Edo language
Encyclopedia
Edo is a Volta–Niger
language spoken primarily in Edo State
, Nigeria
. It was and remains the primary language of the Edo people
of Igodomigodo
. The Igodomigodo kingdom was renamed Edo by Oba
Eweka, after which the Edos refer to themselves as Oviedo 'child of Edo'. The Edo capital was Ubinu, known as Benin City
to the Portuguese who first heard about it from the coastal Itsekhiri, who pronounced it this way; from this the kingdom came to be known as the Benin Empire
in the West.
The three rhotic
s have been described as voiced and voiceless trills plus a lax English-type approximant. However, Ladefoged found all three to be approximants, with the voiced-voiceless pair being raised (without being fricatives) and perhaps at a slightly different place of articulation
compared to the third, but not trills.
The Edo alphabet has separate letters for the nasalized allophones of /ʋ/ and /l/, mw and n:
Long vowels are written by doubling the letter. Nasal vowels may be written with a final -n or with an initial nasal consonant. Tone may be written with acute accent, grave accent, and unmarked, or with a final -h (-nh with a nasal vowel).
Volta–Niger languages
The Volta–Niger family of languages, also known as West Benue–Congo or East Kwa, is one of the branches of the Niger–Congo language family, with perhaps 50 million speakers...
language spoken primarily in Edo State
Edo State
Edo State is an inland state in central southern Nigeria. Its capital is Benin City. It is bounded in the north and east by Kogi State, in the south by Delta State and in the west by Ondo State.-History:...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. It was and remains the primary language of the Edo people
Edo people
Edo is the name for the place, people and language of an ethnic group in Nigeria. Other Edo-speaking ethnic groups include the Esan and the Afemai...
of Igodomigodo
Igodomigodo
Igodomigodo is the ancient name and home of the Edo people of Nigeria now located at Edo State, Nigeria. According to oral history of the Edo, Igodomigodo was the named given by king or ogiso Igodo. The ogiso, Igodo, was the first ogiso who took on the title and the ogiso era was the first dynasty...
. The Igodomigodo kingdom was renamed Edo by Oba
Oba of Benin
The Oba of Benin, or Omo N'Oba, is both the oba of the Edo people and the pretender to the defunct title of the king of the Benin Kingdom...
Eweka, after which the Edos refer to themselves as Oviedo 'child of Edo'. The Edo capital was Ubinu, known as Benin City
Benin City
Benin City, is a city and the capital of Edo State in southern Nigeria. It is a city approximately twenty-five miles north of the Benin River. It is situated 200 miles by road east of Lagos...
to the Portuguese who first heard about it from the coastal Itsekhiri, who pronounced it this way; from this the kingdom came to be known as the Benin Empire
Benin Empire
The Benin Empire was a pre-colonial African state in what is now modern Nigeria. It is not to be confused with the modern-day country called Benin, formerly called Dahomey.-Origin:...
in the West.
Phonology
Edo has a rather average consonant inventory for an Edoid language. It maintains only a single phonemic nasal, /m/, but has 13 oral consonants, /ɺ, l, ʋ, j, w/ and the 8 stops, which have nasal allophones such as [n, ɲ, ŋʷ] before nasal vowels. There are seven vowels, /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/, all of which may be long or nasal, and three tones. Syllable structure is simple, being maximally CVV, where VV is either a long vowel or /i, u/ plus a different oral or nasal vowel.| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Labiodental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Labio-velar | Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | ||||||
| Plosive | p b [pm bm] |
t d [tn dn] |
k ɡ [kŋ ɡŋ] |
k͡p ɡ͡b [k͡pŋ͡m ɡ͡bŋ͡m] |
|||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
f v | s z | x ɣ | h | |||
| Close approximant | ɹ̝̊ ɹ̝ | ||||||
| Open approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
ʋ [ʋ̃] |
l ɹ [n ɾ̃] |
j [ɲ] |
w [ŋʷ] |
The three rhotic
Rhotic
In linguistics, rhotic can refer to:* Rhotic consonant, such as the sound in red* R-colored vowel, such as the sound in Midwestern American English pronunciation of fur and before a consonant as in hard....
s have been described as voiced and voiceless trills plus a lax English-type approximant. However, Ladefoged found all three to be approximants, with the voiced-voiceless pair being raised (without being fricatives) and perhaps at a slightly different place of articulation
Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator , and a passive location...
compared to the third, but not trills.
The Edo alphabet has separate letters for the nasalized allophones of /ʋ/ and /l/, mw and n:
| A | B | D | E | Ẹ | F | G | Gb | Gh | H | I | K | Kh | Kp | L | M | Mw | N | O | Ọ | P | R | Rh | Rr | S | T | U | V | Vb | W | Y | Z |
| /a/ | /b/ | /d/ | /e/ | /ɛ/ | /f/ | /ɡ/ | /ɡb/ | /ɣ/ | /h/ | /i/ | /k/ | /x/ | /kp/ | /l/ | /m/ | /ʋ/ | /l/ | /o/ | /ɔ/ | /p/ | /ɹ/ | /ɹ̝̊/ | /ɹ̝/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /v/ | /ʋ/ | /w/ | /j/ | /z/ |
Long vowels are written by doubling the letter. Nasal vowels may be written with a final -n or with an initial nasal consonant. Tone may be written with acute accent, grave accent, and unmarked, or with a final -h (-nh with a nasal vowel).