Efik language
Efik /ˈɛfɪk/[3] proper; Efik. Ikɔ Efik) is the native language of the Efik people of Nigeria, where it is a national language. It is the official language of Cross River State in Nigeria.
| Efik | |
|---|---|
| Ikɔ Efik | |
| Native to | Southern Nigeria |
| Region | Cross River State |
| Ethnicity | Efik |
Native speakers | 400,000 (1998)[1] Second language: 2 million (1998)[2] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | efi |
| ISO 639-3 | efi |
| Glottolog | efik1245 |
History
On the second year of the Presbyterian mission from the Jamaican congregation led by Rev. Hope Masterton Waddell in 1846, Rev. Hugh Goldie a member of the second batch of the missionary team who was a Hebrew, Greek and Latin scholar studied the various manifestations of the Efik language for twenty years. He classified it as one of the Nilo-Hamitic, a member of the Semitic family language which forms most of its vocables as the Semitic class does, from the root of the verb.[4] He noted:
The Efik, very much resembling in idiom that of the Semitic tongue, can frequently more clearly express the import of sacred writers than can the English.
In 1862, Goldie completed his translation of the New Testament into Efik language. The Old Testament was completed by Alexander Robb in 1868 and printed in 1873. Goldie wrote the Efik language dictionary in 1874.[4] Efik is now understood to belong to the Niger-Congo language family.
It may survive in the diaspora in Cuba, in a creolised form used in the Abakuá secret society, which has its roots in the Efik Ekpe secret society in Nigeria.
See also
References
- Efik at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Efik language at Ethnologue (14th ed., 2000).
- Bauer, Laurie (2007). The Linguistics Student’s Handbook. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748631605.
- U., Aye, Efiong (2000). The Efik people. [Calabar, Nigeria?]: Association for the Promotion of Efik Language, Literature and Culture. ISBN 9783054139. OCLC 53283170.