Izi language
Encyclopedia
Izi is an Igbo dialect
spoken in Ebonyi state
in Nigeria
by approximately 200,000 people, or 600,000 including the closely related to Ikwo, Ezza
, and Mgbo
, which form a dialect cluster known as Izi-Ezaa-Ikwo-Mgbo. This language will be referred to simply as Izi.
, the Izi distinguish themselves from their neighbors and have divided themselves into many clans. Izi speakers are found East of Abakaliki
, the capital of the Ebonyi State
and extend as far as the Anambra and Imo State boundaries. Longitudinally, Izi speakers extend from the Plateau State
to approximately 12 miles north of the Cross River
which runs through the appropriately named Cross River State
. The maps on this page highlight the area where Izi speakers live, showing both the country of Nigeria within the African Continent and the divisions within Nigeria. Izi’s parent group, the Igbo, reside in Southeast Nigeria. The area where the Igbo live has been termed “Igboland
.” Though this area is divided by the Niger River
, cultural unity is maintained by the Igbo people as the River provides a convenient means of communication.
Before the 16th century, the Igbo had a pictogram
form of writing called “Nsibidi
”. This form died out most likely due to the fact that many of its users were members of secret societies who did not want to publicly discuss it. In 1854, A German philologist named Karl Richard Lepsius
made a “Standard Alphabet” meant for all the languages of the world. In 1882, Britain enacted an educational ordinance to direct the teaching of reading and writing only in English. This temporarily inhibited the development of Igbo, along with other languages of West Africa. Controversy over Igbo orthography
began in 1927 when the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (IIALC) published a pamphlet called “Practical Orthography of African Languages.” The consonants /gw/, /kw/, and /nw/ were added to represent Igbo sounds. The pamphlet used some symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA), which began a controversy with the missionary society who had used Lepsius' writing for almost 70 years. In 1929, the Colonial Government Board of Education tried to replace Lepsius with the IIALC’s orthography. The government, along with Roman Catholic and Methodist missionaries, accepted and adopted the new orthography; however, other Protestant missionaries opposed it. A standard alphabet based on a “central” dialect was proposed in 1944 by Dr. Ida Ward, but the controversy continued, and a resolution was made to use this alphabet only for government literature. A standard form was agreed upon by 1962 and is still in use today. In 1972, a standardization committee met to expand the Igbo language, borrowing words from various dialects other than the “central” one. This idea for a “Standard Igbo” was meant to be spoken and understood by all Igbo speakers. Between 1973 and 1976, the standardization committee’s recommendations for Igbo spelling were approved, and new suggestions for the rearrangement of the Igbo alphabet were taken into consideration. The standard Igbo orthography that is currently in use is based on the dialects of Owerri
and Umuahia
. The alphabet is shown below along with the IPA transcriptions.
s of Central Igbo.
and five places of articulation
which is shown in the chart below. Consonants are also distinguished by voicing
.
Both voiced and voiceless stop
s occur in labial
, alveolar
, velar
, and labio-velar places of articulation. There are also corresponding nasal
s for each of these places of articulation. Fricatives only occur as labials, alveolars, and velars; and affricates are only formed in the labial and alveolar regions of the oral cavity. Izi has both a lateral and non-lateral liquid
, but some speakers replace the non-lateral with the lateral liquid.
s and two more back vowel
s. Below is a table of the vowels divided by their places of articulation in the oral cavity as well as the position of the root of the tongue.
or phonological units. In Izi, every syllable is marked with one or more features of pitch and quality. The three features of quality in Izi are palatalization
, labialization, and neutral. They are regarded as syllable features for several reasons, but most importantly because they cause contrast between syllables rather than between individual phonemes.
Palatalization is phonetically realized as strong palatal friction or as slight vowel fronting in the syllable. It occurs whenever a syllable margin is the palatal /j/, and sometimes when the margin is an alveolar consonant (with the exception of liquids) or a bilabial stop. For example, /jɔ̀/, meaning ‘to shake a rattle’ and /àpjà/, ‘a bird,’ are marked by the palatalization feature because they contain a syllable with a /j/ margin.
The labialization feature is phonetically realized by the semivowel
/w/ between a consonant margin and a vowel nucleus, as in /ákwɔ̀/, meaning ‘razor’. It can also occur when the syllable margin is a velar stop or nasal, or a liquid. The contrast in meaning is exemplified by comparing it to the word /ákɔ̀ /, which is translated as ‘story.’ Lip rounding occurs throughout the entire syllable of /ákwɔ̀/ which differentiates it from /ákɔ̀/.
The neutral feature is simply the absence of the other two features of quality. There are no consonant margin restrictions other than the absence of /w/ and /j/ margins found in syllables marked by the labialization and palatalization features. An example of a neutral syllable is /únú/, which means ‘salt’
1) The consonants /pf/ and /bv/ can only occur in syllables with nuclei consisting of a high back vowel and are marked by the neutral feature.
2) The consonants /ŋm/ can only occur between vowels /e/, /a/, and /o/ and are marked by the neutral feature.
3) High front vowels do not occur in
a) syllables with the labialization feature.
b) syllables with the neutral feature and consonant margins consisting of fricatives, velar and labio-velar nasals, and stops (except /ɡb/).
4) High back vowels do not occur in
a) syllables with the palatalization feature.
b) syllables with the neutral feature and a consonant margin of /ŋm/.
a) There is a two-way phonemic contrast after a low tone; that is, a low tone may be followed by another low tone or a high tone.
b) A three-way phonemic contrast exists after a high tone. It may be followed by another high tone, a low tone, or a downstep to another high tone.
There are many minimal pairs of tone; an example is the word /eka/. Pronounced with a high tone followed by a high tone, it means ‘hand.’ With two low tones, it means ‘worm.’ The translation becomes ‘notch mark’ when pronounced with a high tone followed by a low tone, and when the high tone follows the low tone, /eka/ is interpreted as ‘place’.
, and it has equal suffix
ing and prefix
ing, as in the following example.
Instead of the morphemes all combining to form one sentence, each morpheme in this sentence is disconnected to suggest that Izi is an isolating language. This sentence also reveals that the word order of this language is subject–verb–object (SVO). This is seen in the phrase meaning ‘it is people,’ where ‘it’ is the subject, ‘is’ is the verb, and ‘people’ is the object. Another feature illustrated by this sentence is the order of nouns and genitives, and nouns and demonstrative
s. These structures are head-initial, where the noun head comes before both the genitive and the demonstrative. For instance, in this sentence, ‘village’ appears before the genitive pronoun ‘our,’ and ‘meeting’ appears before the demonstrative ‘that.’ Adjectives can occur before or after the noun; however the adjective-noun order is preferred. The order of the adposition
in relation to the order of the object and verb is typical. One would expect prepositions in a language where the verb is placed before the object, and Izi lives up to this expectation. The following shows this preposition-object relationship:
Igboid languages
Igboid languages constitute a branch of the Volta–Niger language family. It includes Ekpeye and the Igbo languages:*Ekpeye*Igbo: Igbo proper, Ikwerre, Ika, Izi , Ogba, and Ukwuani-Aboh-Ndoni,spoken mainly in southern Nigeria....
spoken in Ebonyi state
Ebonyi State
Ebonyi State is a mainland south-eastern state of Nigeria, inhabited and populated primarily by Igbo of south eastern Nigeria. Its capital and largest city is Abakaliki. Afikpo is the second largest city. Other major towns are EDDA, Mgbo, Onueke, Ezzamgbo, Nkalagu, Uburu, Onicha, Ishiagu , Ukawu,...
in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
by approximately 200,000 people, or 600,000 including the closely related to Ikwo, Ezza
Ezza
Ezaa/Ezza is a northeastern Igbo sub-group, in southeastern Nigeria....
, and Mgbo
Mgbo
Mgbo is a northeastern Igbo subgroup, in southeastern Nigeria....
, which form a dialect cluster known as Izi-Ezaa-Ikwo-Mgbo. This language will be referred to simply as Izi.
Demographics
Speakers of the Izi language are spread over a large area. Belonging to a larger group of people called the IgboIgbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
, the Izi distinguish themselves from their neighbors and have divided themselves into many clans. Izi speakers are found East of Abakaliki
Abakaliki
Abakaliki is the capital city of the present-day Ebonyi State in southeastern Nigeria. The inhabitants are primarily members of the Igbo nation. It used to be the headquarters of the old Abakaliki zone in the Old Anambra and Enugu state before the creation of Ebonyi State in 1996. Abakaliki is made...
, the capital of the Ebonyi State
Ebonyi State
Ebonyi State is a mainland south-eastern state of Nigeria, inhabited and populated primarily by Igbo of south eastern Nigeria. Its capital and largest city is Abakaliki. Afikpo is the second largest city. Other major towns are EDDA, Mgbo, Onueke, Ezzamgbo, Nkalagu, Uburu, Onicha, Ishiagu , Ukawu,...
and extend as far as the Anambra and Imo State boundaries. Longitudinally, Izi speakers extend from the Plateau State
Plateau State
Plateau State is the twelfth largest state of Nigeria, and is roughly located in the center of the country. It is geographically unique in Nigeria because its boundaries totally surround the Jos Plateau, having the Jos Plateau totally in its central and northern part...
to approximately 12 miles north of the Cross River
Cross River (Nigeria)
Cross River is the main river in southeastern Nigeria and gives its name to Cross River State.It originates in Cameroon, where it takes the name of the Manyu River....
which runs through the appropriately named Cross River State
Cross River State
Cross River State is a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria, bordering Cameroon to the east. Its capital is at Calabar, and it is named for the Cross River , which passes through the state...
. The maps on this page highlight the area where Izi speakers live, showing both the country of Nigeria within the African Continent and the divisions within Nigeria. Izi’s parent group, the Igbo, reside in Southeast Nigeria. The area where the Igbo live has been termed “Igboland
Igboland
Igboland, or Igbo land , also known as the Ibo, Ebo, and Heebo Country, is a cultural region in Nigeria that includes the indigenous territory and cultural reach of the Igbo people...
.” Though this area is divided by the Niger River
Niger River
The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
, cultural unity is maintained by the Igbo people as the River provides a convenient means of communication.
A Brief History of Igbo Speakers
Research on the origins of the Igbo is limited, but a leading hypothesis is that many different communities immigrated in waves from the West and North to the borders of the central area of Igboland. These waves of immigration may have begun as early as the 9th century. From this central area, migration in the more recent past has occurred in all directions which has led to one homogenous Igbo culture. The Portuguese arrived in Igboland in the mid-15th century and from 1434-1807, contact points between European and African traders were established along the Niger coast. After slavery was abolished in 1807, the British became aggressive in its practices of industrial trade and imperialism. The British eventually conquered Igboland, and Igbo culture was compromised by British imperialism.A History of Igbo Orthography
Pictogram
A pictograph, also called pictogram or pictogramme is an ideogram that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to considerable extent pictorial in appearance.Pictography is a...
form of writing called “Nsibidi
Nsibidi
Nsibidi is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria that is apparently ideographic, though there have been suggestions that it includes logographic elements...
”. This form died out most likely due to the fact that many of its users were members of secret societies who did not want to publicly discuss it. In 1854, A German philologist named Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist and linguist and pioneer of modern archaeology.-Background:...
made a “Standard Alphabet” meant for all the languages of the world. In 1882, Britain enacted an educational ordinance to direct the teaching of reading and writing only in English. This temporarily inhibited the development of Igbo, along with other languages of West Africa. Controversy over Igbo orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
began in 1927 when the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (IIALC) published a pamphlet called “Practical Orthography of African Languages.” The consonants /gw/, /kw/, and /nw/ were added to represent Igbo sounds. The pamphlet used some symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
(IPA), which began a controversy with the missionary society who had used Lepsius' writing for almost 70 years. In 1929, the Colonial Government Board of Education tried to replace Lepsius with the IIALC’s orthography. The government, along with Roman Catholic and Methodist missionaries, accepted and adopted the new orthography; however, other Protestant missionaries opposed it. A standard alphabet based on a “central” dialect was proposed in 1944 by Dr. Ida Ward, but the controversy continued, and a resolution was made to use this alphabet only for government literature. A standard form was agreed upon by 1962 and is still in use today. In 1972, a standardization committee met to expand the Igbo language, borrowing words from various dialects other than the “central” one. This idea for a “Standard Igbo” was meant to be spoken and understood by all Igbo speakers. Between 1973 and 1976, the standardization committee’s recommendations for Igbo spelling were approved, and new suggestions for the rearrangement of the Igbo alphabet were taken into consideration. The standard Igbo orthography that is currently in use is based on the dialects of Owerri
Owerri
Owerri is the capital of Imo State in Nigeria, set in the heart of the Igboland. Owerri consists of three Local Govern Areas including Owerri Municipal, Owerri North and Owerri West, it has an estimated population of about 400,000 as of 2006...
and Umuahia
Umuahia
Umuahia is the capital of Abia State in southeastern Nigeria. Umuahia is located along the rail road that lies between Port Harcourt to Umuahia's south and Enugu city to its north. Umuahia has a population of 359,230 according to the 2006 Nigerian census. Umuahia's indigenous ethnic group are the...
. The alphabet is shown below along with the IPA transcriptions.
Vocabulary
Comparing Izi, Ezaa, and Ikwo reveals that these dialects share about 95% of their vocabulary. However, comparisons with the Central Igbo language showed only an 80% consistency in lexical items. Since Izi, Ezaa, and Ikwo are mutually intelligible with each other but not with Central Igbo, they are classified as one language separate from the Central Igbo language. However, some of the words in Izi are cognateCognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
s of Central Igbo.
Consonants
Izi contains 26 consonant phonemes classified under six manners of articulationManner of articulation
In linguistics, manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound. Often the concept is only used for the production of consonants, even though the movement of the articulars will also greatly alter the resonant properties of the...
and five places of articulation
Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator , and a passive location...
which is shown in the chart below. Consonants are also distinguished by voicing
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
.
Both voiced and voiceless stop
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
s occur in labial
Labial consonant
Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals...
, alveolar
Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
, velar
Velar consonant
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
, and labio-velar places of articulation. There are also corresponding nasal
Nasal consonant
A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
s for each of these places of articulation. Fricatives only occur as labials, alveolars, and velars; and affricates are only formed in the labial and alveolar regions of the oral cavity. Izi has both a lateral and non-lateral liquid
Liquid consonant
In phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:...
, but some speakers replace the non-lateral with the lateral liquid.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | m | n | ŋ | ŋm | ||
| Stops | Vl | p | t | k | kp | |
| Vd | b | d | ɡ | ɡb | ||
| Affricates | Vl | pf | ts | |||
| Vd | bv | dz | ||||
| Fricatives | Vl | ɸ | s | x | ||
| Vd | v | z | ɣ | |||
| Liquids | Lateral | l | ||||
| Non-lateral | ɹ | |||||
| Semivowels | w | j | ||||
Vowels
Izi has a moderate vowel inventory. There are nine vowel phonemes in Izi, including the canonical vowels plus two more front vowelFront vowel
A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
s and two more back vowel
Back vowel
A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
s. Below is a table of the vowels divided by their places of articulation in the oral cavity as well as the position of the root of the tongue.
Syntagmatic Features
Syntagmatic features are related to the syntactic relationship between morphologicalMorphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
or phonological units. In Izi, every syllable is marked with one or more features of pitch and quality. The three features of quality in Izi are palatalization
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
, labialization, and neutral. They are regarded as syllable features for several reasons, but most importantly because they cause contrast between syllables rather than between individual phonemes.
Palatalization is phonetically realized as strong palatal friction or as slight vowel fronting in the syllable. It occurs whenever a syllable margin is the palatal /j/, and sometimes when the margin is an alveolar consonant (with the exception of liquids) or a bilabial stop. For example, /jɔ̀/, meaning ‘to shake a rattle’ and /àpjà/, ‘a bird,’ are marked by the palatalization feature because they contain a syllable with a /j/ margin.
The labialization feature is phonetically realized by the semivowel
Semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
/w/ between a consonant margin and a vowel nucleus, as in /ákwɔ̀/, meaning ‘razor’. It can also occur when the syllable margin is a velar stop or nasal, or a liquid. The contrast in meaning is exemplified by comparing it to the word /ákɔ̀ /, which is translated as ‘story.’ Lip rounding occurs throughout the entire syllable of /ákwɔ̀/ which differentiates it from /ákɔ̀/.
The neutral feature is simply the absence of the other two features of quality. There are no consonant margin restrictions other than the absence of /w/ and /j/ margins found in syllables marked by the labialization and palatalization features. An example of a neutral syllable is /únú/, which means ‘salt’
| Table 2. Vowel Inventory: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Position of tongue root) | Front | Central | Back | |
| High | Advanced | i | u | |
| Retracted | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| Mid | Advanced | e | o | |
| Retracted | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Low | a | |||
Syllable Structure
There are two distinguished types of syllable structures in Izi: CVN, where the consonant onset and nasal coda are optional; and N, which consists of a syllabic nasal. This yields five possible combinations of V, CV, VN, CVN, N, where V=vowel, C=consonant, and N=syllabic nasal. There are a few syllable restrictions in Izi:1) The consonants /pf/ and /bv/ can only occur in syllables with nuclei consisting of a high back vowel and are marked by the neutral feature.
2) The consonants /ŋm/ can only occur between vowels /e/, /a/, and /o/ and are marked by the neutral feature.
3) High front vowels do not occur in
a) syllables with the labialization feature.
b) syllables with the neutral feature and consonant margins consisting of fricatives, velar and labio-velar nasals, and stops (except /ɡb/).
4) High back vowels do not occur in
a) syllables with the palatalization feature.
b) syllables with the neutral feature and a consonant margin of /ŋm/.
Tone System
Izi, like many Niger–Congo languages, has a two-tone system which consists of a high tone and a low tone. Low tone has two variations: raising low tone (L) and non-raising low tone (^L). High tone has one variation: raised high (R). The tone system also has three features: downstep (!), upstep (^) and latent low (‘ placed before the word). Rules for the operation of the tonal variations are as follows:a) There is a two-way phonemic contrast after a low tone; that is, a low tone may be followed by another low tone or a high tone.
b) A three-way phonemic contrast exists after a high tone. It may be followed by another high tone, a low tone, or a downstep to another high tone.
There are many minimal pairs of tone; an example is the word /eka/. Pronounced with a high tone followed by a high tone, it means ‘hand.’ With two low tones, it means ‘worm.’ The translation becomes ‘notch mark’ when pronounced with a high tone followed by a low tone, and when the high tone follows the low tone, /eka/ is interpreted as ‘place’.
Morphology and syntax
Izi is a fairly isolating languageIsolating language
An isolating language is a type of language with a low morpheme-per-word ratio — in the extreme case of an isolating language words are composed of a single morpheme...
, and it has equal suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
ing and prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
ing, as in the following example.
| sʊ́ | ɪꜜjá | lɛ | ɔ̀ɔ́ | ńdʊ́ | mkpùkpú | ̂ànji ́kùrù |
mí́tìná | ònó | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Say | him | that | it is | people | village | our | called | meeting | that |
| ‘Tell him it is the people of our village who called that meeting.’ | |||||||||
Instead of the morphemes all combining to form one sentence, each morpheme in this sentence is disconnected to suggest that Izi is an isolating language. This sentence also reveals that the word order of this language is subject–verb–object (SVO). This is seen in the phrase meaning ‘it is people,’ where ‘it’ is the subject, ‘is’ is the verb, and ‘people’ is the object. Another feature illustrated by this sentence is the order of nouns and genitives, and nouns and demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s. These structures are head-initial, where the noun head comes before both the genitive and the demonstrative. For instance, in this sentence, ‘village’ appears before the genitive pronoun ‘our,’ and ‘meeting’ appears before the demonstrative ‘that.’ Adjectives can occur before or after the noun; however the adjective-noun order is preferred. The order of the adposition
Adposition
Prepositions are a grammatically distinct class of words whose most central members characteristically express spatial relations or serve to mark various syntactic functions and semantic roles...
in relation to the order of the object and verb is typical. One would expect prepositions in a language where the verb is placed before the object, and Izi lives up to this expectation. The following shows this preposition-object relationship:
| é, | lɛ́ | mgbábʊ̀ | lɛ | ɛ̀ká | ònó |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yes, | in | garden | in | place | that |
| ‘Yes, in the garden there.’ | |||||
| ḿꜜbʊ́ | ndʊ | kɛ | ónjìkwá |
|---|---|---|---|
| meaning | people | of | Onyikwa? |
| ‘You mean Onyikwa people?’ | |||