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Maazị Ogbonnaya Profile picture
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2 Apr, 4 tweets, 1 min read
There is nothing like "nma" but "mma"

* Chidịmma
* Mma
* Nwamma

Some argued that "mma" is knife or mother while "nma" means beauty.

That is very wrong.

Mma is mother in some dialect.
Mma is knife
Mma is beauty

But...

Their pronunciations are different. They have the same
morphological shape but different in phonology and semantics.

A phonological term that helps to solve this puzzle is "tone marking system".

* Ḿmá= Beauty
* Ḿmà= knife
* M̀má= mother

"N" and "m" don't have the same place of articulation.

N can go with N
M can go with M
as in

* Nne
* Nna
* Nnewi
* Nneka
* Nnebụisi

You can't get something like
Nme to mean mother
Nma as father
Nmewi, etc.

Furthermore, "M" and "M" go together as in:

* Mmanụ= Oil
* Mmanya= wine
* Mmiri= Water
* Mmegbu= persecution
* Mmadụ= human being
* Mmụọ= spirit.
* Mma= beauty
You see that it's in this category "mma" falls into.

Can you write:
Nmakụ
Nmegbu
Nmiri
Nmanya, etc?

Since you cannot write the above, then it's also wrong to spell "Mma" as "Nma".

That people have been doing it doesn't make it right.

I pause.

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More from @ogbonnaya_mark

Maazị Ogbonnaya Profile picture
2 Apr
Ụtụtụ ọma as good morning
Ehihie ọma as good afternoon
Mgbede ọma as good evening

are not core Igbo greetings. I don't know how people came up with this. You are incapacitating the Igbo language by showcasing we don't have our own greetings aside translating the English
greetings. This transliteration is needless.

In the rule of transliteration, it's needed when there is no option. We have plenty options and what we greet as ndị Igbo.

In the morning:

* Ị bọọla chi?
* Ị saala chi?
* I tetala?
* I tetago
* Ị gbapela? etc.

These are
our core morning greetings. Some dialects of Igbo have their own unique morning greetings aside the listed ones. Nsụka will say: "ị bọọ?". Ngwa have theirs.

In all, one thing appears to be in common. The interrogative nature of Igbo greeting, especially morning.
Read 10 tweets
Maazị Ogbonnaya Profile picture
1 Apr
I want to teach the Igbo Pronouns now.

Before then, let's discuss the rules of Igbo Pronouns. They are written independently. There is no gender specific in Igbo Pronouns.

*FIRST PERSON SINGULAR
•M, mụ (Me, I, my, mine)

To form sentences:
—Ana m abịa (I'm coming)
— Mụ na Emeka bụ ụmụnne (Me and Emeka are brothers)

The first person singular "m & "mụ" can occur in the beginning, middle or end of a sentence.

FIRST PERSON PLURAL
• Anyị (we, us, our)

Sentence:
— Anyị na ha bụ enyi (We and them are friends)

—Ọ bụ nke anyị (It's
ours)
Read 10 tweets
Maazị Ogbonnaya Profile picture
1 Apr
I am excited to bring to your notice my YouTube Channel Ọnụkwube TV. The link to subscribe is youtube.com/channel/UC_IJl…

Over the week, I have received several messages in different social media platforms from different people from different nationalities, tribes and race.
They want to know more about Igbo people, culture, language, history. They are willing to learn. Some Haitians, South African women, Ghanains, etc have reached to me to learn Igbo language.

Many Igbo youths and adults had no privilege of growing up in Igbo land, hence, they know
nothing or little about Igbo culture, history and language. It is on this basis, I've revived Ọnụkwube TV to be a home of Igbo studies. The Channel isn't only teaching Igbo language, but culture, history, literature, folklores, etc.

Everyone who wants to learn everything
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Maazị Ogbonnaya Profile picture
31 Mar
Ike Ekpe: A Pre-colonial Igbo Cultural Practice

Igbo had a very organised society. Some of the things we go to the universities to study today had a place in Igbo cultural society.

What is ike ekpe?

When a man gets old, before he dies , or when a man is very sick,
he will say a lot of things about people who owe him some money, the ones he owe, the lands he did not buy but used as collateral, his properties, how they are going to be shared, the ones to be shared, the ones not to be shared; his lands in the hands of another man.
This is called ike ekpe.

We know in English, there is something like "Will", but I put it to you that ike ekpe in Igbo culture is deeper than will.

In ike ekpe, a man or woman may say how he or she wants to be buried; where he or she will be buried. Some will say: "don't take
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Maazị Ogbonnaya Profile picture
31 Mar
Last year, I wanted to change to another apartment in Abuja. I got a property agent who showed me a house. It caught my fancy. We met the caretaker and agreed on the terms. I paid.

A few days later, I was called to meet the landlady. She saw me and asked:

"Where do you work?"
The question was funny to me. She said she wanted to be sure if one could renew the payment of the house. That she doesn't joke with her money oo.

"What tribe are you?" She asked.

"Igbo"

"What?" She screamed. "I have said I'll never give Igbo man my house. I don't like them"
"There is no problem madam. I'm Igbo and there is nothing I or anyone can do to change it. I will never feel sorry for being Igbo. I am an unapologetic Igbo man. Very proud one at that. You know what, I am not in a haste to look for house. Where I'm living is fine. I still have
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Maazị Ogbonnaya Profile picture
30 Mar
It's very wrong to look down on people whether you know them or not.

So today, I was going to a very important office in Maitama, Abuja for something. I didn't know the actual location. I was asking a driver at the Nicon Junction Park, how I could locate the place...

A poorly
dressed man, sitting on the passenger's seat of the public vehicle stuck out his head:

"What are you going there to do?" He asked.

He's a northern guy. Clad in almost worn out native dress and cap. He was putting on flat footwear.

I smiled and told him that my visit was
confidential, but I needed to meet so so person in so so office for so so thing.

"Ok, I will show you the place".

I thanked him.

We left. The anịkịrịja vehicle swung on the road leading to Maitama District, with beautiful houses waving at us. In a few minutes...he alighted
Read 10 tweets

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