ÌGBO SEMISCRIPTALISM — ÌGWE BU ÍKE N’ITÍNYE AKÀRÁ Ú DÀÓLÚ!

Abstract

Tonemarked Ìgbo texts are as rare as ákpù ézédí o n ó kò , but why? 
Before the British Empi e’s Anschluss captured the “Nige a ea”,various 
Ìgbo-speaking communities and their neighbors deployed n sibidi, an 
ideographic (non-phonetic) code of gestures and graphic designs which by
its nature had no need to represent minimal lexical contrasts of F0, 
perceived laryngeal pitch (alias tone). Then with colonial government and 
mission schools came alphabetic literacy and no less than four 
tonemarking techniques, all of which remain in use for different purposes
today. This affluence of means fits the proverbial norm of ìgwebu íke, a
watchword of strength in numbers in the SE angle of Nigeria’s 
geopolitical hexagon, but excess methodological diversity is not about to 
be simplified by a non-existent cent al planning office, and the e’s no 
imminent prospect of speakers or linguists spontaneously agreeing on a 
one way to encode linguistically significant Ìgbo prosody that’s 
unrecoverable from context. As a fi st step, let’s review the clashing 
strengths and weaknesses of each style of tonemarking for various 
legitimate purposes. An exit from the present muddle needs a more 
adequate theoretical approach to Ìgbo prosody than linguistic science can 
offer now, and a greater practical commitment to public education and 
media than is possible in the currently collapsing political economy of a 
vanquished province of a neoliberal neocolony.