| Ukue | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Ondo State |
Native speakers | (14,000 cited 2000)1 |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | uku |
| Glottolog | ukue1238 |
Ukue (Epinmi) is an Edoid language of Ondo State, Nigeria. It is sometimes considered the same language as Ehuẹun.
Phonology
Ukue 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/.2
The language arguably has no phonemic nasal stops; [m, n] alternate with [β, l], depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. Unusually, it has fricatives but no sibilants. The inventory is:3
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | b | t̪ d̪ | t d | k ɡ | k͡p ɡ͡b | ||
| Fricative | f v | h | |||||
| Rhotic* | r̝ | ||||||
| r | |||||||
| Approximant | β [m] | l [n] | j | w |
(*See Edo for a likely interpretation of the two rhotics.)
References
References
- Ukue 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