Oro Orthography: Group on final moves to preserve Oro language as written native language
History has taken place in Oron with regards to the preservation of identify and language of Oro ethnic extraction, the third largest spoken language in Akwa Ibom State, as one of the written native languages in Nigeria.
The occasion was the the Final Community Engagement on Oro Language, Oro Orthography, known locally as Nsini Oro Orthography.
Convened by a socio-cultural organization, Oro Language Advancement Multipurpose Cooperative Society, the final Community Engagement on Oro language, the third in the series, was held at Oro Civic Centre, Oron on Thursday, 7th April, 2022.
The highpoint of the event was the a motion adopting the final copy of the proposed Oro Orthography moved by the Paramount Ruler of Udung Uko Local Government Area, Odidem Bassey Etim Edet and seconded by Ote Sidi Mkpandiok, the representative of President-General, Oron Union, Bishop Etim Ante.
The communique issued at the end of the meeting brought to an end and sealed the final community engagement, setting the stage for Oro language to be secured “in the pantheon of the nation’s temple of written native languages” by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC, with a view to developing and and including it in school curriculum
With the development, Oro people have approved an orthography for their language, an approval that will allow the development of a set of conventions for writing Oro language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
The President, Oro Language Advancement Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Comrade Sunday Antai, who set the tone for the event, expressed optimism that Oro Orthography will not only be approved by NERDC and National Council on Education but would be taught in schools and colleges.
Presenting Oro Orthography for the third time, Dr Golden Ekpo, “spells out the standard format for writing the language of Oro people of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria”.
“Oro is the third largest ethnic group and language spoken in Akwa Ibom State after Ibibio and Annang. It has at least five recognised and politically demarcated varieties that are not just mutually intelligible but have no lexical or semantic difference except for Okobo.
“Oro has five dialects within the environment viz Oro, Ebughu, Enwang, Okobo and Uda. Despite having these dialects, speakers of the other dialects both understand and speak Central Oro clearly,” Dr Ekpo noted.
She called for inputs to strengthen the Orthography.
The Chairman on the occasion and President, Oron Development Union, USA, Engr Boby Onofiok, described the engagement as significant, observing that the development of Oro Orthography would go down in history as one of the greatest projects in Oro Nation.
Engr Boby Onofiok, who is also Oron Federal Constituency hopeful, sued for the support of the people to make the project a success, stressing that process has created a historic moment capable of putting Oro language in comity of written languages in Nigeria studied schools and colleges.
In a goodwill message, the Chief Host and President-General, Oron Union, Bishop Etim Ante, expressed happiness at the progress the development of Oro Orthography has witnessed, reasoning that the project has projected Oro language and Oro Nation into limelight.
Represented by Mr Sidi Mkpandiok, Bishop Etim Ante commended all who contributed in one way or the other to success of the project and charged the facilitators to sustain the tempo.
In a remark, the Paramount Ruler of Oron Local Government Area, Offong Effiong Matthew Unanwi, commended the leadership of Oro Language Advancement Multipurpose Cooperative Society for their ingenuity, adding they they have written their names in gold.
The royal father recalled that he is a living witness and beneficiary of speaking Oro language on two occasions, in 1975 and 1980 and urged the progenitors of the project to keep Oro flag flying.
