Ibibio-Efik languages
Ibibio-Efik, also known as Ibibio and Efik, is the major dialect cluster of the Benue–Congo language family called Cross River. Efik proper has national status in Nigeria and is the literary standard of the Efik languages, though Ibibio proper has more native speakers.
Varieties
Efik is a dialect cluster spoken by about 3½ million people of Akwa Ibom State and Cross River States of Nigeria, making it the sixth largest language cluster in Nigeria after Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, and Kanuri. Specifically, there are 1 million Anaang (as of 1990); possibly 1½ to 2 million Ibibio (1998, claim since retracted)—Ibibio is also used as a trade language; and 400,000 Efik; Efik also has about 2 million second-language speakers.
Minor varieties, according to Williamson and Blench,[1] are 200,000 Ekit, 7,000 Efai, 20,000 Ibuoro, 5,000 Eki, 5,000 Idere, and a hundred Ukwa. These arguably constitute a single language, though Ethnologue considers them to be separate.
Forde and Jones (1950)[2] had categorized these as follows:
- Ibibio proper (incl. Idere etc.): Eastern Ibibio
- Annang: Western Ibibio
- Efik: Riverain Ibibio
- Eket (Ekit) and Oron: Southern Ibibio
- Ibeno (Ibino): Delta Ibibio
- Enyong (now classified as Ibibio proper): Northern Ibibio
See also
References
- ^ These are varieties of what Williamson and Blench (2000) calls "Central Lower Cross", which they list as "Efik, Ibibio, Anaang, Ibuoro, Ekit, Efai, etc."
- ^ Cited in Okon E. Essien, 1986, Ibibio names: their structure and their meanings
Further reading
- O. E. Essien (1991): "The nature of tenses in African languages: a case study of the morphemes and their variants." In: Archiv Orientalni, Bd. 59, 1–11.
- Dafydd Gibbon, Eno-Aasi E. Urua und Moses Ekpenyong (2006): "Problems and solutions in African tone language Text-To-Speech." In: ISCA Workshop on Multilingual Speech and Language Processing (MULTILING 2006), Stellenbosch, South Africa: Center for Language and Speech Technology, Stellenbosch University, paper 014.
- Raymond G. Gordon, Hrsg. (2005): "Ethnologue: Languages of the World", Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X
- Kaufman, Elaine Marlowe (1972) Ibibio dictionary. Leiden: African Studies Centre / Cross River State University / Ibibio Language Board. ISBN 90-70110-46-6
- Arne Bachmann (2006): "Ein quantitatives Tonmodell für Ibibio. Entwicklung eines Prädiktionsmoduls für das BOSS-Sprachsynthesesystem." Magisterarbeit, University of Bonn.
- Eno-Abasi E. Urua (2004): "Ibibio", Nr. 34/1 in Journal of the international phonetic association, International phonetic association, Kap. Ibibio. 105–109.
External links