The Feel Of Free: Igbo.. 

sugabelly:

elumeda:

Afuru m gi na anya -I love you (technically)

Afuru m gi na anya m - I saw you with my eyes

That 1 letter at the end makes a huge difference.

Actually it doesn’t. Sorry to be an Igbo grammar nazi but your grammar is wrong.

In Igbo when referring to body…

Agree with sugabelly - there is a penchant among some to create a version of Igbo that would be unrecognizable to most native speakers. As someone who is a native speaker of English and had to study Igbo, I was quick to pick up on the fact that in Igbo, one usually drops the possessive when talking about their own body parts and I have to consciously remind myself to resist the urge to add the possessive when talking about my body parts, since I am so used to doing so in English. Perhaps, if you want to say, that you saw someone with your eyes, like when they were doing something that they deny, you could say something like, “I na-asi na ahurughi m gi? E ji m anya abuo mgbe i mere ihe a (or if you wear glasses, and wish to humorously emphasize your point, you could say,  e ji m anya ano).” I defer to others on this, seeing that I still get strange looks when I attempt to speak Igbo.  When I say the above out loud, it doesn’t exactly “sound” right. It’s a bit difficult for me to translate English idioms into Igbo ones. Any other thoughts?

@3 months ago with 41 notes
  1. 9jakid4lyf95 reblogged this from elumeda
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  6. numbla reblogged this from elumeda
  7. thefeeloffree reblogged this from pyoowata and added:
    bolded because pyoowata was replying a question i had asked requesting a direct translation of “i saw you with my own...
  8. pyoowata reblogged this from sugabelly and added:
    Nsogbu adighi…of course it is implied that when you used your eye to see something, it refers to both eyes. It is not...
  9. elumeda reblogged this from sugabelly and added:
    Yeah you have a good point there. I guess saying e jim anya fu gi or N ji anya fu gi is a better way to say it in...
  10. sugabelly reblogged this from elumeda and added:
    Re the Igbo post. It doesn’t matter that your Mom is Igbo born and bred. With all due respect to your mother, LOTS (and...
  11. crystalazuike reblogged this from thefeeloffree
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