CHINESE AND IGBO PHONEMES AND TONES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Language is basically a tool for communication among and between individuals and groups. It must be able to communicate meaning to the listeners. It serves as a vehicle for expressing thoughts and feelings. Every nation has its own language. The languages of the world include English, Igbo, Hausa, Chinese, Russian, French, German, Swahili, Spanish, Yoruba, Efik, etc. Language has a spoken and written system and every language has a standard form and variant forms. The languages of the world borrow words from each other. Chinese language like every other languages of the world has its origin or history as the case may be. The Chinese official language is Mandarin, but there are more than 80 different local languages and dialects existing in China. Igbo language being the language of the Igbo portrays their culture as well as promotes inter-personal relationship among the speakers. The Igbo language which is tonal like the Chinese counterpart has its orthography which is the generally accepted specific system of writing it. It has its standard form (Igbo Izugbe) and other variants (olundi). Every language has its own sound system. The Igbo language has thirty six phoneme sounds and four distinct tones whereas Chinese language has all together and four distinct tones. The writing system of Chinese has a symbolic form which can be read and interpreted and it depends on the tone of a syllable to indicate its meaning: ma with one tone means ‘mother’, with another means ‘horse’. It is also realised in Igbo as in the words like akwa with one tone means ¨cry¨ and with another tone means ¨cloth¨. The standard pronunciation of the Chinese language is Beijing pronunciation. And the standard Chinese is called Putonghua on China’s mainland.