Proverb #39

"Agbachaa ọsọ, agụọ maịlụ."

Nsibidi: or Isi Mbido ?

As our first proverb featuring an instance of interpolation (that is, where a manifestly English word has been rendered in an alternative spelling following the leading of our pronunciations and vowel sounds in Igbo), this is bound to be interesting.

Insightful readers can glimpse the English word 'mile' in our headline. As a popular saying among the Igbos left hanging perhaps as a sharp retort at the juncture of many-a-venture or used as a way of remonstrating with individuals labouring under the burden of some impossible, usually self-imposed task (a delusion by any other name); this phrase deserves its status as a proverb.

It means: - 'The runner is judged by his mileage' or 'A thing is reckoned after its end' -  but this  also shows an interesting thing happening with our literature and vocabulary. As our speech and language started to come into correspondence with other cultures, it began to assimilate words and through greater intercourse with these cultures leave an imprint on them. (mile came to us by way of colonisation by the British, for instance, we had to build roads measured in the imperial term).The beginnings then, of 'Engligbo' ... a half way corruption of speech ...

Yet, it is a hard thing to ask if there are any Igbo words which came in this way to leave a mark on English Vocabulary. Yet in the other direction, words like 'Oyibo' and 'mami-water' crept through.  Through such a process of acculturation, a thousand new words have crept into Igbo language and the jury is still out on whether this is a good thing or not. When Archdeacon Dennis (God rest him) produced his 'cut and paste' Bible in Igbo language, he introduced an entirely new dimension into the politics of our language. Follow some well worn arguments on the Internet to understand the difficulty and dichotomies of  so called, appropriate Igbo orthographies - central Igbo, Izugbe or whatever ...

My own view is that Igbo is a family of dialects constituting a 'lingua franca' amongst differing groups that speak it. Usually those who answer to the appellation 'Ndị Igbo'. So one need not bother about 'central, upper Onitsha or whatever such nonsense. If you understand what was said, why hang an unnecessary qualification on it?

And that's the problem with 'interpolation'; it introduces incredible ambiguity into our language. Just look at the length of this interpretation, for example.

Is such ambiguity a good thing? Well, 'Agbachaa ọsọ, agụwanụ ...'

See definition #3, of Interpolation at www.tfd.com [The Free Dictionary]

Editorial:
The picture which appears here is one of many samples of Nsibidi script; held to be the original writings and representations of our language before the arrival of the 'Latin script' in which we now render our language.
The Igbos have always been a literary people, in so far as literacy and literary skill are counted as being able to reckon things in writing. It is not far fetched to see with some imagination, our present day words for beginnings and origins prefigured in the very name of the written language. Nsibidi is not far away from 'Isi mbido' or 'Mbido isi' or like Owerri likes to say 'Ishi Mgbidi' ... 'Literally, the starting block or wall' ...
See? The writing for some, had always been on some wall.

For more free samples of Nsibidi or to glimpse modern day efforts to wrest meanings from the old script; visit

Contributed By Chika Isiodu, Umueze II Ehime Mbanọ, (Umunjam Mbieri).


[Variants Posted x 1]
By Obioma Ofoegbu, Igboukwu, Anambara State: Agbachaa oso aguo mile

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© ifont 2011, as it appears here.

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