Igala Orthography

Posted by abdul  at February 5th, 2013

Orthography is a standardized system for using a particular writing system (script) to write a particular language. It includes rules of spelling; other elements of written language that may also be considered to be part of orthography include hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.

The IGALA language was first reduced to writing in the late decades of the 19th. century. Dr Tom Miach and Proffessor R. G. Armstrong played a prominent role in making sure that Igala Othography is included into the NIgerian orthograpy Volume IV..
The standard orthography of Igala Language has undergone several revisions and will continues to be revied since language itself is dynamic in nature. In order to understand and appreciate the language structure based on which we draft the article for this learning tool, we believe anybody coming to use our Igala Learning tool for understanding how to speak the language should first of all know the current state Igala Orthography.

Federal Ministry of education Lagos commissioned Dr Tom Miachi to undertake the study of Igala Orthography through adequate consultation and present a report on it. To this effect, Tom Miachi organized three seminars in which experts (mainly linguist) from several Nigerian Universities contributed to the papers. The first report was submitted to the National Language Centre in August 1984. A special committee of orthography experts headed by Professor Ayo Banjo, then the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan discussed the report as well as that of Professor Armstrong, at the University of Ibadan. The final report written by these language experts was titled Igala Orthography and was published in 1986 in the Manual IV of the Orthographies of Nigerian Languages Series.