Languagle #42: Igbo
Gidi gidi bụ ugwu eze
Gidi gidi bu ugwu eze
"Numbers are the dignity of a king."
What it means
A king's greatness comes from his people. Without followers, a king is nobody. The saying is used to mean that there is strength and dignity in numbers and in unity.
What kind of saying it is
Oral tradition. In Igbo, a ilu. Passed down by word of mouth. Sayings like this have no single author.
About the Igbo language
Igbo is a Niger-Congo language spoken by around 30 million people, mainly in southeastern Nigeria. It is tonal, and the same string of letters can be several different words depending on the tones. It is written in the Latin alphabet, with dots under some vowels (ị, ọ, ụ). Igbo has a rich tradition of proverbs: Chinua Achebe, the Igbo novelist, wrote that proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.
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