During my stay of over a decade in Southwest Nigeria – precisely Lagos – in the 1980s and 90s, I often heard people say “Igala language is an offshoot of the Yoruba language” in view of the similarities between them” I usually disagreed with them, explaining that research had established that Igala and Yoruba share a common ancestry. I also added that, along with Itsekiri, the languages form a trio of interconnected tongues. The three […]
Words for the Day – Ójí and Éjú
Body-part Metaphors Today, we look at body-part metaphors, also called Somatographic or Somatic idioms. They are figurative expressions that use the names of body parts to convey metaphoric meanings, which are beyond their literal sense. In English vocabulary, body-part metaphors occur in expressions like: all ears, hand in hand, eye-opener; nose around. Others include: ‘an eye for an eye’ or “a tooth for a tooth” and “to bite the fingers that have fed one.” In […]
Igala Vowels Versus English Spectre
Learning a new language is a very interesting phenomenon; but, sometimes, it is not without its own downsides. More often than not, an Igala language student is faced with occasional interference, either from another language or other language varieties, mostly through code-switching. Wikipedia defines code-switching as “language alternation,” describing a situation where a speaker ‘alternates’ from one language to another without control. It is true that the Igala alphabet descended from the English alphabet; but […]
The Igala Alphabet
The website’s in-house teacher has assumed duty in the Kigala Klassroom, beginning his teaching of Igala language from the cradle – the ABC of education, the alphabet. When a child is born, its mind is completely clean, like a blank slate or tabula rasa. Then, physical impressions and psychological responses come together to influence its mind. The child’s first teacher is, naturally, its mother; later, the nursery school teacher joins her in his education, beginning […]
