ABSTRACT
The reason is that a literary standard is normative and prescriptive in character and spirit whereas a spoken standard is not; a literary standard is generally consciously propagated through its use in education and the examination system associated with it, in publications and in the media, but a spoken standard is never so propagated. The term, Central Igbo, came into existence after Ida Ward's linguistic tour of the Igbo country in 1939. Central Igbo is first and foremost a spoken dialect; 'The suggested Central dialect is as near as can be a consistent whole. If Central Igbo at the moment lacks a universal acceptance among the Igbo, as Emenanj rightly argues, it is because the educated Igbo have hitherto not shown pride in studying their language, let alone popularising it. The standard Swahili of today was originally the dialect of the offshore islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, Mafia, the Comoros and a number of coastal towns.
