1. Family: Niger-Congo
  2. Subfamily: Benue-Congo
  3. Genus: Igboid

Igbo

WALS coordinates: 6° N, 7° 20′ E

spoken in Nigeria

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Igbo
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Ibo
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Large
    Vowel Quality Inventories Large (7-14)
    Consonant-Vowel Ratio Average
    Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In both plosives and fricatives
    Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems None missing in /p t k b d g/
    Uvular Consonants None
    Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
    Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
    The Velar Nasal Initial velar nasal
    Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
    Front Rounded Vowels None
    Syllable Structure Simple
    Tone Simple tone system
    Absence of Common Consonants All present
    Presence of Uncommon Consonants Labial-velars
    Morphology
    Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
    Case Syncretism No case marking
    Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking No subject person/number marking
    Nominal Categories
    Number of Genders None
    Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems No gender
    Systems of Gender Assignment No gender
    Coding of Nominal Plurality No plural
    Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem
    Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive
    Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No person marking
    Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
    Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction
    Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
    Number of Cases No morphological case-marking
    Asymmetrical Case-Marking No case-marking
    Ordinal Numerals First, two-th, three-th
    Numeral Classifiers Absent
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
    Nominal Syntax
    Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect suffixes
    The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
    The Prohibitive Normal imperative + normal negative
    Imperative-Hortative Systems Neither type of system
    The Optative Inflectional optative absent
    Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
    Epistemic Possibility Verbal constructions
    Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Overlap for either possibility or necessity
    Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
    Coding of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
    Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect None
    Verbal Number and Suppletion None
    Word Order
    Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
    Order of Subject and Verb SV
    Order of Object and Verb VO
    Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb VOX
    Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions
    Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive
    Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
    Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative
    Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
    Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
    Position of Polar Question Particles No question particle
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
    Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Prepositions
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun VO and NRel
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj
    Simple Clauses
    Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Nominative - accusative (marked nominative)
    Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Nominative - accusative (marked nominative)
    Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Neutral
    Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject pronouns in different position
    Verbal Person Marking No person marking
    Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking No person marking
    Order of Person Markers on the Verb A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb
    Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Double-object construction
    Passive Constructions Absent
    Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
    Applicative Constructions Benefactive and other; both bases
    Periphrastic Causative Constructions Sequential but no purposive
    Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
    Negative Morphemes Negative affix
    Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Asymmetric
    Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Cat
    Polar Questions Interrogative intonation only
    Predicative Possession 'Have'
    Predicative Adjectives Mixed
    Nominal and Locational Predication Different
    Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
    Comparative Constructions Exceed
    Complex Sentences
    Purpose Clauses Deranked
    'When' Clauses Deranked
    Reason Clauses Deranked
    Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced
    Lexicon
    Hand and Arm Identical
    Finger and Hand Different
    Numeral Bases Pure vigesimal
    Other
    Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks Affective meanings