Introduction to Igbo Nsukka Phonetics and Phonology

If there is a term like ‘linguistic marginalization,’ that is what the Nsukka Igbos can be said to be undergoing in the commonwealth of Igbo linguistics. There are 36 letters of the Igbo alphabet. While these letters holistically capture all the speech sounds of the people of Anambra and Imo, they in no way capture that of the Nsukka Igbos (Igbo Nsukka). While there are 36 letters of the Igbo alphabet capturing the 36 speech sounds of the Anambra and Imo people, there are whole lots of Igbo Nsukka speech sounds that have no letter to represent them. One writing a history book or let’s say a novel and wants to capture some of these unique sounds peculiar to Igbo Nsukka cannot do so by the opportunities afforded by the Central Igbo’s orthography. Hence, the Central Igbo limits our ability to capture our worldviews in letters. This book is a study into the phonetics and phonology of the people of Igbo Nsukka, attempting to highlight some of the speech sounds of Igbo Nsukka people not highlighted in the Central Igbo orthography. In addition to this, the book also outlines how to count days in Igbo Nsukka dialect as well as well as the indigeneous method of counting money in Igbo Nsukka dialect.