Igbo Language Studies: The Igbo Alphabets

Introduction

Igbo Language is one of the widely-used language in Nigeria, as well as other parts of the world. This is because Ndigbo (Igbo people) are adventurers and enterprising people. There is hardly any part of the world where you will not see an Igbo man.

Hence, learning Igbo language can be a very useful experience for both Ndigbo and foreigners.

Here we outline the letters of Igbo Alphabet as currently used, based on the recommendation of ‘Onwu Orthography’.

While there are 26 letters of the English alphabet; Igbo Language has 36 letters of the alphabet, called in Igbo language, ABḷDḷḷ IGBO.

Here we go:

ABḷDḷḷ NDḷ UKWU (Capital Letters)

A                 B                 CH              D                 E                 F

G                 GB              GH              GW             H                 I

Ị                  J                  K                 KP               KW             L       

M                N                Ń                NW             NY              O

Ọ                P                 R                 S                 SH               T

U                Ụ                V                 W               Y                 Z

ABḷDḷḷ NDḷ NTA (Small Letters)

a                 b                 ch               d                 e                 f

g                 gb               gh               gw              h                 i

ị                  j                  k                 kp               kw              l

m                n                 ṅ                 nw              ny               o

ọ                 p                 r                  s                  sh               t

u                 ụ                 v                 w                y                 z

*** You can notice there are letters that look similar but differentiated by dots under. Those letters are quite different from each other as they convey different meanings.

For example,

The word, UKWU is different from ỤKWỤ. The first one stands for ‘big’, while the latter stands for ‘leg’.