The story of Igede orthography dates back to the days when missionary activities began in the land. At that time, there was the need to teach the indigenous people how to read and write their language, so that the experience would be internalized and transferred to the reading of the Holy scriptures.
Missionaries with the helpers who are mainly Igbo speaking, devised the first orthography between 1930 and 1950. This pre-independence orthography had six vowels: a e i o o. u and 25 consonants arranged semi-alphabetically: b gb d f g h j k l m n n p kp r s t v w y ch gw kw nw ny. The major defect of this orthography was that many sounds of the language were not symbolized or represented. Therefore, many words could not be properly written.
A long while, after the introduction of the first orthography, Dick Bergman, an American, who came to settle in Ibilla Alukpo introduced another orthography in the early 60s. This was just after the nation’s independence. He came up with ten vowel system. Using a spelling, he added an “h” to group one vowels, leaving plain the vowels of group two as follows: ah eh ih oh uh a e i o u. This post-independence orthography has 35 consonants: b bw by ch chw d f g gw h hw hy j jw k kp l m mw my n ng nm nw ny p pw py r rw ry s t w y. This orthography was defective on several counts which should be clearer when crosschecked with the principles of good orthography. Let it suffice us to mention that users of that orthography had often had to double back while reading in order to read correctly because the spelling rule marker appeared only at the end of the words. The spelling rule itself was a “silent” letter, which a good orthography should not have. There were also many inconsistencies where a given word selects vowels from both groups.
IGEDE STANDARD OTHOGRAPHY.
a b bw by ch chw d e ẹ f g gb gw gy h hw hy I ị j jw k kp kw l m mw my n ng nm nw ny o ọ p pw py r rw ry s t u ụ v w y
IGEDE VOWELS.
Igede has nine vowels.
a e i o u ẹ ị ọ ụ
VOWEL GROUPS.
Non dotted vowels or Olikponge group of vowels.
a e i o u
The dotted vowels or the Aputuja group of vowels.
ẹ ị ọ ụ
Examples from dotted and non-dotted vowels.
ori – rope /ọrị – oil palm
ela – lice /ẹla – matter
eji – egg /ẹjị – foolishness
ilo – snake /ịlọ – ritual for cleansing
owu – cotton /ọwụ – wood
uhwa – luck /ụhwa – witchcraft
ukpang – lump of fufu /ụkpang – head rack
ale – where /alẹ – today
VOWEL LENGTH.
ịkaa-bread
ibeenu-evidence
onyeewe-new
uruuru-a bird
ọnyịịla-good or fine
ẹhịịchịrị-pride
ahigboo-light
ọchaacho-bamboo
oheeye-second
Further information.
Following the approval of Igede standard orthography; three consonants were adopted. In normal speaking of the language, we don’t have real f,s,v, though some dialectical pronouncements seems to carry these consonants occasionally. The only reason that these loan words were accepted was that it pave way for writing of foreign words like soldier (isoja), soya beans (isombyi), Olive (olivu), a catholic priest (ifada). Outside these categories of words, they are not allowed to be used. When some people write- house as ‘efa’ instead of ‘Epwa’ or ‘evu’ as in dog instead of ‘ebwu’ or ‘uvo’ as in hand instead of ‘Ubwo’ is not only wrong but unacceptable. When you think strongly that it is right to write like that, the first thing is not to write, but to prove and use the statutory process to disprove it. When people take language issues the way they feel good, we will as a people be causing damage to our language. The largest room is the room for improvement, but it should not follow individual impulses or fancies. We have a collective stake to make our language the best and all we need apart from knowledge is humility.
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