Style of Igbo Newspapers: A case Study of Òzísà

Abstract

This paper analyzes the style adopted by the newspapers that are written in the Igbo language, with the Ozisa newspaper as a case study. Ozisa is, in the main, a quarterly church newspaper. We attempt the analysis of its style from the points of view of its layout, sentence types, punctuation marks employed, choice of words, use of figurative expression, etc. All these are categorized and discussed under the graphetic, grammatical, lexical, and semantic levels (See Salawu, 2004). The aim is basically to contribute in improving on the readership of Ozisa; more so as available materials show that many Igbo people now prefer the English language to the Igbo language (Eme, 2004; Okodo, 2006). The analysis concludes that the style of Ozisa is generally good, but there is still room for an improvement.