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Urhobo is a South-Western Edoid language[2] spoken by the Urhobo people of southern Nigeria.[3][4]

Urhobo
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Delta and Bayelsa States
Ethnicity	Urhobians
Native speakers	(2,000,000 cited 1993)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Niger yeai Edoid Southwestern Urhobo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	urh
Glottolog	urho1239
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From the region of Delta and Bayelsa State.[5] They are also known as fishermen.[6] Their neighbours are the Isoko to the South East, the Itsekiri to the West, Ijaw to the South and Ukwuani people to the North East.

Urhobo people are referred to as "Urhobians" or "Urhobeans"

Phonology

Urhobo has a rather reduced system of sound inventory compared to proto-Edoid. The inventory of Urhobo consists of seven vowels; which form two harmonic sets,[7] /i e ɛ a o ɔ u/ and /ĩ ẽ ɛ̃ ã ɔ̃ õ ũ/.[8]

It has a conservative consonant inventory for an Edoid language. It maintains three nasals, and only five oral consonants, /ɾ, l, β̞, j, w/, have nasal allophones before nasal vowels.[7]

	Labial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar
Nasal	m		(n)		ɲ		ŋ͡m
Plosive	p  b		t  d	d͡ʒ	kʲ  ɡʲ	k  ɡ	k͡p  ɡ͡b
Fricative	ɸ	f  v	s	ʃ	(ç  ʝ)	x  ɣ
Trill			r̥  r
Flap			(ɾ̥  ɾ)
Lateral			l ~ n
Approximant	β̞ [β̞̃ ]		(ɹ̥  ɹ) [ɹ̃]		j [j̃]	(ɰ  ɰ̥)	w [w̃]

• /l/ is interchangeable with [n] only before nasal vowels.
• /d͡ʒ/ can be heard as [ɟ͡ʝ ~ ʝ] before non-front vowels.
• Nasal consonants /m, [n], ɲ, ŋ͡m/ can have allophones of nasalized approximants as [β̞̃], [ɹ̃ ~ ɾ̃], [j̃], [w̃].
• Approximants /β̞, j, w/ are heard as nasalized approximants [β̞̃, j̃, w̃] before and after nasal vowels.
• Velar fricatives /x, ɣ/ can vary from being heard as [x, ɣ] to lowered fricatives [x̞, ɣ̞] and approximants [ɰ̥, ɰ]. /x/ can also be heard as a palatal fricative [ç] before /i/.
• Rhotics /r̥, r/ may have different realizations as alveolar or retroflex, and can be articulated as approximants [ɹ̥, ɹ, ɻ̊, ɻ], or taps [ɾ̥, ɾ, ɽ̊, ɽ]. A retroflex lateral flap [ɭ̆] can also be heard in syllable-final position.

According to Ukere (1986), Urhobo has two tones, a high tone and a low tone. These can also combine to form rising and falling tones.[9]

Dictionaries

Urhobo dictionaries have been compiled by Ukere, Osubele, Ebireri Okrokoto of Urhobo Language Institute,[10] and Julius Arerierian.[11] A wordlist of nouns and verbs of Okpe, Urhobo and Uvwie was compiled by Akpobọmẹ Diffrẹ-Odiete with funding from Foundation for Endangered Languages.

Syntax

Urhobo has the SVO constituent order type as illustrated with the example below:

References

Sources

• Ukere, Anthony Obakpọnọvwẹ. 1986. Urhobo-English dictionary. Benin City: Ilupeju Press. (revised and edited version by Roger Blench)
• Frank Kügler, Caroline Féry, Ruben Van De Vijver (2009) Variation and Gradience in Phonetics and Phonology
• Okrokoto Ebireri. Ukoko re Ephere R'Urhobo

На других языках

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[de] Urhobo

Das Urhobo ist eine edoide Sprache und wird vom Volk der Urhobo gesprochen. Die Urhobo bilden die mehrheitliche Bevölkerung im Delta State im Süden Nigerias. Urhobo wird zu den Benue-Kongo-Sprachen, einer der Gruppen der Niger-Kongo-Sprachen, gezählt.

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- [en] Urhobo language

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