UNDERSCORING THE CROSS-DIALECTAL UNIFORMITY OF TONE IN IGBO

Abstract

A discussion of the grammar of Igbo is incomplete without the treatment of 
tone. Tone plays a very vital role in the semantics and grammar of the  language. Over the years, several works have been carried out in Igbo 
dialectology, of course, with the aim of identifying similarities and 
differences among and between separate dialects of the language. The 
most notable of the existing literature include Ward (1941), Armstrong 
(1967), Ubahakwe (1981), Ikekeonwu (1985), Nwaozuzu (2008) and 
Ohiri-Aniche (2013). In all of these works, tone is given little or no mention. Consequently, this paper attempts to explain the reason behind the omission of tone in Igbo dialectal studies. Using a purely descriptive approach, the paper observes that the extraordinary stability of tone through the different dialects of the language often makes tone to be taken 
for granted in Igbo dialectology. Based on this, the paper tows the path of Armstrong (1967) and Emenanjo (2015) in re-emphasizing the uniformity and stability of tone in the language.