Okpe language (Southwestern Edo)

Not to be confused with Okpe language (Northwestern Edo).
Okpe
Native to Nigeria
Region Edo State
Ethnicity Urhobo
Native speakers
25,000 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 okeinclusive code
Individual code:
ids  Idesa
Glottolog okpe1250[2]

Okpe is an Edoid language of Nigeria spoken by the Urhobo people.

A purported Idesa language is spoken in the Idesa section of Otuo town, where people have switched from Ghotuo to Okpe.[3]

Phonology

The sound system is rather conservative, and nearly the same as that of Urhobo. The vowels system is the same, and somewhat reduced compared to proto-Edoid: there are seven vowels, /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/.[4] Of the consonants, only significant differences are the addition of /ɣʷ/ and of the distinction between l vs n and y vs ny: these alternate, depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. /ɾ, ʋ, w/ also have nasal allophones before nasal vowels.

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

References

  1. Okpe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Idesa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Okpe (Southwestern Edo)". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Hammarström (2015) Ethnologue 16/17/18th editions: a comprehensive review: online appendices
  4. Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. Grounded phonology, p 181ff


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