odumchi:
Hey, NL. I'm looking to open up a discussion and learn more about Igbo dialects that order parts of speech within sentences differently from the [Subject + Verb + Object] combination that's commonly used for many constructions in Izugbe.

What rules are there?
In which contexts do they apply?
In which dialect clusters is this phenomenon found?

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[ex1] - Ihe emerela ha m hiri nne
[Izugbe] - Ihe ha meere m buru ibu
[Bekee] - They did a lot for me

[ex2] - Aganu ha nkwe?
[Izugbe] - Ha aga ekwe?
[Bekee] - Will they consent?

[ex3] - Ebi ha ulo elu
[Izugbe] - Ha bi ulo elu
[Bekee] - They live in a multi-story building

ChinenyeN:
I just decided to randomly poke my head into NL and to my amazement, I see this. I FINALLY have a reason to return back to NL, however brief. Nkaramngwa, ndaa? I am on the road now and so cannot effectively respond, but when I reach home I will.

bigfrancis21:


Hey, longest time. I find this characteristic unique to southern dialects (Imo, Abia etc.). I have tried to come up with something similar in my dialect but not been able to.

odumchi:
Nwokho oma l'eji eme ire, kaa mbu anya? Gira ije uwa. Ya diriwa. Aguru olilaanya ndi e ejighi egbu egbu.

ChinenyeN:


Enyi okhno, ya mbuto otu whne nnu ye. Ya diriwa ye.

So, yes, I know I said I would respond quickly, but something really came that just required I prioritize. Anyhow, I can get into it now, without getting too technically in depth into it.

Anyhow, as it is, it turns out that many Igbo groups will find this syntax structure for Igbo is strange, and I guess they would be right since it is not represented in "archetypal Igbo". Archetypal Igbo only recognizes it when using the first-person pronoun m (eg. ana m abia). This structure with first person is practically ubiquitous. However, outside of that, you do not see the phenomenon occur with most Igbo groups. In fact, I'd hazard to say that you almost don't see it at all outside of a particular region, which has led some linguists to claim that this syntax is a different mode of speech must have existed in proto-Igbo that is now mostly faded, but that is an aside.

Ngwa is actually among the groups that utilize this "awkward" syntax, and we use if heavily. For groups like Ngwa, this syntax structure actually has a domino effect on tone. So, both the syntax and tone rules change when using this syntax structure.

I don't know how it applies to every group that utilizes the structure, but here is my experience as an Ngwa speaker, along with my familiarity with other dialects in the region that utilize the syntax structure.

How it applies: So far, this syntax applies primarily to first person singular and third person plural. 'Til date, I have yet to encounter a usage with any of the other pronouns. It's odd... as an aside, I personally have used the syntax with the other pronouns. It was fun, yet clumsy. I definitely intend on using it more in the future, but it's obvious that the language has developed conventionally to simply not do it that way. So, for now, it applies strictly to first person singular and third person plural.

The general syntax structure rule:
- When using it with first person singular: [conjugated verb] [first person singular]
- When using it with third person plural: [conjugated verb] [optional pronoun] [third person plural]

Using your "they did a lot for me" example, you would get the following...

"ihe emerela m hiri nne" (I have done a lot of things)
"ihe emerela m ha hiri nne" (they have done a lot of things to/for me)

Your example has the "ha" and "m" switched.

As far as the dialect groups that this applies to, it seems to be a heavily southern Igbo feature. Even in the video you showed with the Ogbuoja, from what I was hearing the orator was not using an archetypal Anambra speech pattern. In many ways, though the Isu sub-culture bleeds over into Anambra, Isu as a collective are considered a "central and southern Igbo" group. So, aside from first person singular, it seems as though this syntax does not apply to archetypal Anambra.

That's basically the gist of this syntax feature. It's odd, but cool and as a speaker, I sometimes do extend its applicability to the other pronouns as well, though I can confidently say that it is conventionally limited to first person singular and third person plural.

odumchi:
^^

As a follow up to my question, I'm interested in understanding how widespread this phenomenon is. From my experience, I used to consider it to be more of an Ngwa-Mbaise-Owerri axis thing, until sometime last year when I stumbled upon some literature describing its usage in the Umuahia region (and that piece of footage from that Anambra Mbem poet). Considering the collective magnitude of this linguistic block, I am actually a bit disappointed by how under-researched and under-exposed the peculiarities of their dialects are in the greater discourse of the Igbo language. It's actually a bit frustrating that these deep, intriguing nuances have been glossed over for so long and that the conversation on Igbo linguistic diversity has been centered on more cosmetic features.