bigfrancis21:

Actually, the dialectical versions or Nri I've seen so far are Nshi(Delta Igbo) and Ishi(Nsukka). I'm yet to hear or see 'Eshi'. That's a totally different pronunciation.

Eshi is an Igbo word though that has other meanings though. In Nsukka dialect, body(aru/ahu) is 'eshi'. For eg, Ka m whuma Eshi(let me take my bath). Eshi a digi m oyi(I'm not feeling fine). In many imo dialects, Eshi means 'day' or 'mbosi' as we know it in Anambra parlance. For eg, eshi ahu nwa'akiri ahu biara nga, ma shi ya shimakwala n'uyo m fuma. (That day that child came here, I told her to leave my house).

Just a little expose from my stay so far in various areas in Igboland.

?Central Igbo – otu (English: Way/Manner)
Awka – ele [In a sentence: ‘Ele I shi eme omefu adụrọ mma’ or ‘Ele I shi eme omefu amaagara.’ Means ‘The way you behave is not good’ or ‘Otu I si eme omume adịghị mma’ in Central Igbo]

Radoillo: Thanks

It might not be a coincidence; Awka might have picked up certain usages from the people they worked among. Other people might have picked from them as well; I really can't say. (We might have picked 'wa' from Agbaja, and 'iwo' from Abiriba...It could equally have been the other way.)

Uma and akparamagwa aren't used in Awka. Agwa is used - 'One can say, 'Ele I shi akpa agwa'. 'The way you behave'.

Ele in Awka and ele in Bende zone might derive from a common source, but it appears both dialect areas use it differently.

As an Aro man, I was half-expecting you to disagree with the account that the founder of Aro-Ndikelionwu was an Awka slave boy (adopted and raised as an Aro man)... the way Nri priest has been contesting some of the things i said concerning Nri-Awka relations...LOL

salam001: intresting thread
you make me remember my own dialect,in my own dialect
ife/ihe = ishe
ofia/ohia = oshia
ifele/ihere = ishele

o'boy:
this your own dialect dey one kind o

o'boy:
this your own dialect dey one kind o

Radoillo:

Sounds a bit like what I know about Enuani. I'm guessing he's from there, or from the part of Anambra closest to Enuani.

Radoillo:

Do they speak different dialects in different quarters of Nnewi? I heard Nnewi people say, "Bia uka a" (Similar to Awka's "Bia ika a". But I never heard any Nnewi person say that while I was at Otolo-Nnewi.

pokur:
"Bia uka a" is right,though it's gradually being replaced by "Bia ebe a".Same as "rinne" is being replaced by "hinne".
You should have gone round the four Quarters to get the full feel of Nnewi dialect.

The European arrivals were taken to the compound of Onwurah Ukozu, a prominent personage from Umuanaga Village. Describing the hall of Onwurah, Mrs Dennis writes:

As he [Onwurah] was a chief of very high standing his compound was an elaborate one. The walls were beautifully smooth, and painted over with all sorts of queer designs. The door, boxes and other wooden articles were quaintly carved. Here we rested during the heat of the day, and in the afternoon went into a large open space where we preached to the large crowd who soon gathered around us.’

stillwater: Coooolllllllllllllll!
I'm from Awka. Nice to see this.
This thread really puts in perspective why majority of us are not at home. It's the traveling spirit, lol.


‘

Now that's my great grandpa!

Radoillo:


Seriously? Now i'm jealous Apparently none of my ancestors did anything to merit a mention in the history books.

stillwater:

Very serious.
Not only my great granddaddy, Chi Onwurah has put our name out there again.
There's another Ngozi Onwurah that did it too.
Ngozi Onwurah

Black British filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah takes on the issues of time and space in her work which embraces heterogeneity and multiple sites of subjectivity. Onwurah consistently navigates and challenges the limits of narrative and ethnographic cinema by insisting that the body is the central landscape of an anti-imperialist cinematic discourse.

An accomplished director with several episodes of the top British TV drama series "Heartbeat" to her credit, Ngozi Onwurah also wrote and directed the prize-winning feature "Welcome II the Terrordome." Sometimes fierce and at others more gently humorous, Onwurah tackles the clashes and ironies of the apparent gulf separating black and white, whilst showing that under the skin, emotions are universal.
Onwurah’s films have won prizes at the Berlin Film Festival, Germany; Melbourne Film Festival, Australia; Toronto Film Festival, Canada; and at NBPC, USA. (09/09)

Wulfruna: Hmm. Good post. Almost ruined by the Nri-tainted debate. Fascinating that these people from the heart of Igboland reached Isoko and Urhobo. My maternal grandpa's is Itsekiri, neighbours to the Urhobo. Wonder if they reached there as well.

Would have been great if you had posted more pictures.

can u pls post these pictures

Yea. There were a handful of pictures I wanted to post, but couldn't. Perhaps I could do that later. Perhaps I could also add more 'fragments' to the account. And yes, from what I know, there were Awka people among the Itsekiri....

Yea. There were a handful of pictures I wanted to post, but couldn't. Perhaps I could do that later. Perhaps I could also add more 'fragments' to the account. And yes, from what I know, there were Awka people among the Itsekiri....

Very serious.
Not only my great granddaddy, Chi Onwurah has put our name out there again.
There's another Ngozi Onwurah that did it too.
Ngozi Onwurah

Black British filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah takes on the issues of time and space in her work which embraces heterogeneity and multiple sites of subjectivity. Onwurah consistently navigates and challenges the limits of narrative and ethnographic cinema by insisting that the body is the central landscape of an anti-imperialist cinematic discourse.

An accomplished director with several episodes of the top British TV drama series "Heartbeat" to her credit, Ngozi Onwurah also wrote and directed the prize-winning feature "Welcome II the Terrordome." Sometimes fierce and at others more gently humorous, Onwurah tackles the clashes and ironies of the apparent gulf separating black and white, whilst showing that under the skin, emotions are universal.
Onwurah’s films have won prizes at the Berlin Film Festival, Germany; Melbourne Film Festival, Australia; Toronto Film Festival, Canada; and at NBPC, USA. (09/09)