Notes.
The five groups of nouns used in the above drills are typical of the majority of Igbo nouns: two syllables, the first being a vowel or a syllabic m or n or ŋ, the second beginning with a consonant and ending with a vowel, all accompanied by one of the five tone sequences illustrated above. There are some threesyllable and longer nouns in Igbo, and some nouns beginning with consonants, but they will give little trouble once these five basic types are mastered. In isolation, the five types of nouns are labelled and written as follows:
| 1. | Low - low: | àkwa | 'a bed' |
| 2. | Low - step: | àkwá | 'an egg' |
| 3. | Step - same: | óce | 'a chair' |
| 4. | Step - step: | égó | 'money' |
| 5. | Step - low: | ákwà | 'cloth' |
In the sentences on which you have drilled, the initial low tone of the first two of the above types has, of course, not been marked, because the last preceding marked tone was low. If you want to keep a vocabulary card file, be sure to mark the tones as above, not as they appear in full sentences.
As you begin to learn Igbo vocabulary. remember that the tone is an integral part of the word, and must be learned along with the consonants and vowels. It is true that tones sometimes undergo alternations that will surprise you, somewhat as the f in English wife changes to v in the plural wives. But the existence of this alternation in English does not permit us to interchange f and v whenever we feel like it; neither does the existence of variant tonal forms in Igbo permit us to ignore tone. First learn the words as they have been introduced, including their tones; the alternations follow statable rules, and will be systematically presented as the lessons progress.
A few words about consonants, consonant clusters, and syllabic nasals. The writings kp and gb represent single consonants, not sequences of k and p or k and g. The closure at the back of the mouth for k or g, and at the lips for p or b, is simultaneous; the releases are also simultaneous. These may not be easy consonants at first, but with practice you can learn them. You have probably used a consonant similar to the Igbo kp in imitating a hen cackling; Igbo orthography, a common American imitation would be written ""kpọ́" kpọ kpọ kpọ kpọ". After a vowel or syllabic nasal, the syllable division always precedes the consonants kp and gb it does not come between them.
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