Ehueun language

Ehuẹun
Native to Nigeria
Region Ondo State
Native speakers
14,000 (2000)[1]
Niger–Congo
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ehu
Glottolog ehue1238[2]

Ehuẹun (Ekpimi) is an Edoid language of Ondo State, Nigeria. It is sometimes considered the same language as Ukue.

Phonology

Ehuẹun has a rather reduced system, compared to proto-Edoid, of seven vowels; these form two harmonic sets, /i e a o u/ and /i ɛ a ɔ u/.[3]

The language arguably has no phonemic nasal stops; [m, n] alternate with [β, l], depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. The inventory is:[4]

  Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Plosive   b t  d k  ɡ k͡p  ɡ͡b  
Fricative ɸ  β [m] f  v s  z   h
Rhotic*     r        
Approximant ʋ l [n] j   w  

(*See Edo for a likely interpretation of the two rhotics.)

References

  1. Ehuẹun at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ehueun". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. Grounded phonology, p 181ff
  4. Jeff Mielke, 2008. The emergence of distinctive features, p 136ff;
    also found in Variation and gradience in phonetics and phonology, p 26ff


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