Editing Igbo language (section)

== Proverbs ==
[[Proverb]]s and idiomatic expressions (ilu and akpalaokwu in Igbo, respectively) are highly valued by the Igbo people and proficiency in the language means knowing how to intersperse speech with a good dose of proverbs. Chinua Achebe (in ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'') describes proverbs as "the [[palm oil]] with which words are eaten". Proverbs are widely used in the traditional society to describe, in very few words, what could have otherwise required a thousand words. Proverbs may also become euphemistic means of making certain expressions in the Igbo society, thus the Igbo have come to typically rely on this as avenues of certain expressions.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nwagbo |first=Osita Gerald |title=Sexual Taboos and Euphemisms in Igbo: An Anthropolinguistic Appraisal |journal=Language in Africa |volume=2 |issue=3 |year=2021 |pages=112–148 |doi= 10.37892/2686-8946-2021-2-3-112-148 |url=https://iling-ran.ru/library/languageinafrica/2/LiA_2_3_5_Nwagbo.pdf}}</ref>