Syllables 4

High and low

When you speak Igbo, your voice goes up and down. Each part of a word is said high or low, and this belongs to the word just as its letters do, so learn them together.

A high part is always a little lower than the high part before it: you can only step down, until you stop at the end of a sentence. A low part is clearly lower than the high parts around it. Sometimes a part stays at the same height as the part before it.

When we write Igbo, we do not mark the high and low. We write it as it is written in books and letters today.

The eight vowels

Igbo has eight vowel sounds. They are written i ị e a ọ o ụ u. The mark under ị, ọ and ụ is part of the letter: ụ is as different from u as it is from o. In handwriting we make the mark as a small dash.

“It’s a …” and “He saw a …”

Each of these sentences starts high, then stays low to the end.

Rising at the end

These sentences are the same, but the very last part goes up again, though not quite as high as the start.

Uwe can also mean a blouse, a shirt, or anything sewn. Ezi, a compound, is the yard where a house and the buildings around it stand.

Five kinds of words

Most Igbo nouns have two parts. The first is a vowel, or an m or n on its own; the second is a consonant and a vowel. Each word has one of five patterns of high and low.

Three of these words are spelled akwa. Only the high and low tell them apart.

Sounds to watch

kp and gb are each one sound, not two. You close the back of your mouth (as for k or g) and your lips (as for p or b) at the same moment, and open them together. You may have made this sound copying a hen.

kw, gw and nw are single sounds too.

The sound of English ch is written ch.

An m or n before a consonant is a part of the word on its own: just hum it, then go on to the next sound. Almost every Igbo word ends with a vowel; a few end with m.

More words to write