Medefaidrin#Numbers and dates

Speakers consider Medefaidrin to be a 'spirit language'. It was created by two leaders of the church, Michael Ukpong and Akpan Akpan Udofia. They state that the Holy Spirit revealed the words of the language to Ukpong, while Udofia wrote them down. At the time Ibibio was not a written language, and Udofia created a script to write Medefaidrin.

After finalizing the language in 1936, members of the church started a school in which children were instructed in Medefaidrin. This was not tolerated by the British colonial government, who closed the school that same year. Nonetheless, the language continued to be used for church activities, including liturgy and hymns, and for letters and written contracts between members. The language faded from use, but in 1986 Udofia began teaching it again in the church's Sunday school in Ididep. Old manuscripts in the script are in poor condition, and in the 21st century there has been some effort to preserve them.

Medefaidrin is a stress-accented rather than tonal language, though this may be changing under Ibibio influence. Unlike the Ibibio language, there are several consonant clusters in Medefaidrin, many of which do not exist in English.

{{Infobox writing system

| name = Medefaidrin script

| sample = Oberi Okaime.png

| type = Alphabet

| time = 1930s to present

| caption = Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ script

| languages = Medefaidrin

| iso15924 = Medf

| unicode = [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U16E40.pdf U+16E40–U+16E9F]

| note = none

}}

The script has upper- and lower-case letters like the English alphabet,{{cite web | url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16101r-medefaidrin.pdf | title=L2/16-101R: Proposal for encoding the Medefaidrin (Oberi Okaime) script in the SMP of the UCS | first1=Andrij | last1=Rovenchak | first2=Dafydd | last2=Gibbon | first3=Moses | last3=Ekpenyong | first4=Eno-Abasi | last4=Urua | publisher=ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 | date=2016-04-18 }} but the letters were invented and there is no systematic relationship between glyph and sound. There are a number of arbitrary digraphs, whose pronunciation cannot be determined from their component letters, again as in English.

{{Main|Medefaidrin (Unicode block)}}

Medefaidrin script was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2018 with the release of version 11.0.

The Unicode block for Medefaidrin is U+16E40–U+16E9F and contains 91 characters:{{Cite web | title=Unicode 11.0.0 | url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode11.0.0/ | publisher=Unicode Consortium | date=June 5, 2018 | access-date=June 5, 2018 }}

{{Unicode chart Medefaidrin}}

Structurally, the language is largely a relexification of English, although the semantics are closer to the native language of its users, Ibibio. The definite article is dei, and several prepositions alliterate or rhyme with their English equivalents: {{lang|dmf|su}} "to", {{lang|dmf|fra}} "from", {{lang|dmf|nai}} "by", {{lang|dmf|kin}} "in". Most words, however, resemble nothing in English or Ibibio, but appear to have been created without a specific underlying system. The morphology is not highly developed, but a few elements have been taken from English, such as the plural in -s (z?).

The vigesimal numbering system and calendar reflect Ibibio norms. The calendar year contains sixteen four-week months.{{efn|The week is reported to consist of eight days, but it is not clear if it is 8 by Ibibio or English counting. What is 2 days from now in English is 3 days from now in Ibibio (with today counted inclusively as the first day), so starting a new week every 8 days when thinking in Ibibio means every 7 days when thinking in English.}}

• Eskayan language and script of the Philippines
• Lingua Ignota and script of Germany

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{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Abasiattai |first1=Monday B. |title=The Oberi Okaime Christian Mission: Towards a History of an Ibibio Independent Church |journal=Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |year=1989 |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=496–516 |doi=10.2307/1159944 |jstor=1159944 |s2cid=143886594 |issn=0001-9720}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Adams |first1=R. F. G. |title=Obεri Ɔkaimε: A New African Language and Script |journal=Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |date=1947 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=24–34 |doi=10.2307/1156936 |jstor=1156936 |s2cid=144319581 |issn=0001-9720}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Gibbon |first1=Dafydd |last2=Ekpenyong |first2=Moses |last3=Urua |first3=Eno-Abasi |title=Medefaidrin: Resources documenting the birth and death language life-cycle |journal=Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on International Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'10) |year=2010 |location=Valletta, Malta |isbn=978-2-9517408-6-0 |url=http://lexitron.nectec.or.th/public/LREC-2010_Malta/pdf/342_Paper.pdf}}
• {{cite conference |last1=Gibbon |first1=Dafydd |last2=Urua |first2=Eno-Abasi |title=Preserving and understanding the Medefaidrin language of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ ('Church freely given') Ibibio community |conference=World Congress of African Linguistics (WOCAL) 6 |year=2009 |location=Cologne |url=http://bachan.speechlabs.pl/files/UruaGibbonMedefaidrin-WOCAL2009-V02.pdf}}
• {{cite journal |last=Hau |first=Kathleen |title=Oberi Okaime script, texts and counting systems |journal=Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire. Série B, Sciences humaines |year=1961 |volume=23 |pages=291–308}}
• {{cite book |last=Udofia |first=Akpan Akpan |chapter=Dictionary, transcriptions and translations of texts |editor-last=Hau |editor-first=Kathleen |title=Oberi Okaime Script, Texts and Counting System. Material relating to the Oberi Okaime language of southeastern Nigeria |year=1953}}
• {{cite book |last=Urua |first=Eno-Abasi |chapter=Medefidrin, the 'Spirit' language of the 1920s in Ibibio land |editor1-last=Ndimele |editor1-first=Ozo-mekuri |editor2-last=Udoh |editor2-first=Imelda Icheji Lawrence |editor3-last=Anyanwu |editor3-first=Ogbonna |title=Critical Issues in the Study of Linguistics, Languages and Literatures in Nigeria: A Festshrift for Conrad Max Benedict Brann |series=Festschrift Series, 7 |year=2008}}

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{{Constructed languages}}

Category:Constructed languages

Category:Constructed languages introduced in the 1930s

Category:Christian liturgical languages

Category:Constructed scripts

Category:Languages of Nigeria

Category:Language and mysticism

Category:Sacred languages