Edo language

Edo /ˈɛdoʊ/[3] (with diacritics, Ẹ̀dó), also called Bini (Benin), is a Volta–Niger language spoken in Edo State, Nigeria. It is the primary native language of the Edo people and was the primary language of the Benin Empire and its predecessor, Igodomigodo.

Edo
Bini
Ẹ̀dó
Native toNigeria
RegionEdo State
EthnicityEdo people
Native speakers
1.6 million (2015)[1]
Niger–Congo
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2bin
ISO 639-3bin
Glottologbini1246[2]
Linguistic map of Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Edo is spoken in southern Nigeria.

Phonology

Vowels

There are seven vowels, /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/, all of which may be long or nasal, and three tones.

Consonants

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.

Labial Labiodental Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Nasal m
Plosive p  b
[pm bm]		 t  d
[tn dn]		 k  ɡ
[kŋ ɡŋ]		 k͡p  ɡ͡b
[k͡pŋ͡m ɡ͡bŋ͡m]
Fricative f  v s  z x  ɣ h
Close approximant ɹ̝̊  ɹ̝
Open approximant ʋ
[ʋ̃]		 l  ɹ
[n  ɾ̃]		 j
[ɲ]		 w
[ŋʷ]

The three rhotics have been described as voiced and voiceless trills as well as a lax English-type approximant. However, Ladefoged[4] 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.

Phonotactics

Syllable structure is simple, being maximally CVV, where VV is either a long vowel or /i, u/ plus a different oral or nasal vowel.

Orthography

The Edo alphabet has separate letters for the nasalised allophones of /ʋ/ and /l/, mw and n:

ABDEẸFGGbGhHIKKhKpLMMwNOỌPRRhRrSTUVVbWYZ
/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).

See also

References
  1. Edo at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Bini". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
  4. Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.


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