ABSTRACT

This work is based on the study of colours, a morpho-semantic analysis of colours, with particular focus on Ibibios language. It concerns with it presentation of the definition of colour, background of the study which include the culture, belief and valves of the Ibibio people. Language is a source in which human beings communicate. Language distinguishes human bangs from other creatures on earth. This work will expressively discuss if colours, a linguistic Phenomenon, is found in Ibibio language. The work attempts to give descriptive analysis the basic and the implication of colours in Ibibio language. In Ibibio language, there are basic and non-basic colours, primary and secondary colours respectively. Colours are universal but they vary in different languages and cultures, one of such is the Ibibio language. This work investigates colours and colour terminology and semantic factors, colour formation and meaning.     

INTRODUCTION

          The analysis of colours is fairly complicated especially when semantic factors, morphology word meaning and word formation are widely taken into consideration. Colours one important area of discussion in languages.

          Colour is defined as the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations in the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light. A person who uses colour, especially an artist is known as a colourist.

There are basic and non-basic colour, primary and secondary colours respectively. According to Berlin and Kay (1996) there are eleven basic colour froms which are write  

ORIGIN AND THE HISTORY OF IBIBIO

          Urua (2000) says the Ibibio people occupy what is politically known as Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria in the South-east corner of Nigeria. The Ibibio people are from Southeast Nigeria, as they are related to the Annang and Efik people. During the colonial period in Nigeria, the Ibibio Union asked for recognition by the British as a sovereign nation (Noah, 1988). The Annnang, Efik, Ekid, Oron and Ibeno share personal names, culture and traditions with the Ibibio, and speak closely related varieties of Ibibio – Efik which are more or less mutually intelligible (Essien, 1990).

          The Ibibio people are found predominantly in Akwa Ibom State and are made up of the related Annnang community, although other groups usually understand the Ibibio languages. Because of the larger population of the Ibibio people, they hold political control over Akwa Ibom State, but government is shared with Annangs, Eket and Oron. The political system follows the traditional method of consensus. Even though elections are held, practically, the political leaders are pre-discussed in a manner that is benefiting to all. The Ibibio people mare reputed to be the earliest inhabitants of the South Eastern Nigeria. It is estimated that they arrived their present abode from very earliest times, about 7000BC. According to (Higman, 1995) they came from the Central Benue Valley particularly, the Jukun influence in the old Calabar at some historical time period. This was corrobated by oral testimonies by field workers who say that the core Ibibio people were of the Afaha lineage whose original home was Usak Edet in Cameroon.

          According to Essien (2008), the Ibibio constitute the fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria, after the three major ones Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. It has about four million speakers as their mother tongue and inhabits much of the South Eastern part of the country. Among the four million speakers are small groups speaking small language identified as; Ilo, Itu Mbo Uso, Iwere, Nkari, Ukwa (Essien, 1987:34). That ethnically, they are Ibibi and that their languages are mutually intelligible to one another, though the other speakers hardly understand them. In addition to these small groups of Ibibio speakers, there are other groups of people like the Oron, Okobo and Annang who, though speaking variants of Ibibio who claim that ethnically, they are not Ibibio. Ibibio belong to one group of languages known as the Lower Cross.

          Genetically, Ibibio language belongs to the Benue-Congo sub-family which in turn belongs to the Niger-Congo family. One of the largest families of languages in Africa according to Greenberg’s (1963), language classification. Recent  classifications have placed Ibibio in the lower cross group of the (New) Benue-Congo language family (Williamson, 1989) cited in Urua (2000) and is spoken by about four million people (Essien, 1990).    

          Ibibio language proper is spoken in fourteen of the thirty-one Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom Statel viz; Uyo, Itu, Uruan, Etinan, Nsit Ibom, Nsit Atai, Nsit Ubium, Ibesikpo Asutan, Ikono, Ini, Ikot Abasi, Mkpat Enin, Ibiono, Onna and Eket (Urua, 2000).

You either get what you want or your money back. T&C Apply

Talk to us right now: (+234)906-451-7926 (Call/WhatsApp)

---