Edo language

Edo
Edo
Bini
Ẹ̀dó
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Edo State
Ethnicity	Edo people
Native speakers	1.6 million (2015)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Akpes-Edoid Edoid North-Central Edo–Esan–Ora Edo; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-2	bin
ISO 639-3	bin
Glottolog	bini1246
	Linguistic map of Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Edo is spoken in southern Nigeria.

Edo /ˈɛdoʊ/^[2] (with diacritics, Ẹ̀dó), also called Bini (Benin), is a language spoken in Edo State, Nigeria. It is the native language of the Edo people and was the primary language of the Benin Empire and its predecessor, Igodomigodo.

Phonology[]

Vowels[]

There are seven vowels, /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/, all of which may be long or nasal, and three tones.

Consonants[]

Edo has a rather average consonant inventory for an Edoid language. It maintains only a single phonemic nasal, /m/, but has 13 oral consonants, /ɺ, l, ʋ, j, w/ and the 8 stops, which have nasal allophones such as [n, ɲ, ŋʷ] before nasal vowels.

	Labial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Nasal	m
Plosive	p b [pm bm]		t d [tn dn]		k ɡ [kŋ ɡŋ]	k͡p ɡ͡b [k͡pŋ͡m ɡ͡bŋ͡m]
Fricative		f v	s z		x ɣ		h
Close approximant			ɹ̝̊ ɹ̝
Open approximant		ʋ [ʋ̃]	l ɹ [n ɾ̃]	j [ɲ]		w [ŋʷ]

The three rhotics have been described as voiced and voiceless trills as well as a lax English-type approximant. However, Ladefoged^[3]^{[page needed]} found all three to be approximants, with the voiced–voiceless pair being raised (without being fricatives) and perhaps at a slightly different place of articulation compared to the third but not trills.

Phonotactics[]

Syllable structure is simple, being maximally CVV, where VV is either a long vowel or /i, u/ plus a different oral or nasal vowel.

Orthography[]

The Edo alphabet has separate letters for the nasalised allophones of /ʋ/ and /l/, mw and n:

A

B

D

E

Ẹ

F

G

Gb

Gh

H

I

K

Kh

Kp

L

M

Mw

N

O

Ọ

P

R

Rh

Rr

S

T

U

V

Vb

W

Y

Z

/a/

/b/

/d/

/e/

/ɛ/

/f/

/ɡ/

/ɡb/

/ɣ/

/h/

/i/

/k/

/x/

/kp/

/l/

/m/

/ʋ/

/l/

/o/

/ɔ/

/p/

/ɹ/

/ɹ̝̊/

/ɹ̝/

/s/

/t/

/u/

/v/

/ʋ/

/w/

/j/

/z/

Long vowels are written by doubling the letter. Nasal vowels may be written with a final -n or with an initial nasal consonant. Tone may be written with acute accent, grave accent, and unmarked, or with a final -h (-nh with a nasal vowel).

References[]

^ Edo at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.

External links[]

Edo Language Dictionary Online
Hans Melzian's Edo-English Dictionary
Rebecca Agheyisi's Edo-English Dictionary
Centre for Edo Studies
PanAfrican L10n page on Edo (Bini)
Edo/Africa names dictionary{source Edoworld}
Bini (Edo) wordlists and recordings at the UCLA Phonetics Archive
Bini (Edo) Market Days Calender [sic] on Naija local

[e21-1] Edo at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)

[2] Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh

[3] Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.

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