written by Azuka Onwuka
To some people, the warning by UNESCO that Igbo language could go extinct in 50 years sounds far-fetched. To others, it is a possibility. But the question is: What language will the Igbo people speak if their language goes extinct? Will it be English, Naijana (derogatorily called Pidgin English) or Ngiligbo (a mixture of English and Igbo)?
There are factors that work against the Igbo language. One is the proclivity of Igbo people to travel in large number out of their hometowns. Most Igbo people believe that for them to succeed in life, they need to move to somewhere away from home. Sometimes, this relocation is not out of Igboland. For example, Onitsha is the largest commercial city of Igboland, but while Igbo people move from other Igbo towns to live in Onitsha, there are indigenes of Onitsha who have left Onitsha to settle in Enugu or Aba to do business. Even though Nnewi has the largest motor and motorcycle parts market in Igboland, there are Nnewi indigenes who have moved to Obosi to transact the same auto parts business. The same goes for Aba or Ngwa indigenes who leave the big market in Aba to settle in Okigwe or Umuahia for clothing or footwear business.
In the same vein, there are those who relocate to other parts of Nigeria, while others travel out of the country.
While these migrations are going on, especially outside Igboland, the children born away from home don't have much opportunity to speak Igbo. The parents who should teach them Igbo feel that the language is not an "international language" that will give the child an advantage in life. To them, English is more useful and classier. Some parents, especially those who did not attend a university, even take the extreme measure of barring their children from speaking Igbo on the erroneous belief that it will hamper their learning of English. They feel that having missed the opportunity to learn how to speak and write good English, their children should not face the same disadvantage. So, they end up speaking Naijana (the so-called Pidgin English) to their children, believing that they are speaking English to the children. You hear expressions like: "Junior, wetin dey do you? I go beat you now!"
There are also Igbo people who are not proud of their Igboness.
But the greatest threat to Igbo language is the lack of a conscious effort to make it grow in vocabulary. It is true that English is very popular globally because two world powers (the United States and the United Kingdom) speak it, but English owes its strength to its dynamism. Constantly and consistently, new words are officially added to the English language, either coined or borrowed from other languages.
It is not so for Igbo language. The early missionaries of Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc, who translated the Bible into Igbo, did the Igbo a world of good. It is in the Igbo Bible that you see that a word like flag or banner is calledokoloto. That is where you learn that, contrary to the confusion among many young Igbo people today, the leopard isagu, while the lion is odum.
Regrettably, the translators of the Igbo Bible did not create names for everyday items like "table" and "window." They rather chose to Igbonise them as tebulu and windo, but that does not sound so good. If they had created names for them, by now such names would have stuck, just like mahadum has stuck for university and ekwe-nti has stuck for phone.
In the same vein, the translators of the Igbo Bible also failed to translate some Bible books like Genesis, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, choosing rather to Igbonise them. But interestingly, they translated Chronicles to Ihe Emere n'ubochi Ndi Eze, shortened as Ihe Emere. I have always wondered, if they could translate Exodus and Numbers as Opupu andOnu Ogugu respectively, why did they not translate Genesis to Mmalite or Mbido, since Genesis means "beginning"? No Bible book should be Igbonised except those that are named after people, like Matthew, Mark, Job, Joel etc.
The Igbo bishops of the Anglican Church and Methodist Church (and denominations who use the Igbo Bible) should see the continuous upgrade of the Igbo Bible as an ecclesiastical duty they owe the Igbo in line with the injunction that the gospel should be preached to the people in the language they understand. Even though my grandmothers did not go to school, they read the Igbo Bible and Igbo hymn book (Ekpere na Abu) perfectly, because they were groomed in the church in Igbo.
Igbonisation of words is a lazy approach to language development. One hears things like computer being Igbonised askomputa. That is not acceptable. Proper names like Facebook and Twitter can be Igbonised as Fesibuku and Tuwita, but common names should be given Igbo names. There should be an Igbo body whose duty should be to constantly create names for all known items in the world. It is only when the brain fails to find a name that such a name can be Igbonised.
One nagging question I have had for long is why the months and days (except Sunday called Ubochi uka: Church Day) don't have Igbo names all these years. Rather, they are all lazily Igbonised. As my contribution to the growth of Igbo language, I have decided to give names to the days and months, following a simple pattern. For the days, I have chosen the root word "izu" (week), since they are "days of the week." So, I have named Sunday - Soizu; Monday - Moizu; Tuesday - Tuizu; Wednesday - Nweizu; Thursday - Toizu; Friday - Furaizu; Saturday - Satizu.
In the same vein, I have chosen to name the months using "aro" (year) as the root word, since they are "months of the year." So, I name January - Jenaro; February - Febuaro; March - Maaro; April - Eparo/Epraro; May - Mearo; June -Junaro; July - Jularo; August - Agaro; September - Seputaro; October - Oktaro; November - Novaro; December -Disaro.
Even to me, when I coined the names they sounded ridiculous, but that is how every new thing sounds. The first time I heard someone use ekwe-nti on radio for mobile phone, I could not stop laughing, because ekwe is a musical instrument in Igbo. But today, in the absence of any other name for telephone or mobile phone,ekwe-nti has become the Igbo name for phone. Mahadum for university also sounded funny because it was coined from mara ha dum (know them all).
In the same vein, I have decided to name some items like cheetah agu-oso (speed leopard), because it is the fastest land animal; while I name tiger agu-ukwu (big leopard), because it is the largest of the Big Cats.
Igbonisation is better when the Igbonised word is different in sound from the English name. If not, non-Igbo speakers would understand almost all your discussion. For example, a court messenger in the colonial days was called kotuma by the people, and it stuck. A train was called ugbo oloko: coined from locomotive engine. It stuck. But if you fill your speech with Igbonised words like komputa, tebulu, windo, etc, even an English man will easily understand your Igbo discussion, and that is not cool.
Children can learn as many as five languages while growing up without mixing them up. Almost every European country has its own language, and no country believes that the languages of its neighbours are better than its. Therefore, European children are taught many languages in school, so that they can communicate with their neighbours in English, French, German, Spanish, etc. The brain is an extraordinary machine.
Therefore, parents should insist on speaking Igbo to their children at home, because they will naturally learn English at school. Those whose parents are alive should also send their children to their hometowns to spend some weeks of holidays, so as to learn the language.
Nollywood started in Igbo. Producing films in Igbo should be resuscitated too.
My vow is that Igbo will not die in my era. But even if others allow it to die, my family and I will speak it among ourselves until we join our ancestors.
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