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Igbo Language Program

The Igbo Language Program contains 9 hours of audio, and one textbook in PDF file format with 511 pages.

This course is based on the speech of two members of the Ezinehite group of Igbos in Central OWerri Province between the towns of OWerri and Umuahia, Eastern Nigeria. Their speech is representative "Central Igbo".

The essential phonological and grammatical structures of Igbo are presented within a small vocabulary. The omission of many common words is justified on the premise that, once the structure is grasped, vocabulary building can proceed apace. The words presented are however useful, lend themselves to the construction of natural though limited utterances, and exemplify all the phonemes of Igbo in representative environments. There are, if compounds and derivatives are not counted separately, about six hundred vocabulary items.

The course materials consist of four parts:

I. Tone Drills - a set of seventy-five exercises on the recognition of tone distinctions and patterns.

II. Twenty-four units (1-24) containing: a. Dialogues b. Notes c. Drills

III. Six units (25-30) containing: a. Dialogues b. Short Narratives

IV. Vocabulary

The course has been extensively revised and expanded since its experimental use in a twelve-week intensive class. In its present form, it can hardly be assimilated in less than 600 hours of time.

Drills are recorded first for listening, then for familiarization through repetition, and finally for participation. During the participation step, when the student performs the required manipulation, his utterances are confirmed on the audio immediately following the space provided for his participation.

Drills are generally in two groups in any unit: a) variation drills on pattern sentences, which provide opportunities for the student to develop flexibility in the use of patterns already memorized, and b) grammar drills, which are intended to provide practice for the student in the operation of the patterns explained in the immediately preceding grammar notes.

About the Igbo Language

Igbo is a tone language, i.e. one which makes us of the pitch of the voice to make a difference to the meaining of the word or utterance. While the tonal nature of Igbo was identified late in the 19th century, it was only recently that people have come to correctly understand the typology of the Igbo tone system.

It is now known that Igbo belongs to the terraced level tone languages. Igbo has two distinctive tonemes, High, which is unmarked, and Low, marked, as well as the tonal phenomenon known as downstep.