Ibibio language

Ibibio
Usem Ibibio
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Abia State, Akwa Ibom State, Rivers State, Cross River State
Ethnicity	Ibibio
Native speakers	L1: 6.26 million (2020) L2: 4.5 million (2022)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Cross River Lower Cross Ibibio-Efik Ibibio
Writing system	Latin Nsibidi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ibb
Glottolog	ibib1240

An Ibibio speaker, recorded in the United Kingdom.

Ibibio is the native language of the Ibibio people of Nigeria, belonging to the Ibibio-Efik dialect cluster of the Cross River languages. The name Ibibio is sometimes used for the entire dialect cluster. In pre-colonial times, it was written with Nsibidi ideograms, similar to Igbo, Efik, Anaang, and Ejagham. Ibibio has also had influences on Afro-American diasporic languages such as AAVE words like buckra, and buckaroo, which come from the Ibibio word mbakara, and in the Afro-Cuban tradition of abakua.

Geographic distribution

Ibibio is the language of the Ibibio people. The Ibibio people are found in Southeastern Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State, Cross River State, and Eastern Abia State (Arochukwu and Ukwa East LGA's). Ibibio communities in Opobo Nkoro and Oyigbo LGA's of Rivers State are largely unknown.

Some Ibibio are found in other countries (Western Cameroon, Bioko and Ghana).

Phonology

Consonants

Ibibio consonant phonemes

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	b	t		k	k͡p
	voiced		d
Fricative	voiceless	f	s
Approximant				j		w

• /m, b/ are bilabial, whereas /f/ is labiodental.
  • /b/ has two allophones, which occur in complementary distribution: voiceless [p] and voiced [b].
• /n, d, s/ are alveolar [n, d, s], whereas /t/ is dental [t̪].
• Stem-initial /ŋ/ is realized as [ŋ͡w].

Intervocalic plosives are lenited:

• /b/ → [β]
• /t, d/ → [ɾ]
• /k/ → [ɢ̆] or [ɰ]

Vowels

Ranges for Ibibio monophthongs, from Urua (2004:106)

Ibibio vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
	unrounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ʌ	o
Open	a		ɔ

• /i, u/ are phonetically near-close [ɪ, ʊ].
• /e, ʌ, o/ are phonetically true-mid; /ʌ/ is also strongly centralized: [e̞, ʌ̝̈, o̞].
• /a, ɔ/ are phonetically near-open; /a/ is central rather than front: [ɐ, ɔ̞].

Between consonants, /i, u, o/ have allophones that are transcribed [ɪ, ʉ, ə], respectively. At least in case of [ɪ, ə], the realization is probably somewhat different (e.g. close-mid [e, ɘ]), because the default IPA values of the symbols [ɪ, ə] are very similar to the normal realizations of the Ibibio vowels /i, ʌ/. Similarly, [ʉ] may actually be near-close [ʉ̞], rather than close [ʉ].

In some dialects (e.g. Ibiono), /ɪ, ʉ, ə/ occur as phonemes distinct from /i, u, o/.

Tones

Ibibio has five tones: high, mid, rising, falling and low. A word can mean two or more different things based on the tone ascribed to it.

Orthography

Ibibio alphabet

a

b

d

e

ǝ

f

gh

h

i

ị

k

kp

m

n

ñ

ñw

ny

o

ọ

ʌ

p

s

t

u

ụ

w

y

Bibliography

• Urua, Eno-Abasi E. (2004), "Ibibio", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 105–109, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001550

Further reading

• Bachmann, Arne (2006): "Ein quantitatives Tonmodell für Ibibio. Entwicklung eines Prädiktionsmoduls für das BOSS-Sprachsynthesesystem." Magisterarbeit, University of Bonn.
• Kaufman, Elaine Marlowe (1972) Ibibio dictionary. Leiden: African Studies Centre / Cross River State University / Ibibio Language Board. ISBN 90-70110-46-6

External links

• Ibibio kasahorow – language resources, including dictionary, books and proverbs.
• Bachmann's Master Thesis, Paper, Presentation
• BOSS-IBB documentation v0.1-r4
• ELAR Documentation of Dirge songs among the Urban people [Efik, Ibibio]
• ELAR Documentation of documenting drums and drum language in Ibibio traditional ceremonies