request on 25 December 2021

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Why are deceiving the public showing a Mormon Igbo book? What are you doing??? We don’t practice Mormonism—a demonic, racist religion. Remove this nonsense immediately! 2600:1700:D2E1:1F40:4DD5:7BE:B9E9:E568 (talk) 20:58, 25 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. Morneo06 (talk) 22:43, 25 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 7 January 2022

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

The infprmation on this page is incorrect and offensive towards me Wmartin69 (talk) 15:45, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Kpddg ^(talk) 15:46, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

linguistic black ubonix

Any link to this area and ubonix? Markblomquist (talk) 05:03, 8 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

To add to article

To add to this article: how is the double N (nn) pronounced in Igbo, as in the male given name Nnamdi? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 00:58, 18 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]