Byko899:
the major reason Igbo's across river prefer not to speak Igbo is because they feel their dialect is awkward, not knowing they are not alone in it,Abakaliki, Nsukka, Ngwa and Egbema also feels the same, it is generally acknowledged that anambra Igbo is more sweet hence everybody wants to speak it,am not from anambra but I struggle to speak their kind of igbo ,every Igbo community has a dialect peculiar to it,some sounds so funny that the indigenes might not be proud to use it with a fellow Igbo.

the funy thing is that ikwerre, agbo and asaba Igbo sounds more clear and closer to anambra Igbo than nssukka,some part of abakaliki and ngwa,

Ikwerre does not sound closer to Anambra than Nsukka, Abakiliki and Ngwa.

Sultanchidi:
u used d word IBOS . That's d problem d so called igbos from across d Niger will say dat we aniomas are IBOS and not igbo. So y forcing aniomas now to accept that dey are igbos

And whats the difference between Igbo and ibo?

Shym3xx:
Why's this clown speaking for everyone, especially when he's from the Igbo part?

I know an Uncle who's from Agboh and he'll scream at you if you ever ask/tell him that he's Igbo. And my ex's mum is also from one of those Bini-Igbo parts and despite having a maiden name that looks Igbo, she doesn't claim it. She always claim Bini migrant lool. But my boy's parents are from the core Igbo parts of Delta and he claims Igbo all the time.

This crackhead just woke up after sniffing cow dung and smoking skunk and decided to pick an identity for everyone. Crazy lool.

have you made sense now?

Adiola:
my dear its good and better to scare away the vultures from slaughter cos definitely they must come

will be better if you actually see them as brothers don't mind the few radicals...

NICENEDU29:

My friend shut up and get out of here if you dont know what to comment. Although I am not in support of referring to some parts of Rivers State who are actually Igbos as "Rivers Igbo" but are u denying the fact that some places in Rivers State like Oyigbo (Obi Igbo), Omuma, Etche, Omoku, even Ikwerre, Ahoada, etc are Igbos? Bearing in mind that they speak & understand Igbo though with little variations; they also bear Igbo names and practise Igbo cultures. So considering these, are u saying they are not Igbos? Of course they are Igbos and that is a fact that can never be denied. Now let me educate u a little: In Igbo Language, there is what is called Olu mba (native dialect) and Igbo Izugbe (Central Igbo). Each & every Igbo community has a dialect that is peculiar to it which others may not speak or understand. But when it comes to Central or general Igbo, all Igbo communities speak & understand

l concur with you my brother. Ndoni in Present day Rivers state is also part of Ibo. Prior to the creation of Delta State, Ndoni was part of our LGA in defunct Bendel State.

adidasBarca:
Pls everyone

Is there any difference between delta igbo and igbo?

. Yes, I'm from Agbor but i can't speak igbo neither will igbo man speaks or understand agbor

Udmaster:
The yorubas are diverse in origin (e.g ijebus,badagary,oyo etc )but do you see them shouting that they are not yorubas?.
No one is imposing anything on you, An anioma man Nzeogwu led a coup, today its still seen as an IGBO COUP..
Did the Anioma leaderz release a statement for it to be changed to ANIOMA COUP.?
Anioma is just a modern coined name, Western Igbo have been the Ancient names used by men like Osadebey.
Say the truth and stop beating around the corner.

Africa was once a modern coined name. As was America. As was Nigeria. As was Yoruba at one time. As was Igbo or Eko. Why kick up when a new term (50 years old actually) is coined?

About the Anioma man leading the coup... as far as most Nigerian's were and are still concered: "Ibo-speaking means Igbo." This is simply not true. Even Anioma leadership has been awakening to the fact that we are in fact not Igbo. The great irony is that the people who remind us that we are not "true Igbo" are non other than Igbos themselves.

To wit:

Witness Anioma absent from the map of Biafra
Witness the "invasion" of Mid-Western Nigeria by Biafran forces. You can't invade what is your own
Witness how they fled across the Niger and blew up the bridge to leave their so-called "brethren" to be massacered at the hands of the Nigerian side.
Witness how the vast majority of leadership in Igbo matters is from "core Igbo"
Witness the creation of Ebonyi state, rather than Anioma, when Igbos did a backface and withdrew their support for Aniomas at the last moment for political gain.
Witness the arrogance and contempt with which they proclaim themselves and put Anioma people down.

You can't see all these and accept that we're all the same.

Abagworo:



Igbo is Ibo just like Agbara is Abara or Okpara is Opara. Autography is different from spoken words and dialects. Writing Orka as Awka only changes its autography but not what it represents nor even pronunciation.

c u don't get my point am a proud igbo bt from experience and those of pple close to me. D way d igbos from across d Niger treat themselves is not d same way dey treat d aniomas. So of dem wil boldly tell u dat u are not one of dem and that u are from South South not East. D estaerners are d major reason y aniomas deny to b igbos

HenryThegreat1:
. Yes, I'm from Agbor but i can't speak igbo neither will igbo man speaks or understand agbor

Agbor is a dialect. Can an enuani man in Asaba understand Agbor?
A language is a combination of identical dialects.
Agbor is just like Ohafia dialect, Can you hear Ohafia? Ohafia dialect is different from Onitsha own?
Can you hear onitsha dialect? Does it mean that Ohafia and Onitsha man are different tribes?

nextstep:


Ah ah... has it come to that? I was simply giving examples that the fact that a people speak a certain language does not make them the same as the originators of said language. You are right about being on different continents and colonialism, and I shall look for more appropriate analogies in the future. However, if an Anioma person speaks Igbo, yet traces his origins to Yoruba, Benin, Igala, and other places, based on his own unique history, why would you insist that he is of Igbo stock, without trying to understand his point of view? That was the point I'm trying to make.

Is such a person Yoruba, or is he Igbo? Or both? For us, we think neither of the three, because that emphasizes the other regions without recognizing the emergence of a newer identity: he is Anioma

The truth is that no ethnic group is 100% homogeneous, at points the ethnic group meets another Ethnic group, there are bound to be admixtures from the border ethnic groups.

If there are Igala, Edo or other ethnic group migrants in Anioma, they are extremely in the minority and were totally assimilated by the larger Igbo groups there. This is why Anioma became an Igbo speaking enclave, it had indigenous Igbo speaking people who were in the majority from the very beginning.

This very fact is highlighted by the fact that right within Anioma, we still have the Yoruboid speaking Odiani people who migrated from Ondo and who despite being surrounded by Igbo speaking groups, still maintained their Yoruboid Olukumi language, even though they now speak Igbo language( Enu-ani) as a second language, thus they are bilingual.

Anioma is still an Igbo word coined out by Dennis Osadebey who himself was a proud Igbo man and a member of Igbo union of the old, using Aniocha, Ndokwa, Ika and Oshimili initials ie ANIO, and addition MA to it.
Without Igbo, Anioma has no meaning. It's meaning is only found in Igbo.

RealCJ:
Am proud of you dude, there is nothing like Delta igbo. We are one and we shall remain one! The idea of bringing division among us has failed. Hausa fulani and yoruba cowards should take note.

you called Hausas/Yorubas cowards, but they are benevolent hosts. You are like tick feeding on their blood, you won't leave their lands alone. Your survival depends on the magnanimity of them. You scream biafra yet you sit like olumu rock in the region of tribes you so detest, while fanning the ember of persecution. What a paradox! To be candid, the igbos need other tribes mire than those tribes need them. Just take the population ratio of igbos in other lands to their hosting other tribes. Even before amalgamation, the igbos have been in romance with the Hausas. This tell why Zik's mum was from Niger state and him born in the north. For those claiming igbanke land, dare not if you don't want to share the fate of the Onyeregbulems. The binis are friendly and few, but you don't toil with the tail of the cobra. The Benin monarch won't take such arrant nonsense from some marauding conquistadors or land grabbers. If the igbos are really sincere about Biafra, all of them should return home and burn down the Niger bridge. By such act, they would have forcefully severe their ties with the rest of this political entity. Until they do this, I guess they are in self delusion because economic ties us their first priority than cultural affiliation....

[quote author=supersystems post=49384090]
Mr. man, permit me to say that your argument is so illogical. Reason being that no reasonable man will agree with you on the fact that Delta Igbo is a nice description to be given to the Aniomas and the rest of them. So it is either you call their tribe Igbo or u call it Delta simplicita. Do not add "Igbo" to "Delta" so that they will know that they are on their own & hav nothing at all to do with Igbo. Again, how can u be bringing the division by saying that they should better be referred to as Delta Igbo & not Igbo when u know too well that most of them bear Igbo names, they speak & understand Igbo language though with little variations & they practise Igbo cultures? Even the name "Anioma" itself is suggestive of Igbo. So pls dont call them Delta Igbo when u stll claim that they are not Igbos, because doing so is as good as shooting urself in the leg. Besides, Delta is NOT a tribe but a State. So tell me: Under which major ethnic group is Delta State classified?

...during d civil war d "igbos" blew up d niger bridge n left ika n asaba to their fate n 4dat reason they av always hated igbos n prefer 2be called anioma or ika rather than igbo...

Igboid:

Anioma is still an Igbo word coined out by Dennis Osadebey who himself was a proud Igbo man and a member of Igbo union of the old, using Aniocha, Ndokwa, Ika and Oshimili initials ie ANIO, and addition MA to it.
Without Igbo, Anioma has no meaning. It's meaning is only found in Igbo.

What you've said makes sense. But, as you can see Sir Osadebey himself (an Anioma man from Asaba) recognized the need for a new name to more accurately describe the people of Anioma. You're right it is an Igbo word, no doubt, but that does not translate that the people it describes are Igbo. Just as the word Nigeria (Niger-area) does not mean its people are English.

Udmaster:
you did not reply him, you diverted and started your rant.
Anyone can write that website. Kalabari is seen as an Ethnic group, does it mean that they are not ijaws?

Anybody can write rivers state government website? You are really a blinded by ipob mentality

Clairvoyant:

have you made sense now?

Yes. I kicked the knowledge you need to get into ya thick skull.

Stop trying to claim everyone and stop forcing ya identity on people who have no ancestral connection with you. A lot of those people can trace their ancestral lineage to Bini. So why try to turn them Igbo?

The only reason why Igbos are there in the first place is cos Igbos were slaves everywhere around that axis all the way to present day Rivers. They came as slaves and later outnumbered the indigenous people and later settled there. Why do think Binis call Igbos, "Igbons"? Igbon means slave.

Everything is well documented and I will post excerpts from the accounts of British explorers in the 1800s in the "Liverpool to Onitsha" records. Igbos had the highest population in that axis (or even the whole today's Nigeria) back then and they were about 4milliion. However, the Igbos who weren't in Igboland were slaves in the other places. It is well documented.

So, why would slaves declare their own identity on the people they met there?

oluole:


if you take statistics majority of delta igbos don't like being called igbo and same with ikwerres for obious reasons

Who sampled the statistics, you from far away west or an independent observer. That means you also sampled the Ijebus, Aworis and others who deny Yoruba. The Igbo nation cannot be balkanized by foreign voices or dissenters within. Any group claiming a new ethnicity as long as they aren't willing enough to change their Igbo language, shared cultures, traditions and customs to look completely non-Igboid are just wasting their time. Nobody is taking them serious, not even the british and other europeans who studied us even before we knew ourselves nor the farthest boundary of Igboland. They (deniers) are just jokers and that joke ends anytime Nigeria is dismembered. Na then, them go see Oba. All the idiots cheering them on will abandon them when that time comes or when (God forbid) another civil war beckons.

Udmaster:
Agbor is a dialect. Can an enuani man in Asaba understand Agbor?
A language is a combination of identical dialects.
Agbor is just like Ohafia dialect, Can you hear Ohafia? Ohafia dialect is different from Onitsha own?
Can you hear onitsha dialect? Does it mean that Ohafia and Onitsha man are different tribes?

Stop saying what you don't know. What is a dialect and what is a language? This question about dialect and language is something even linguists can't answer. Before you quote me, go and make your research because I don't have time to argue with blind people

HenryThegreat1:
. Yes, I'm from Agbor but i can't speak igbo neither will igbo man speaks or understand agbor

I hav been to agbor b4 in delta state,nice place to be

Udmaster:
There is Nnewi and there is Igbo.
There is Onitsha and there is Igbo
3. There is Arochukwu and there is Igbo.
I can go on and on. Then who is an Igbo?
Even in Anioma, there is Aniocha and there is Anioma.
4. There is Oshimili and there is Anioma. So your analysis is flawed.

Maybe we're not saying the same thing, hence the appearance of flawed analysis. But along your vein,

Nnewi, Onitsha, Arochukwu are all recognized to be Igbo places.
Lagos, Ibadan, Ile-Ife are generally recognized to be Yoruba places.
Asaba, Agbor, Ibusa should also be generally recognized to be Anioma places (not Igbo places).

This is our main point.

biggz82:



No my brother all are d same, dem all na drug n wayo ppl wen dey spoil our name abroad

Ok

there's nothing like Delta Igbo or what we have is Delta Fulani, Delta Hausa and Delta Yoruba. it's only a fool that will be deceived towards answering Delta Igbo. what have is IGBO. I can't imagine Abia Igbo, IMO Igbo, Anambra Ibgo, Enugu and Ebonyi Igbo respectively. be wise now; the call you Delta Igbo and you accepted because of your stupidity.

chukzyblingz:
Stop saying what you don't know. What is a dialect and what is a language? This question about dialect and language is something even linguists can't answer. Before you quote me, go and make your research because I don't have time to argue with blind people

Please explain to me the meaning of dialects and that of language. Let me learn something new today.

HenryThegreat1:
. Yes, I'm from Agbor but i can't speak igbo neither will igbo man speaks or understand agbor

is agbor a tribe or a town?

Sultanchidi:
c u don't get my point am a proud igbo bt from experience and those of pple close to me. D way d igbos from across d Niger treat themselves is not d same way dey treat d aniomas. So of dem wil boldly tell u dat u are not one of dem and that u are from South South not East. D estaerners are d major reason y aniomas deny to b igbos

Lol! Why will you allow any SEner treat you anyhow? Does he have more claim to Igbo than an Anioma man? The first pan Igbo conference on Igbo language held in Asaba in 1906.
When you don't know your history, people tend to push you around.
When next a so called SEner tries to put you down, sit him down and tell him why he is the fake Igbo and not you.
Was Zik not from Onitsha, a town that shares more in common with Anioma than the rest of SE?

In SE we also call each other names, Anambra people are supposed to be ndi agbaenu that loves money and are into rituals, Abakaliki people are supposed to be backward people, Imo people are well "onye imo" which as far as an Anambra supremacist is concerned is a derogatory word. Enugu people are Wawa people.

All those things are little sentiments found all over any ethnic nation, for example in England, th. Southern English consider the Northern English people to be less enlightened than themselves, and find their English accents funny.

I have heard Anioma people tell me that SEners are ritualists, 419ners and greedy people, and that's why they will never accept being kin with us, but when I sit such people down to explain their accusations, they turn out blank.

You don't take those things to heart, people will always be people with their ignorance.
Was Uwaechue not made Ohaneze Ndiigbo president when it was Anioma turn? Today it's Ebonyi turn and Igariwey, and Ebonyi man who most Igbos including me can't even understand the meaning of his name is occupying that Post today.

chukzyblingz:
Stop saying what you don't know. What is a dialect and what is a language? This question about dialect and language is something even linguists can't answer. Before you quote me, go and make your research because I don't have time to argue with blind people

tell us the relationship btw Dialect and Language?we are waiting.

nextstep:


Maybe we're not saying the same thing, hence the appearance of flawed analysis. But along your vein,

Nnewi, Onitsha, Arochukwu are all recognized to be Igbo places.
Lagos, Ibadan, Ile-Ife are generally recognized to be Yoruba places.
Asaba, Agbor, Ibusa should also be generally recognized to be Anioma places (not Igbo places).

This is our main point.

is anioma not an igbo word? a variant of anaoma - good land

Ngozi123:


As someone who actually has ancestral ties to the Aniomas in Delta State, I will politely ask you to refrain from saying things that you have little understanding about. My people have also been accused, by some, of being descendents of the Bini people but that is not true. There is a difference between having a significant amount of Bini blood and being influenced by Bini culture due to living under the now defunct Benin Kingdom. What we witness today in Anioma and Onitsha and its environs is the result of a 'reverse migration'.

There are binis who now anioma, very many villages in onitcha-ugbo goes by d prefix 'idumu' that is a bini word, it shows that the time they were named the people had a bini-ish language, the history of issele uku says they migrated from bini. i also know a chiefly anioma family and their anscentral name is isibor, which is bini not ika or iboid. There is a lot of bini anscentry in anioma.

NICENEDU29:

My friend shut up and get out of here if you dont know what to comment. Although I am not in support of referring to some parts of Rivers State who are actually Igbos as "Rivers Igbo" but are u denying the fact that some places in Rivers State like Oyigbo (Obi Igbo), Omuma, Etche, Omoku, even Ikwerre, Ahoada, etc are Igbos? Bearing in mind that they speak & understand Igbo though with little variations; they also bear Igbo names and practise Igbo cultures. So considering these, are u saying they are not Igbos? Of course they are Igbos and that is a fact that can never be denied. Now let me educate u a little: In Igbo Language, there is what is called Olu mba (native dialect) and Igbo Izugbe (Central Igbo). Each & every Igbo community has a dialect that is peculiar to it which others may not speak or understand. But when it comes to Central or general Igbo, all Igbo communities speak & understand

I should "shut up", that is quite unfortunate, I wont respond with insults but with reason, Being a member an ethnic nationality is by ancestry not only by language & culture(cos dis changes with time) if you put an article or comment online, you back it up with evidence not hear say references, thats is why I showed you the River state Government official site.
http://riversstate.net.ng/people-and-culture/
If u feel this isn't valid then you have been brainwashed by d Nnamdi kanu crew.

Aniomas and ikweres are not igbo,most of them hate being refered to igbo i dont knw why

Unimaginable123:
is anioma not an igbo word? a variant of anaoma - good land

Anioma is actually a coined word, that also conveniently means ani-oma good land. Aniocha Ndowka Ika Oshimili + MA = ANIOMA
Is Nigeria not an English word? A variant of Niger-Area. Not sure that this means Nigerians are English people...