To all Niger Deltans in the house, Tobara!!
I am a full blown kalabari man and I would always take any opportunity to promote myself.
I saw this and thought I should share:
The Ijaw speak nine closely-related Niger-Congo languages, all of which belong to the Ijoid branch of the Niger-Congo tree. The primary division between the Ijo languages is that between Eastern Ijo and Western Ijo, the most important of the former group of languages being Izon, which is spoken by about four million people. There are two prominent groupings of this language. The first group is nominally termed "Western" or "Central" Ijaw or Izon, and consists of "Western" Ijaw speakers (Ekeremo-Sagbama(Mein), Bassan, Apoi, Arogbo, Bumo, Kabuowei, Ogboin, Tarakiri, etc variety) as well Kolokuma-Opokuma (Yenagoa and the vicinity). Nembe-Brass and Akassa (Akaha) dialects are referred to as "Ijo South-East". These groups, since 1996, mainly constitutes Bayelsa State, but spills over to Delta, Edo and Ondo States. Biseni and Okodia dialect are termded "Inland" Ijo The other major group is Kalabari. Kalabari is an "Eastern" Ijaw language but the term "Eastern Ijaw" is not the normal nomenclature. Kalabari is the name one of the clans of the Ijaws that reside on the eastern side of the Niger-Delta (Abonnema, Buguma, Bakana, Degema etc who form a major group in Rivers State, hence their involvement in the fight for greater oil control. Other "Eastern" Ijaw clans are the Okrika, Ibani (the natives of Bonny, Finima and Opobo) and Nkoroo. They are neighbours to the Kalabari in present day Rivers State of Nigeria.
Other related Ijo sub-groups which have distinct linguistic relations but very close blood (i.e genetic), cultural and territorial homogenity with the rest of the Ijaw are Epie-Atisa clan, Engenni people and Udekama (which speak Delta Edoid Languages). Others are Ogbia clan, Bukuma, Abuloma (Obulom) and Andoni (which speak Delta Cross languages).
It was discovered in the 1980s that a nearly-extinct Berbice Creole Dutch, spoken in Guyana, is based on Ijo lexicon and grammar. Its nearest relative seems to be Eastern Ijo, most likely Kalabari (Kouwenberg 1994)
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE TO
SOME KALABARI LETTERS
a : – like the a in arm
? : – like the e in get
e : – like the ay in day
? : – like the i in bit
i : – like the ee in see
? : – like the o in hot
o : – like the o in road
? : – like the u in mud
u : – like the oo in food
B, b : – like the b in boy
B, b (implosive): not in English
D, d : – like the d in dog
D, d (implosive): not in English
ABBREVIATIONS USED
[kf] : Kalabari Definition (of word)
? : another part of speech
adj : adjective
adv : adverb
art : article
aux.vb : auxiliary verb
con j : conjunction
eg ? : example
excl : exclamation
grt : greeting
nn : noun
?NT : Nigerian Tribe
ph.vb : phrasal verb
plr : plural
prep : preposition
pron : pronoun
qv (quod vide) : please see
sng : singular
SKW : Special Kalabari Word
vb : verb
I actually am learning too so any one who can correct me should please do.
Visit the website
http://www.kalabari-dictionary.org/Its really helpful