Uvbie language

Uvbie
Evrie
Native to Nigeria
Region Delta State
Ethnicity Urhobo
Native speakers
20,000 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 evh
Glottolog uvbi1238[2]

Uvbie (Uvwie, Evrie, or Evhro) is an Edoid language of Nigeria spoken by the Urhobo people.

Phonology

The Uvbie vowel system is hardly reduced from that reconstructed for proto-Edoid. There are nine vowels in two harmonic sets, /i e a o u/ and /ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ/.[3]

The consonant system is also conservative, and nearly the same as that of Urhobo. The only significant differences are the loss of ɸ, ɣ, and of the distinction between l and n: these alternate, depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. /ɾ, ʋ, j, w/ also have nasal allophones before nasal vowels.

  Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Nasal m ɲ      
Plosive p  b t  d c  ɟ k  ɡ k͡p  ɡ͡b  
Fricative f  v s  z ʃ     h
Trill   ɲ        
Flap   ɾ        
Approximant ʋ l [n] j   w  

References

  1. Uvbie at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Uvbie". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. Grounded phonology, p 181ff


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