armadeo:


What you have said is the absolute truth. It's so sad. I personally some times blame my parents for this mishap. None of my siblings or I can speak. We manage to hear small. Same with many cousins I know. None speaks or hears the language.

This would also be transfered to our children as if they cannot hear us speak the language how would they hear it.

It's sad. We need to really do something about it. Particularly those who don't even know the location of thier villages.

Some people are trying to fix the problem. If you goto YouTube, you can search for Urhobo Cartoons and learn Urhobo from the basics very well. After that, you can proceed to watch Urhobo films (with English subtitles). The films are on YouTube too and they are quite good. Then we should befriend ourselves and enforce Urhobo as the only means of communication except on official terms. Someone even mailed me that he wants to develop an application for PCs, Android, etc, to learn Urhobo. Our children should be made to learn Urhobo as well. If we do this, we can complement the efforts of Urhobo Historical Society and Urhobo Progress Union so that Urhobo will not go extinct.

Efewestern:


Lolz.. i luv that.. My mom do speak Urhobo to us.. but we reply with English.. thats the problem.. The fear of the writer (Fratermathy), is that we may loose our language in the near future if we continue like this.

Please learn Urhobo well o.. maybe i might marry u #Just kiding

This issue of marriage is even the fear I have with my current fiancee. She hails from Asaba where they speak an Igboid dialect. She is very good with her language so I have fears that if I marry her, my children may end up speaking Igbo, rather than Urhobo. However, whether I marry her or not, I have resolved to give all my children Urhobo names and take them home if I can. I am also going to employ an Urhobo teacher and I will personally speak Urhobo with them and enforce them to see Urhobo cartoons, movies, books, etc. They can also learn Igbo or any other language if they so wish but I must emphasise Urhobo as their mother tongue.

There is a Professor from my village who married a Yoruba woman from Ilorin. His children are all lost. They bear Urhobo names but effectively identify as Yorubas. One even changed her name from Oghenetejiri to Temi. It makes me sad anytime I see them speaking Yoruba and rapping it. The man did nothing to contain the situation and today, his only legacy in their lives is the name they bear.

fratermathy:


This issue of marriage is even the fear I have with my current fiancee. She hails from Asaba where they speak an Igboid dialect. She is very good with her language so I have fears that if I marry her, my children may end up speaking Igbo, rather than Urhobo. However, whether I marry her or not, I have resolved to give all my children Urhobo names and take them home if I can. I am also going to employ an Urhobo teacher and I will personally speak Urhobo with them and enforce them to see Urhobo cartoons, movies, books, etc. They can also learn Igbo or any other language if they so wish but I must emphasise Urhobo as their mother tongue.

Do you have a dictionary/bible on your language? That could be a starting point of for those you who cannot speak the language

LorDBolton:
Very true OP I quarrelled with mumcy the other day when she was speaking native lingua and expecting me to understand

Azzin even parents don't speak language to the kids and worst thing is Edoid languages like ours are VERY difficult to learn if not taught early on due to high stress factor.

@nysc camp ALL of us edo peeps living in the west were even conversing in yoruba atimes...imagine!

@ my former office I also noticed it, all we know Is 'basic' greetings. Nothing more so how are we edos? Urhobos? Isokos? Itsekiris? Since gone are the days of 'tribal marks'

If we don't find a solution larger tribes will swallow us.

Very true. I have discussed this matter with people over many years. With increasing influence of larger tribes, smaller languages will continue to decline. Smaller groups and edoid tribes (Benin, Urhobo/Okpe/Uwvie, Esan, Isoko, Afamai & more) must encourage learning each other's languages. Especially encouraging their kids to do so mutually. I have found Benin kids being exposed to Urhobo or Esan for example as being very important. It encourages even a deeper understanding of Benin language for example.

I have no doubt this would be the case in reverse. Because many of these languages/tribes simply have a lot in common culturally & historically.
It is not a fight that can be won alone, but collectively.

We need to urgently create academies to promote "minority" languages or purposely sponsor special units within our state universities to come up simplification & standardisation of these languages. We can patner with UNESCO.

We in 9ja Delta are now pidgin specialists. But at the cost of our native languages. That cannot continue. Otherwise a major part of these civilisations will disappear for good.

Efewestern:


Lolz.. i luv that.. My mom do speak Urhobo to us.. but we reply with English.. thats the problem.. The fear of the writer (Fratermathy), is that we may loose our language in the near future if we continue like this.

Please learn Urhobo well o.. maybe i might marry u #Just kiding

Lol, I don't even want an Urhobo man for a husband, they are too strict, imagine just last week my dad was teaching me days of the week in Urhobo, dis morning he called me to revise it to him one by one, even As old as I am

Sexina851:


Lol, I don't even want an Urhobo man for a husband, they are too strict, imagine just last week my dad was teaching me days of the week in Urhobo, dis morning he called me to revise it to him one by one, even As old as I am

Lessons he should have taught you as a child.

fratermathy:


This issue of marriage is even the fear I have with my current fiancee. She hails from Asaba where they speak an Igboid dialect. She is very good with her language so I have fears that if I marry her, my children may end up speaking Igbo, rather than Urhobo. However, whether I marry her or not, I have resolved to give all my children Urhobo names and take them home if I can. I am also going to employ an Urhobo teacher and I will personally speak Urhobo with them and enforce them to see Urhobo cartoons, movies, books, etc. They can also learn Igbo or any other language if they so wish but I must emphasise Urhobo as their mother tongue.

There is a Professor from my village who married a Yoruba woman from Ilorin. His children are all lost. They bear Urhobo names but effectively identify as Yorubas. One even changed her name from Oghenetejiri to Temi. It makes me sad anytime I see them speaking Yoruba and rapping it. The man did nothing to contain the situation and today, his only legacy in their lives is the name they bear.

Lolz.. Don't know why we love getting married to outsiders, To me thats the no. 1 problem, We love getting married to Yoruba , Edo e.tc and at d end those tribe subdue ours .. Take for example Fatia balogun, that Yoruba actress, She is from Urhobo But can't speak her language fluently

I already made up my mind to get married to an Urhobo lady.. so i go preserve our identity.. I can't speak Urhobo, Imagine me getting married to an Itsekiri, Yoruba, ijaw or an Igbo lady.. I won't b able to Urhobonize my kids..

I think You should come up with Ideas on how to promote our language online.. many of us might contribute to the success of such program. please think about it.

Sexina851:


Lol, I don't even want an Urhobo man for a husband, they are too strict, imagine just last week my dad was teaching me days of the week in Urhobo, dis morning he called me to revise it to him one by one, even As old as I am

Fratermathy Wor' Mre' Leer' … This is what am saying .. He don't want to marry an Urhobo man for no just reason.. chai.. i go cry oo.. so tell me which tribe do u prefer ?.. Urhobo men rock

@Bolded. lolz.. can't stop laughing... Even me i don't know any days in Urhobo.. I only know eSundayEe, Emonday'Eee, Etuesday'Eee

blues20:

Do you have a dictionary/bible on your language? That could be a starting point of for those you who cannot speak the language

We have dictionaries but they are not very comprehensive. A Bible is even better but many Urhobos who are expert speakers can't read Urhobo. That is even another problem entirely. 80% of Urhobos who are expert speakers can't process a written Urhobo sentence.


We really have a long way, I tell you. My prayer is that our youths should show a little interest and dedication so that we won't lose our heritage. If it misses our generation, we will never get it again. We will have only names as relics of our culture.

fratermathy:


This issue of marriage is even the fear I have with my current fiancee. She hails from Asaba where they speak an Igboid dialect. She is very good with her language so I have fears that if I marry her, my children may end up speaking Igbo, rather than Urhobo. However, whether I marry her or not, I have resolved to give all my children Urhobo names and take them home if I can. I am also going to employ an Urhobo teacher and I will personally speak Urhobo with them and enforce them to see Urhobo cartoons, movies, books, etc. They can also learn Igbo or any other language if they so wish but I must emphasise Urhobo as their mother tongue.

There is a Professor from my village who married a Yoruba woman from Ilorin. His children are all lost. They bear Urhobo names but effectively identify as Yorubas. One even changed her name from Oghenetejiri to Temi. It makes me sad anytime I see them speaking Yoruba and rapping it. The man did nothing to contain the situation and today, his only legacy in their lives is the name they bear.

Hopefully you achieve your aim. You may not be at home always to teach your children the language you know. Children often spend more time growing up with the mother than with their fathers and the first language a child is exposed to is that which the mother speaks, hence the phrase 'mother tongue' for 'native language'. The heavy marriage of Igbo women by Kalabari and Okirika men in Rivers state is a contributory factor to the bilingual nature of these people in Kalabari/Wakirike and Igbo, and some are exclusively monolingual in Igbo but Ijaw by name. This factor is also linked to the bilingualism in the Orogun community of Urhobo land that have extensive Ukwuani maternal ancestry.

Offsprings from unions between minority and majority tribes tend to take on the language or identity of the majority tribe, thus it is left to the parent from the minority tribe, especially if it is the father, to enforce their culture first before that of the mother. One time on here an Esan man married to a Yoruba woman created a thread on this website voicing concerns that if nature is allowed to take its course, his children may grow up speaking Yoruba as first language, worse still given that Esan is more difficult to learn than Yoruba and also that they are residing in the SW. He made proactive plans to take them to his village more or even leave them with his mother in the village during their first few formative years so that they could pick up Esan and maybe Yoruba later. In the case of the example you gave, the professor's daughters would most likely end up marrying Yoruba men given their familiarity to Yoruba culture. His sons, however, remain Urhobo and they can reverse the trend by marrying Urhobo-speaking wives and that way their children will be Urhobo speaking, thus effectively halting the language gap caused by his father to just their generation.

By the way, where are you currently residing?

AreaFada2:


Very true. I have discussed this matter with people over many years. With increasing influence of larger tribes, smaller languages will continue to decline. Smaller groups and edoid tribes (Benin, Urhobo/Okpe/Uwvie, Esan, Isoko, Afamai & more) must encourage learning each other's languages. Especially encouraging their kids to do so mutually. I have found Benin kids being exposed to Urhobo or Esan for example as being very important. It encourages even a deeper understanding of Benin language for example.

I have no doubt this would be the case in reverse. Because many of these languages/tribes simply have a lot in common culturally & historically.
It is not a fight that can be won alone, but collectively.

We need to urgently create academies to promote "minority" languages or purposely sponsor special units within our state universities to come up simplification & standardisation of these languages. We can patner with UNESCO.

We in 9ja Delta are now pidgin specialists. But at the cost of our native languages. That cannot continue. Otherwise a major part of these civilisations will disappear for good.

You are correct in many ways. The Edoid tribes need to unite and become a macro-ethnic group with our various languages as dialects. That is what Ijaws did and it is favouring them today. But the truth is that Urhobos are far too proud and disorganised for this to be dreamt of.

Your other position on minority studies is apt. We need centres devoted to the documentation of our languages in universities, not just in Nigeria but the whole world. In this regards, Diffre Akpobome has done much. He has presented proposals to various institutions and has engaged in Urhobo language documentation. Sadly, he is not encouraged by enough Urhobos in terms of finance.

bigfrancis21:


Lessons he should have taught you as a child.

Infact my brother I done tire, it wasn't entirely his fault sha to, nah army work cause am. But till date he forbids u to speak English in his presence.

bigfrancis21:

Cool. What tribe are you married into?

Am not married..... Yet.

Sexina851:


Infact my brother I done tire, it wasn't entirely his fault sha to, nah army work cause am. But till date he forbids u to speak English in his presence.

My parents raised us in English and while my mom switched to Igbo as soon as we mastered English as kids, my dad continued to speak English still. He is fluent in Igbo, born in Kano, had his secondary education in Enugu, studied undergraduate and masters abroad, and speaks Igbo to everyone around him except us. But when he is angry he switches to Igbo. Few years ago, one time my dad forbade us from speaking English in the house but Igbo only, everybody's mouth was shut ...only for him 30 minutes later to yell out in the same English...'NEPA has taken the light go and start the generator' and we were like 'Daddyyyyyy '.

Now I am fluent. My next 2 siblings are near perfect. The last one is still monolingual for now but he understands perfectly and can make few sentences here and there.

Where would you rate yourself from 1 to 10 (lowest to highest) in speaking Urhobo?

bigfrancis21:


Hopefully you achieve your aim. You may not be at home always to teach your children the language you know. Children often spend more time growing up with the mother than with their fathers and the first language a child is exposed to is that which the mother speaks, hence the phrase 'mother tongue' for 'native language'. The heavy marriage of Igbo women by Kalabari and Okirika men in Rivers state is a contributory factor to the bilingual nature of these people in Kalabari/Wakirike and Igbo, and some are exclusively monolingual in Igbo but Ijaw by name. This factor is also linked to the bilingualism in the Orogun community of Urhobo land that have extensive Ukwuani maternal ancestry.

Offsprings from unions between minority and majority tribes tend to take on the language or identity of the majority tribe, thus it is left to the parent from the minority tribe, especially if it is the father, to enforce their culture first before that of the mother. One time on here an Esan man married to a Yoruba woman created a thread on this website voicing concerns that if nature is allowed to take its course, his children may grow up speaking Yoruba as first language, worse still given that Esan is more difficult to learn than Yoruba and also that they are residing in the SW. He made proactive plans to take them to his village more or even leave them with his mother in the village during their first few formative years so that they could pick up Esan and maybe Yoruba later. In the case of the example you gave, the professor's daughters would most likely end up marrying Yoruba men given their familiarity to Yoruba culture. His sons, however, remain Urhobo and they can reverse the trend by marrying Urhobo-speaking wives and that way their children will be Urhobo speaking, thus effectively halting the language gap caused by his father to just their generation.

By the way, where are you currently residing?

Your position is very apt and your logic is sound. I am not currently in Delta. I move around alot but base mainly in the Akwa-Cross region, specifically Calabar City. It is difficult to find Urhobos here that know how to speak Urhobo.

If not for love that now determines marriage, many of us would opt for Urhobo wives. In any case, I'll surely make sure my mother partakes actively in the growth of my children, with faith that she is hale and hearty then. I may also get a maid who is proficient in Urhobo. I'll also enforce my fiancee to learn Urhobo as a condition for marriage.

Efewestern:


where Do you reside in Delta ?.. I might recommend some books for you .. What school re your ward attending ?.. Most schools in warri teach Urhobo as one of there subject.. The earlier the better..

We live in Lagos.

Efewestern:


Fratermathy Wor' Mre' Leer' … This is what am saying .. He don't want to marry an Urhobo man for no just reason.. chai.. i go cry oo.. so tell me which tribe do u prefer ?.. Urhobo men rock

@Bolded. lolz.. can't stop laughing... Even me i don't know any days in Urhobo.. I only know eSundayEe, Emonday'Eee, Etuesday'Eee

It's very simple actually except for Saturday which edeki otete meaning d of small work, then Sunday which is edijana but all other day are numeric like Monday now is called edeki ovo first market day, Tuesday would be second market day edeki ivve..... I don't know if u get it sha

fratermathy:


Your position is very apt and your logic is sound. I am not currently in Delta. I move around alot but base mainly in the Akwa-Cross region, specifically Calabar City. It is difficult to find Urhobos here that know how to speak Urhobo.

If not for love that now determines marriage, many of us would opt for Urhobo wives. In any case, I'll surely make sure my mother partakes actively in the growth of my children, with faith that she is hale and hearty then. I may also get a maid who is proficient in Urhobo. I'll also enforce my fiancee to learn Urhobo as a condition for marriage.

You got good plans, however enforcing your fiancee to learn Urhobo as a condition for marriage, especially to the point that she is fluent enough to transmit it to the children, does not seem too plausible to me given the short time and shortage of learning resources. However, having an Urhobo-speaking maid will help a lot and your mother can also play a role in the early formative years of the children. Once they pick it up as children, any other language learnt will be in addition and will not supplant their Urhobo speaking skills.

Onegai:


We live in Lagos.

Ohh.. i see. You can send someone money (Maybe ur frnd or family member) To get you a Copy of some Urhobo textbook , will go to any school closer to me here in warri to ask for the book they re currently using ..

I'd suggest you get a home teacher.. please do anything to teach them our language.. Please and please.. those kids re the leaders of tomorrow

Sexina851:


It's very simple actually except for Saturday which edeki otete meaning d of small work, then Sunday which is edijana but all other day are numeric like Monday now is called edeki ovo first market day, Tuesday would be second market day edeki ivve..... I don't know if u get it sha

oh i see very simple.. chai.. Edeki Era, (Wednesday).. menh .. am loving this

Except the incoming monarch do something fast about it, in next decade very few kids now will speak Bini. It hurts me when Edo parents converse with their kids in English and more horrible wen Bini youths use pidgin. Girls are the worst culprits here.

martineinstein:
edo state is even worse....i remember bini chiefs lamenting the xtinction of bini languages

Efewestern:


oh i see very simple.. chai.. Edeki Era, (Wednesday).. menh .. am loving this

Exactly! Clap for yourself you are a smart learner

Will I say I'm good with languages? I think not. I was 12 when I began forcing myself to learn my native dialect. Before then my parents spoke to us in ukwuani and we responded in English. When I had my epiphany, I began learning the language, and now, many years later, I still can't boast of being fluent. I understand it up to 90% but can only speak about 55% of Ukwuani.

I have personally resolved to teach my children the little I know because truth is our languages are dying out. I even recall a student I once taught telling me her parents banned her and her sibs from speaking their native Yoruba. Imagine!!

Who is to blame? Media which has brainwashed us? Western influence? Western influence can still be traced to media.

Enuguboy4nsk:

niger delta is not even a geopolitical zone rather south south is a geopolitical zone..niger delta is just an area covered by oil spillage

Is this how U guys up in the Hills reason?

bigfrancis21:


My parents raised us in English and while my mom switched to Igbo as soon as we mastered English as kids, my dad continued to speak English still. He is fluent in Igbo, born in Kano, had his secondary education in Enugu, studied undergraduate and masters abroad, and speaks Igbo to everyone around him except us. But when he is angry he switches to Igbo. Few years ago, one time my dad forbade us from speaking English in the house but Igbo only, everybody's mouth was shut ...only for him 30 minutes later to yell out in the same English...'NEPA has taken the light go and start the generator' and we were like 'Daddyyyyyy '.

Now I am fluent. My next 2 siblings are near perfect. The last one is still monolingual for now but he understands perfectly and can make few sentences here and there.

Where would you rate yourself from 1 to 10 (lowest to highest) in speaking Urhobo?

Lol your dad most be a funny man, rating myself that 8of10

Sexina851:

Exactly! Clap for yourself you are a smart learner

lolz . yes teacher
What of money ?.. can you teach me how to cal. money .. like 1k 2k e.tc

Ishilove:
Will I say I'm good with languages? I think not. I was 12 when I began forcing myself to learn my native dialect. Before then my parents spoke to us in ukwuani and we responded in English. When I had my epiphany, I began learning the language, and now, many years later, I still can't boast of being fluent. I understand it up to 90% but can only speak about 55% of Ukwuani.

I have personally resolved to teach my children the little I know because truth is our languages are dying out. I even recall a student I once taught telling me her parents banned her and her sibs from speaking their native Yoruba. Imagine!!

Who is to blame? Media which has brainwashed us? Western influence? Western influence can still be traced to media.

From my observation, deep Igbo dialects are harder to learn than the Onitsha or central Igbo which is way simpler in sentence structure and vocabulary. Just as Lagos Yoruba (simple in structure) is easier to pick up than more concentrated Yoruba dialects such as Ijebu. It is often easier for deep Igbo speakers to switch to central/Onitsha Igbo than vice versa. Such dialects are best learnt at childhood or during one's teenage years. I am surprised at how you are still not fluent at it despite starting at 12 to learn Ukwuani.

Efewestern:


Ekpan case is quite different, We av more strangers than indigene in Ekpan. The only part that speaks Uvwie re those from afieki/ Udumowori axis.

but we have more than 5thousand uvwie speaker.. My fear is what will happen to our language in the near future

Is Afieki and Udumowori not Ekpan? It seems u are not even getting my point. Anyway, thanks.

Efewestern:


lolz . yes teacher

What of money ?.. can you teach me how to cal. money .. like 1k 2k e.tc

It's quite simple too, ododuru or ododurin ovo, ododurin I've, ododurin ehra, ododurin ene so on and so forth... As for the days of week u can still call it edirhou, shay u get so it won't sound strange wen someone else says edirhou ovo is Monday