Grammar basics: sounds, words and sentences

Word shape. Igbo words are built from open syllables. Okorochukwu’s primer states the rule that a consonant is always followed by a vowel and that two consonants never stand side by side except in the digraphs. Echeruo shows that this is a simplification: syllabic nasals, as at the start of mmiri “water”, also occur. He describes Igbo as “essentially a two-syllable (VCV or CV(V)) language”: nouns usually begin with a vowel, a semivowel or a syllabic nasal, and verbs always begin with a consonant.

Vowel meetings. Okorochukwu describes three processes. Assimilation: one vowel makes a neighbour sound like itself. Elision: a vowel is lost when two words join, as in nwa + oke → nwoke “male”, nwa + anyị → nwanyị “woman”, uso + ekwu → usekwu “kitchen”. Harmony: the dotted vowels (ị, ọ, ụ) tend to stay together in the same word and a goes with either set. Echeruo calls vowel harmony “a staple” of Igbo sound description but notes that no theory yet settles every word.

Parts of speech. The primer uses Igbo names: nnọchiaha (pronoun), mkpụaha (noun), ngwaa (verb), mbụụzọ (preposition), njikọ (conjunction), nkọwaokwu (adverb), nkọwaaha (adjective). Igbo has few true adjectives; the primer lists about ten (big, small, black, white, new, good, bad, old, long, dirty) and Echeruo observes that nouns can do the work of adjectives, often with dị “be”.

Okorochukwu also gives model sentences for simple, compound, complex and negative statements, for example Ada bịara ma ọ hụghị anyị “Ada came but did not see us”. The negative is built with the suffix -ghị. The booklet is a beginner’s guide, not a descriptive grammar, and its rules should be read in that light.