Ukue language

Ukue
Native to Nigeria
Region Ondo State
Native speakers
14,000 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 uku
Glottolog ukue1238[2]

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

Phonology

Ukue 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. Unusually, it has fricatives but no sibilants. The inventory is:[4]

  Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Plosive   b    t  d k  ɡ k͡p  ɡ͡b  
Fricative f  v   h
Rhotic*          
  r        
Approximant β [m] l [n] j   w  

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

References

  1. Ukue at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ukue". 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


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, June 01, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.