1. Introduction
In a speech community, when two languages
come together, certain linguistic changes or developments occur. Language
contact between two people speaking different languages can have a wide variety
of outcomes. In some cases only a few words are borrowed; in others whole new
languages may be formed. The result of such language contact differs according
to several factors, including the length and intensity of contact between the
groups, the types of social, economic and political relationship between them,
the functions which communication between them must serve and the degree of
similarity between the languages they speak.
Ika-Igbo language has been influenced at
one time or the other by Esan language contact, resulting in varying degrees of
transfer of features from one to the other. Against this background, the need
arises to investigate the possible linguistic and cultural influences existing
in IkaIgbo language due to contact with Esan language and to determine whether
it is bi-directional or uni-directional.
Esan and Igbo languages share boundary like other languages. Urhobo-Igbo, Edo, Yoruba Languages etc. The phenomenon of language contact presupposes exchange of linguistic and cultural features between the two groups. This paper seeks to determine the extent to which Esan language has influenced the different linguistic levels of the Igbo language. It is equally important to know whether linguistic changes from the contact between Igbo and Esan affect Igbo alone or Esan alone or both and the level of significance
2. Literature Review
The bilingual nature of some speech
communities has made it possible for two or more dialects/languages to be in
existence, in such speech communities. This has been a universal phenomenon in
world languages. The use of one dialect/language vis-à-vis other
dialects/languages derives from the attitudes of the language/dialect users.
Mbah (2005:276) in her study of
sociophonology in Oba Igbo opines that one of the factors that influence the
selection of a particular variant is contact. The degree of contact which
speakers of Oba dialect have with speakers of the more mutually intelligible
dialects of Igbo is of great significance in influencing their choice of the
binary variant of the lexical and morphological variables. It appears that
contact factor works hand-inhand with the regional factor in Oba. Ugwuona
(2004:23) in her study of language choice and attitudinal differences in Nsukka
Urban, discovers that Owerre and Onitsha dialects of Igbo language are the
prestigious dialects among other dialects of Igbo including the host dialect,
which is Nsukka dialects. The reason for the dominance is that Owerre and
Onitsha dialects have historical, economic, educational and political advantage
over other dialects. In her conclusion, Ugwuona affirmed that there are
multiplicity of different Igbo dialects which influence one another. The
interaction of the different dialects has given rise to the phenomenon of code
– switching and code – mixing, among the dialects. As a result, hardly can any
educated person in Nsukka Urban engage in a sustained discourse especially in a
relaxed, informal context in Igbo language without mixing some elements of his
indigenous dialect.
Uwalaka (2001) in Igboanusi (2001:50)
investigated the anguish of Igbo as a mother tongue. Internal and external
conflicts and revealed crucial issues on factors affecting and underlying language
choice especially in Igbo as a mother tongue. One of the interesting things in
her study is the Igbo internal conflicts. Uwalaka defines language internal
conflicts as “the phenomenon in which for political, economic or socio –
economic reasons, dialects of a given language vie for ascendancy”. Language
external conflicts are cases in which for whatever reasons language of a given
country competes with one another or compete with a foreign language or
languages, she concluded. Okeke (2006) studied language attitude and language
shift in Nkpor dialect and reports that there is complexity of dialect.
stuation in Nkpor – Agu region of Nkpor. Some of these dialects are Nsukka,
Owerre, Umuahia, Udi, Abakaliki, Onitisha, Ohafia, Mbaise, Oyigbo, Ikwere, Ngwa,
Oka, Nteje, Ogbinuike, Aguata, Obosi, Ogidi, Ezeagu, Enugu, Ngwa, Izzi, Ibagwa,
Efiom, Nkpor etc. The attitudinal indifference of the language users in Nkpor
dialect is similar to that of Tamil dialect speakerss because that dialect
situation in Nkpor is complex, and these different dialects have different
traditional backgrounds as it is in Tamil.
However, he concluded that because of urbanization that came to Nkpor – Agu through the influence of the commercial city of Onitsha, the town is affected linguistically by urban life. Again, a lot of people migrated to the town for the purpose of commerce and as such made the town multidialectal (because they all came with their languages and other Igbo dialects). This influenced the dialect greatly. From the discussions about language contact, it comes out clear that the field of language contact in African languages in general and Igbo language in particular in particular has not received much attention in spite of huge amount of data on the subject in other languages. By this token, it becomes necessary to advance the field knowledge in the area of Igbo Language contact.
3. Lnguistic Influences
The various Linguistic changes of the language contact exercise between Esan and Ika-Igbo are discussed in this chapter. They are, however, being discussed under two headings vis a viz Linguistic and cultural influences respectively. The linguistic influences are further categorized under such sub-headings as lexical variations, phonology and morphology and syntax.
Lexical
Variation
|
ENGLISH
|
IKA-IGBO
|
EKPON
|
|
You |
Yu |
Yuno |
|
We |
Enyi |
Eno |
|
All |
Welecha |
Enolecha |
|
Many |
Oda |
Ebuke |
|
Bird |
Nnunu |
Ununu |
|
Dog |
Nkite |
Itite |
|
Louse |
Izu |
Ezu |
|
Tree |
Osisi |
Osi-h |
|
Seed |
Mkpuru |
Akpuh |
|
Egg |
Ekwaran |
Ekur |
|
Tongue |
Ire |
Ighe |
|
Ear |
Nti |
Itin |
|
Hair |
Ntutu |
Ururu |
|
Moon |
Ifon |
Okegwe |
|
Water |
Mmiri |
Umi |
|
Ash |
Ntu |
Utu |
|
Round |
Okiriokiri |
Ghahime |
|
Claws |
Mbuo |
Ubuo |
Although these differences in words are all free variations but they came about due to a proposed deviation (unintentional) from normal, which was not achieved by these Ekpon speakers. The intention to drop the Ika-Igbo words and perhaps substitute them with that of Esan or probably new inventions, but this was to be a hard task as they are caught between where they were coming from and where they are going to. However, they have only succeeded in creating sub – Ika dialect from the main Ika dialect of Igbo language.
Phonology
In this domain, we discovered some
deletion of sounds and segments as the case may be.
m – deletion
o – deletion
The last sounds in these cases are aspirated. This is
because most of Esan words are aspirated and have short and very fast levels of
pronunciation, mostly followed by high tones. Most of Esan words begin and end
with high tones e.g. Ekoh (ear), eke (belly), Inyie (breast), Oria (person)
aran (blood) awa (dog), ehen (fish), ibe (liver) akon (Tooth) anyo (drink)
eloloh (eye) okppia (man) etc. All these have affected the Ekpon dialect in
terms of tone and aspiration of sounds.
In summary, we can affirm that the speakers of Ekpon have a peculiar pronunciation which tends to influence their contiguous speech communities.
Morphology
and Syntax
2. Me ri
Agbor eben (Ekpon) ‘I live Agbor
here’
‘Agbo ebeni ke
mbi’ (Ika)
‘Agbor here I
live’
The first person pronoun “M” (I) does not appear in initial
position with “Me” form but “M” form and in some cases “Mme” form. The “Me”
form in Ekpon is borrowed from the Esan language. For instance the above
sentence in Esan will read; Agborme yie
Agbo Iive (I live in Agbor)
3. Onye
Ekpon ya me wu (Ekpon)
I Ekpon that I am
Onye Ekpon ke m wu
(Ika)
I Ekpon that I am
I am from Ekpon or
native of Ekpon.
The “ya” and “ke” are variants as they have the same meaning. The pronoun changes form in Ika due to position in the sentence viz a viz initial, middle or final but it remains Constant in form at whatever position in Ekpon which is a characteristic of Esan for e.g. will read – “Ovwie Ekpon me khin” from (Native) Ekpon I am.
4. Cultural Influences
The mode of obtaining chieftaincy titles in Ekpon is synonymous with Esan ways. Every festival taking place in Ekpon is according to Esan tradition. For instance, ceremonies like marriage, child naming are in no way similar to Ika culture. The burial ceremony for example which runs for seven days in Ekpon is what obtains in Esan land contrary to four days burial activities in Ika/Igbo culture. This shows that apart from language, the Ekpon life style is similar to that of Esan.
5. Summary
and Conclusion
Language contact phenomenon has a lot of
implications among which are bilingualism, multilingualism, borrowing code –
switching, pidgin and so on. Such incident between Igbo and Esan languages has
not only linguistic but cultural, and socio-political implications. From the
study of the influence of Esan language on Igbo due to their contact, it was
discovered in the first place that the speech community at the language
boundary between Igbo and Esan – which is Ekpon could neither identify
themselves as Ika nor Esan speakers but Ekpon speakers. However, from the
linguistic point of view they belong to Ika dialect speakers of Igbo language.
It was discovered also that there are a
lot of variations between the Ika dialect speakers and that of the other
speakers of Ika that are residing in Agbor and its environs. For instance,
there are changes in words like “Okele” for Ekele (greeting), “Onwole” for
“Onweni” (nothing). There is change in syntax e.g. “Me ri Agbor ebeni” for
“Agbor ebeni kemri (I live in Agbor).
Culturally, there is little or no
relationship with the Igbos (Ikas) as their culture is in consonance with Esan
culture. The various festivals and rituals running from the beginning to the
end of the year are synonymous with Esan culture. Politically, they are
affiliated to Esan style of traditional leadership. Another important aspect of
the Ekpon people is that the bilingual phenomenon is gradually dying away. The
older generation of folks speak Ika and Esan languages while the younger
generation does not understand nor speak Esan language. The older ones claim
that they find it difficult to speak Esan and that those who speak it struggle
to do that. On the other hand, the immediate neighbours like Ewosa who speak
Esan language do not understand the Ika spoken by their Ekpon neighbours. This
is why some Ekpon people try to speak Esan to their Esan neighbours but switch
to English when the interlocution becomes unintelligible.
The variety of language contact studied
here demonstrates that there is in principle no limit to what speakers of
different languages will borrow or transfer from each other, given the right
opportunity. One of the greatest challenges facing linguists is to account for
both the social forces and the linguistic mechanisms and constraints which
operate jointly to determine what particular outcome emerges from the language
contact that can lead to great benefits both practically and theoretically.
Research on its social aspect can lead to insights on group relationships and
group identities, and how they are shaped by processes of accommodation in some
circumstances and by divergence and conflict in others.
Understanding of the social forces that guide and constrain language contact use is of vital importance both to language contact, planning in areas like education, politics and social welfare and to understanding the ways language changes. Research on the linguistic aspects of language and language contact leads to insight on the nature of linguistic systems, the mechanisms by which they interact to produce new strategies of communication, the creativity of human beings in adopting and adapting new materials to be reshaped into new manifestations of human faculty of language contact.
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