BROADCASTS.com

Published: Jan. 12, 2019, 4:53 a.m.

  

In this episode, we jump right into exercises to help better solidify Udaume, vowels in Igbo. And then, we further explore how vowel harmony dictates which pronouns to use in certain instances. 

Exercise I

Listen to the audio before reading the answers below. Objective of this exercise is to listen to the vocabulary words and see if you can, correctly identify the vowel group you are hearing in a word ie Udaarụ (Heavy vowels) vs Udaarụ (Light vowels) whether the word

· Ude - lotion (Heavy vowels)

· Nkịta - dog (Light)

· Igbo (Heavy Vowels)

· Nwaanyị- woman (Light Vowels)

· Nwoke- man  (Heavy Vowels)

· Akwụkwọ (Light Vowels)

· Oroma- orange (Exception: contains both)

· Kpọ- call (Light Vowels)

Subject Pronouns Recap 

English - Igbo

I  M/ Mu

You (sing)  Ị /I

He/She/It  Ọ /O

We  Anyi 

You (pl) Ụnụ

They  Ha

When learning subject pronouns, a few of the pronouns had dependent variations to them. These were when saying you (singular) which can be either and he/she/it which can be . In this episode, we now learn that this difference is based off of keeping vowel harmony between the pronoun and the preceding verb. 

Example given:

Biara- past tense of the verb “to come- ịbịa” so it can be used to say “came”

With this verb, we see that the vowels that make it up are Udamfe (light vowels). This thus means that the pronoun that should be used to say 

You came - Ị bịara so the Ị  NOT I 

Or 

He came - Ọ bịara so the  Ọ NOT O

Note: with the first person subject pronoun vowel harmony also comes into place with the use of a/e ___(verb) m. This will be explained in another episode however. 

Exercise 3: (12:06) 

Reason through which pronoun would be used for the various verbs 

· ___  (you) jere 

       - Answer: I jere 

· ____ (you) gara 

      - Answer: Ị gara 

· _____ (He) riri

      -O riri (He/she/it ate)

· ____  (It) tara 

     - Ọ tara (He/she/it chewed)

· _____ (you) gbara 

      -I gbara 

· _____ (she) Biara

     - Ọ bịara 

Other notes:

Omenka means Artist 

Ome- doer

Nka- art

(artist is a "doer of art")

Music: Ife Onye Metula- Chief Osita Steven Osadebe 

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/igbopodcast/support