| Ivbiosakon | |
|---|---|
| Aoma | |
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Edo State |
Native speakers | (100,000 cited 1987)1 |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ema – inclusive codeIndividual code: ihi – Ihievbe |
| Glottolog | emai1241 |
Ivbiosakon, or Aoma, is an Edoid language of Edo State, Nigeria. The dialect names Ora and Emai are also used for the language.
Phonology
Aoma 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
It has only one clearly phonemic nasal stop, /m/; [n] alternates with [l], depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. (The other approximants, /ɹ j w h/, are also nasalized in this position: see Edo language for a similar situation.) The inventory is:3
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | l [n] | ||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | k͡p ɡ͡b | ||
| Fricative | f v | s z | x ɣ | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | ɹ | j | w | h |
References
References
- Ivbiosakon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Ihievbe 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