Urhobo language

Urhobo
Native to Nigeria
Region Delta State
Ethnicity Urhobo people
Native speakers
550,000  (1993)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 urh
Glottolog urho1239[2]

Urhobo is one of the Edoid languages and is spoken by the Urhobo people of southern Nigeria. Urhobo is endangered by the impact of Nigerian Pidgin English.

Phonology

Urhobo 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]

It has a conservative consonant inventory for an Edoid language. It maintains three nasals, and only five oral consonants, /ɺ, l, ʋ, j, w/, have nasal allophones before nasal vowels.

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

Examples

Temu: A substance or person reaching a position or status respectively.

Dictionaries

Urhobo dictionaries have been compiled by Ukere, Osubele, Ebireri Okrokoto of Urhobo Language Institute,[4] and Julius Arerierian. A multilingual dictionary of English, Okpe, Urhobo and Uvwie was compiled by Akpobọmẹ Diffrẹ-Odiete with funding from Foundation for Endangered Languages.

References

  1. Urhobo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Urhobo". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. Grounded phonology, p 181ff
  4. http://www.urhobolanguageinstitute.com/imagenes_libros/U%20%20R%20%20H%20%20O%20%20B%20%20O%20%20(%20T%20%20O%20)%20%20E%20%20N%20%20G%20%20L%20%20I%20%20S%20%20H%20%20%20%20%208-2-12%20%20%20%20(%20RE-EDITED)%20%20for%20upload.pdf


  1. http://www.urhobolanguageinstitute.com/viendo_categoria.cfm?num_cat=46