ABSTRACT

This work aims to explore specific aspects of ideophone in Obolo and that aspects are nominal and adverbial ideophone. With Obolo language we have been able to identify nominal and adverbial ideophones, which are unique aspects of study and our focus on this work. Nominal ideophones are ideophone use in place of a noun while adverbial ideophones are ideophone use in place of an adverb. Adverbial ideophone can optional. Ideophone is a very interesting study in African languages because it conveys meaning on the basis of it sound pattern and also portray emotions. Qualitative research method is used and also interviews and questionnaires are also used. In this work we have, functions of ideophone, origin of ideophone, review of related literature on ideophone, types of ideophone,and so on. Let’s look at it carefully in this work.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0         Preamble

A characteristic feature of languages worldwide, but particularly those in Africa, is ideophones; words of adistinct semantic type, which can fill one or many syntactic slots.Ideophones may be defined as a subset ofsound symbolic words, which can also include phonaesthemes and other strategies to signal sensory qualities. This field is often referred to as phonosemantics. Although ideophones have begun to be of some interest tothe broader scholarly community,they have hardlyexcited the attention they merit in terms of their overall importance in the lexicon of many languages.

Ideophones constitute a distinct word category whose major purpose is to convey meaning on the basis of its sound patterns. Ideophones areabundant in natural and heightened speech, notable in Africa, but absent from typical example sentences, hence their failure to be treated adequately in typical grammar and dictionaries. Our understanding of the role they play in natural language is still very preliminary. It seems that ideophones are more prevalent in Africa and parts of Asia than in other regions of the world although the evidence is more ambiguous.

The classification of ideophones remains under debate. They have been defined very broadly in literature as anything with sound symbolic element, in which case they are realized as all major parts of speech. For example English verbs such as “gobble” or ‘twinkle’ are sometimes treated as ideophones. An aspect of ideophones in most African language is reduplication; words are wholly or partly reduplicated according to language.It is often these reduplications that give the onomatopoeic sense that plays a role in their generation.Ideophones tend to be polysyllabic and in some cases can be freely extended. Ideophonescan deepen the meaning of words.

Several studies have indeed been carried out on diverse features, structures and functions of ideophones in Nigeria as well as African languages which underlines the relevance as well as importance of this language classification.

This work is aimed at investigating and analyzing nominal and adverbial ideophones in Obolo language.

1.1       Obolo Language classification

            By linguistics classification, Greenberg (1955) categorized obolo language as a member of the cross River. Two group of the Niger Kordofanian (Benue-Congo) language but Williamson (1987) classified it as belonging to the lower cross branch of the Delta cross branch of the lower Eastern division of the south-central Niger-congo language. Later in 1989, bendo-Samuel reclassified it under the western cluster of the lower cross sub-branch of the Delta cross main branch of the cross River block.

            However, Gordon 2005 gives a concrete classification of the language as seen in the figure 1.1 overleaf.

Fig 1.1

NigerCongo

Atlantic Congo                     Atlantic                       Bijago                         West Iyo

Volga Congo            Cangin

Benue Congo            New Benue Congo

                                                Cross River

Delta Cross                                                                           Bendi

Central                       Lower  Cross

Obolo

1.2       BACKGROUND OF OBOLO PEOPLE

            The Obolo people are an ethnic group that live in the estuaries of the Imo River, they are sometimes called Andoni or Obiobolo. Prior to the creation ofadditional states in Nigeria in 1976, the Obolo primarily lived in what was formed the western and Eastern Andoni. Western Andoni is located in rivers state while Eastern Andoni is located in AkwaIbom State. The Obolo language is the only language spoken by the Andoni people as their native dialect, however it is said to be an amalgamation of Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Igbo and Iyaw but others oppose that fact claiming that the amalgamation was proposed by those who intended to steal the land from the Obolos.

Historically, the Obolo people migrated generally from the delta areas among the Ijaws. They migrated to various parts of Nigeria including Ohafiaand Oso (Arochukwu) in Igbo land, Eastern Obolo, Ibeno –Eket and Oronin AkwaIbom State. The migration of the eastern Andoni people from Rivers to AkwaIbom State is what formed the Eastern Obolo local Government in AkwaIbom State.  The Obolo people are very cultural; among the key towns are Ngo (Gogo), Ebukuma, Okoromboko,Okerete, IkoAmadaka etc.

            The founder ofAmadaka community is a man called Adaka. When the Obolo people first settled down in inyangala, the quest for wealth and fame look Adaka and his family further and the Amadakacommunity was formed.Theheadship. Rotated accordingly among the children  (son) of Adaka which include; Otuyok, Igheme, Ekennte, Iya, Okpom, Ibam, Ikaann, Atabo, Alom and Ubongpresently,  the Oluyok family is the village head.

            The Nwantam masquerade of Andoni celebrated every first January is one of the highlights of Obolo Festivities which the share with the Opobo people. Their ancient practices include a writing system known as Nsibid, Ofiokpo cult and the war dance which both the ohad a and Aroihukwu clan still retain despite loss of original language. Some parts while some can be reached be sea. It is rich in wild life such as Elephants, monkeys, species of pythons tortoise etc. and mineral resources. The main occupation of obolo people and Amadaka specifically is fishing.

1.3       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

            As a developing language, there is still a great deal to be done about the grammar of the Obolo language so as to enhance its development. There is a great need to establish ideophones, nominal and adverbial ideophones in Obolo language. Ideophone provide a unique opportunity to study culturally shaped ways of attending to the perceptual world.They shed new light on language and creativity, on the relation between everyday talk and verbal art and on the link between visual and verbal modes of language.

1.4       RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

            This research sets out to address the following objective

1          To establish nominalideophone in Obolo

2          To establish adverbial ideophones in Obolo

3          To establish the properties of an ideophone

4          to establish the study of ideophone in African and Obolo language tell us about the universality of word classes.

1.5       RESEARCH QUESTION

1          What are nominal ideophones in Obolo

2          What are adverbial ideophone in Obolo

3          What are the properties of an ideophone

4          What can the study of ideophones in African and Obolo  language tell us about the universality or word class.

1.6       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

            The researcher will provide information on ideophones, nominal and adverbial ideophones in Obolo. This research will provide understanding as to how nominal and adverbial ideophone occur in Obolo and how it is used.

            Furthermore, this research will serve as a guideline for future researches into similar and related topic.

1.7       SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH

            The researcher intends to look at nominal and adverbial idiophones alone.  This work looks at the dialect of Obolo spoken in Amadaka  inAkwaIbom State.

 1.8    RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The researcher intends to make use of qualitative research method which

describes in detailspecific situation using research tool such as observation

interviews and questionnaires

1.8.1   RESEARCH DESIGN

                        The researcher intends to make use of analytic research design in which nominal and adverbial ideophones will be analysed.

            The work is designed in five chapters with sub-decision asfollows:

Matters such as the background of the study, Statement of the problem, purpose and objective of study, significance of study, scope of study and methodology make up chapter one.

Chapter two review existing literature related to the topic.

Chapter three presents the data and discusses how nominal ideophones and adverbial ideophones occur in Obolo.

Chapter four analyses the data based on the finding discovered from the research.

Chapter five is the summary and conclusion of the whole research work, it also includes recommendation to further research. Reference and appendix will come as the last part of the work.

1.8.2   RESEARCH POPULATION

Eastern Obolo is said to have a population of about 260, 000 people according to the 2006 national census.  However, the researcher’s target population are members of Amadaka community which are 4,000 people.

1.8.3 SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

The sampling technique that would be used by the researcher is purposive sampling whereby the researcher chooses the sample based on special consideration (such as age in this case) to ease data collection.

1.8.4   TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION

                        The instrument that would be used to complete the data for this research include sentences and words, other instrument include pen, Paper, and phone recorder.

1.8.5   PROCEDURES FOR DATA ANALYSIS

After the data has been collected from the field, the researcher would replay the recorded information as a guide to adequately observe nominal and adverbial ideophone

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