There are very many words that can portray any particular language user as an indigene. Such words can be classified as onomatopoeia or colloquial. Nenwe language has that in abundance. Their proper use will always distinguish the users of such words as good speakers of the language or dialect. Unfortunately, we are allowing such Nenwe words to die off hence we replace them with English, leading to what we now refer to as Engligbo.
Such words in Nenwe include but are not limited to:
Zerezere, ụvịọmịrịvịọ, vorovoro, aragara, ényịmakwụ, voyirivoyiri... name them. An Awka person or an Nsukka man who hears Nenwe dialect may not actually know what a Nenwe man means when he uses such words. Neither will Nenwe people who hears their day to day business words understand theirs when they enter into that.
Vorovoro therefore is a kind of Nenwe colloquial that means brittle. We may understand it better when we say that something la-avọri avọri; meaning it is very brittle.
Damịrịda (Nenwe), Danda (central Igbo) means ants or éhụhụ. We may have been more acquainted with the central Igbo proverb: onye tụọ ntị n'anị, ọ nụ ụria danda.
The effort we are making here is to ensure we do not allow these minor words or phrases that make our dialect special to be phased out. If we hold on only to the simple simple ones like ọọ ngolu, ndaa, kelekwele etc, then our dialect will soon be bereaved of the speciality it enjoyed in the days of our forefathers.
The proverb: ji yoo vorovoro, (vọyịrịvọyịrị, yere yere) etc o ruwe damịrịda translates to: when the yam is well cooked, the ants will partake in its eating.
Literarily, in those days, when spoons were not in use, when one ate such well cooked yam, he cut it with the thumb that had long nails. Before the yam would get to the mouth, some of the yam particles would fall on the ground and in a few minutes after the meal, come and see ants having their field day.
Lesson: when the person at the head gets a fair share, those below will at least get the aroma of the eating.
Eg. Any state that belongs to an opposition party does not get enough share of the national cake. They hardly get enough with which to pay their civil servants talk less of engaging in projects that will benefit the masses.
More versions of the proverb will do us some good. So ya kpọtụwa akpọtụ!!!!!!!
By Sailas Nwenya
