Obolo (or Andoni) is a major
Cross River language of
Nigeria. Obolo is the indigenous name of a community in the eastern Delta of the River Niger, better known as Andoni (the origin of this latter name being uncertain).[2]Obolo refers to the people, the language as well as the land. It is an
agglutinative and an
SVO language.
Dialects
There are six major dialect groups in the language, namely: (from west to east): Ataba, Unyeada, Ngo, Okoroete, Iko and Ibot Obolo.[3] Ngo is the prestige dialect, hence the standard literary form of Obolo draws heavily from it.
Obolo literature
The Bible in Obolo was published by the Obolo Language and Bible Translation Organization in 2012. Obolo is the 23rd Nigerian language to have the complete Bible.[4]
An Obolo-language website was launched in 2016.[5]
Tone marks can be added to some letters. The tone bearers are the vowels a, e, i, o, ọ, u as well as the consonants m and n.
Obolo is a tone language. There are five tones in the language: low, high, mid, falling and rising tone.[10] In writing, only the low tone and falling tone are indicated.[11] Tones are marked compulsorily on the first syllables of verbs and verbal groups. For other classes of words, a standard literature will show the way to go.
Regulation
Obolo language is regulated by the Obolo Language and Bible Translation Organization (OLBTO), a community-owned research and development organization that does dialect surveys and research, oversees the development and introduction of new terminologies, publishes books in the language, etc.
References
^NBS (2011) Annual Abstract of Statistics. National Bureau of Statistics. Federal Republic of Nigeria. p. 26,64
^A History of Obolo (Andoni) in the Niger Delta. By Nkparom C. Ejituwu. Oron: Manson Publishing Company, in association with University of Port Harcourt Press, 1991. Pp. xiv +314
^Obolo in "Orthographies of Nigerian Languages Manual VI." Publisher: Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council. 2000.