Okpe language (Southwestern Edo)

Not to be confused with Okpe language (Northwestern Edo).
Okpe
Native to Nigeria
Region Edo State
Ethnicity Urhobo
Native speakers
 25,000 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 oke – inclusive code
Individual code:
ids – Idesa
Glottolog okpe1250[2]

Okpe is an Edoid language of Nigeria spoken by the Urhobo people.

A purported Idesa language is spoken in the Idesa section of Otuo town, where people have switched from Ghotuo to Okpe.[3]

Phonology

The sound system is rather conservative, and nearly the same as that of Urhobo. The vowels system is the same, and somewhat reduced compared to proto-Edoid: there are seven vowels, /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/.[4] Of the consonants, only significant differences are the addition of /ɣʷ/ and of the distinction between l vs n and y vs ny: these alternate, depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. /ɾ, ʋ, w/ also have nasal allophones before nasal vowels.

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

References

  1. ↑ Okpe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Idesa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Okpe (Southwestern Edo)". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Hammarström (2015) Ethnologue 16/17/18th editions: a comprehensive review: online appendices
  4. ↑ Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. Grounded phonology, p 181ff


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