Wikidata:Lexicographical data/Documentation/Languages/ig

language, modern language
Subclass of	Igboid, Kwa, Benue–Congo
Native label	Asụsụ Igbo, Igbo
Country	Nigeria
Indigenous to	Nigeria, Igbo people
Linguistic typology	agglutinative language, subject–verb–object
Writing system	Igbo alphabet
Ethnologue language status	2 Provincial
Related category	Category:Igbo pronunciation
Wikimedia language code	ig

Igbo (Igbo (Q33578)) is the principal native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group from eastern Nigeria. It is a tonal and agglutinative language spoken by 42 million people as of 2020. The language code is ig.

Igbo is written using the Ọnwụ alphabet, a compromise between the older Lepsius alphabet and a newer alphabet advocated by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (IIALC).

Layout edit

The lemmas of the lexemes should always start with lowercase (unless it's really necessary to the word to be capitalized, like Chineke or Naịjiria).

Lexical categories edit

Lexical categories in Igbo include nouns, pronouns, numerals, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, and a single preposition (na, which meaning is flexible and must be ascertained from the context).

Nouns: aha edit

On Wikidata, lexemes for Igbo nouns don't need to have any "grammatical feature" attached to their forms. That's because Igbo, unlike other languages like English or Spanish, don't express neither grammatical gender nor grammatical number in its nouns. So, nkịta (L524561), for example, means one or more male or female dog(s). However, Igbo lexemes can have more than one form when it can be spelled more than one way (e.g. ndi ntorobịa (L611737)). If a noun can be split into two or more other meaningful lexemes, it's recommended to use combines lexemes (P5238) on it. (e.g. ụlọ akwụkwọ (L525000) is "compound of" ụlọ and akwụkwọ).

Adjectives: nkọwaaha edit

Igbo has an extremely limited number of adjectives in a closed class. Emenanjo (2015) counts just eight, which occur in pairs of opposites. Adjectival meaning is otherwise conveyed through the use of stative verbs or abstract nouns.

Verbs: ngwaa edit

Verbs, by far the most prominent category in Igbo, host most of the language's morphology and appear to be the most basic category; many processes can derive new words from verbs, but few can derive verbs from words of other classes.

Pronouns: nnọchiaha edit

Igbo pronouns do not index gender, and the same pronouns are used for male, female and inanimate beings.

Personal pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns
Interrogative pronouns

Suffixes edit

Numerals edit

Maintenance edit

To do edit

Create new lexemes from Igbo Wiktionary entries: the title can serve as lemma, sentences in Ọmụmaatụ section can be added as usage examples (using usage example (P5831) property) and translations in Ntụgharị n'asụsụ ọzọ section can be added to senses. Audios in Mkpọpụta section can be added to forms (using pronunciation audio (P443) property).
Create new lexemes to fill the most frequent missing forms.
Patrol recent changes to Igbo lexemes.