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.
How to say it
gi-di gi-di boo oo-gwoo eh-zeh
Igbo is tonal, which everyday spelling doesn't show, so keep the syllables even. Ụ is the u in 'put', and gw is said as one sound.
Word by word
- Gidi gidi gi-di gi-di: great numbers, a crowd
- bụ boo: is
- ugwu oo-gwoo: honour, dignity
- eze eh-zeh: king
Where it was found
In Igbo a proverb is an ilu. This one is from a list of Igbo proverbs on Igbo Guide.
Similar sayings
- English: There's strength in numbers
How to recognise Igbo
Igbo puts dots under three vowels, ị, ọ and ụ, and a dot on top of one consonant, ṅ. It also uses the letter pairs gb, gw, kp, kw, nw and ny. Yoruba uses dots too, but on ẹ, ọ and ṣ, and marks its tones with accents much more often. Hausa uses hooked letters like ɓ and ƙ instead.
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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