Eruwa language
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Ẹrụwa | |
---|---|
Native to | Nigeria |
Region | Delta State |
Native speakers | 64,000 (2004)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | erh |
Glottolog | eruw1238 |
ELP | Erohwa |
Ẹrụwa is an Edoid language of Nigeria.
Phonology[edit]
The Ẹrụwa 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/.[2]
The language arguably has no phonemic nasal stops; [m, n] alternate with [b, l], depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. The approximants /ʋ, ɹ, j, w/ also have nasal allophones. The inventory is:[3]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p b [m] | t d | k ɡ | k͡p ɡ͡b | ||
Fricative | f v | s z | x ɣ | h | ||
Approximant | l [n] | |||||
ʋ | ɹ | j | w |
References[edit]
- ^ Ẹrụwa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. Grounded phonology, p 181ff
- ^ Jeff Mielke, 2008. The emergence of distinctive features, p 136ff;
also found in Variation and gradience in phonetics and phonology, p 26ff