The earliest written form of the language began in 1861 (Oraka, 1983:25), when J.F. Schon, a Christian missionary adopted the Lepsius orthography of 1854 writing his Oku Ibo:Grammatical Elements of the Ibo language. The Church Mission Society (C.M.S) published An Ibo primer, written by a catechist, F.W. Smart in 1870. According to Oraka (1983), by 1883 about 50 books including the bible has been published in Igbo, all of them based on the Lepsius orthography.
It will be good to note that, the study of Igbo orthography is neither a priori nor a posteriori. This is because, although Igbo has been reduced to writing, it does not have a long written tradition, when compared to say Arabic, English and French. The studies of Igbo language started in Sierra-Leone by the missionaries who wanted to evangelize the Africans. In order to be closer to the people, they decided to learn the languages of the natives which were yet to be written. J.F. Schon decided to learn the Igbo language which he later abandoned in favour of the Hausa language after he had learnt a few prayers and some one thousand six hundred words (1,600) in ignorance language which consisted of his glossaries and a few prayers.
In 1848, Clark, a Baptist Missionary in collaboration with Merrick an Afro-American published a second collection of his Igbo vocabulary. This was followed by Kolles Polyglotta of 1854 with three hundred (300) Igbo words given in different dialects. This early writers did not find it funny as it often gave them a lot of difficulty in writing the Igbo language. According to Emenyonu (1978) this situation created much difficulty in the world of linguistics and later resulted in controversies over orthography which greatly hindered the growth of Igbo written language and literature.
Rev. Ajayi Crowther in 1857 published a Prime that included a translation of first chapters of the Gospel and Igbo alphabet, Igbo words, the ten (10) commandments and the Lord's prayer. He thereby introduced reading and writing to the Igbos and remained the Igbo major textbook for decades. In 1882, he produced a vocabulary of the Igbo language.
The government anthropologist, Northcole Thomas in 1913 published an English-Igbo dictionary, while Archdeacon Denie undertook the translation of the Bible into Igbo. In 1933, the first Igbo fiction 'Omenuko' was published by Pita Nwanna.
However, by 1929, the Lepsius orthography was abandoned for the Africa orthography designed by the International Institute of African Languages and Culture (IIALC). This was because of the enactment of a decree by the colonial authorities which adopted the Africa orthography. This led to the now famous great Igbo orthography controversy that lasted for 32 years. This period was a setback for the development of a standard Igbo orthography. The resolution of this controversy came about in 1961, when the then Eastern Nigerian Government adopted a standard orthography, popularly known as the Ọnwụ orthography. This orthography is made up the following 36 graphemes: a, b, ch, d, e, f, g, gb, gh, gw, h, i, ị, j, k, kp, kw, l, m, n, ñ, nw, ny, o, ọ, p, r, s, sh, t, u, ụ, v, w, y, z. There are eight (8) vowels in the igbo and nine of thr consonants are digraphs. These are ch, gb, gh, gw, kp, kw, nw, ny, sh. The rest of the consonants are monographs.
let us not forget that the Igbo language was only standardized when the Society For Promoting Igbo Language and Culture came into the picture because of the pressure from the government. For a long time, the Society For Promoting Igbo Language and Culture was faced with the problem of standardizing the igbo language and thereby, evolving a standard Igbo. In SPILC August seminar of 1974, a standardization committee was set up. Membership of this committee includeed lecturers of Igbo in various institutions of higher learning, authors, publishers, broadcasters, teachers of Igbo in secondary schools and teacher training institutions, and representatives of the Ministries of Education and Information, State Schools Management Boards, and the mass media.
The standard Igbo emphasizes the use of diacritic marks under some vowels to distinguish between open and closed sounds as against the use of the phonetic symbols, and with regard to the bar or dot over instead of the phonetic symbol.
References
Emenanjo, Nolue (1995). Issues in the Establishment of Standard Igbo in Owolabi K. (ed.). Language in Nigeria: Essays in honour of Ayo Bamgbose. Ibadan: Group Publishers.
Emenanjo, E. (1975). Central Igbo: An Objective Appraisal in Igbo language and Culture. Ibadan: Oxford University Press.
Emenyonu, E. (1978). The Rises of the Igbo Novel. Ibadan: Oxford University Press.
Oraka, Louis. 1983. The foundations of Igbo studies (a short history of the study of Igbo language and culture). Onitsha: University Publishing Co.