Afenmai language

Last updated
Yekhee
Afenmai
Kukuruku (outdated)
Etsako
Native to Nigeria
Region Edo State
Ethnicity Afenmai
Native speakers
510,000 (2020) [1]
Niger–Congo?
  • Atlantic–Congo
    • Volta–Niger
      • yeai
        • Edoid
          • North-Central
            • Yekhee–Ghotuo
              • Yekhee
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ets
Glottolog yekh1238

Afenmai (Afemai), Yekhee, or Iyekhe, is an Edoid language spoken in Edo State, Nigeria by Afenmai people. Not all speakers recognize the name Yekhee; some use the district name Etsako.

Contents

Previously the name used by British colonial administration was Kukuruku, supposedly after a battle cry "ku-ku-ruku", [2] now considered derogatory. [1]

Afenmai is unusual in reportedly having a voiceless tapped fricative as the "tense" equivalent of the "lax" voiced tap /ɾ/ (compare [aɾ̞̊u] 'hat' and [aɾu] 'louse' [3] ), though is other descriptions it is described simply as a fricative and analyzed as the "lax" equivalent of the "tense" voiceless stop /t/. [4]

Etsako, a dialect of Edo itself, has its own dialects which are broadly divided into the Iyekhe and Agbelọ dialects, with the Iyekhe dialect being the more widely spoken.

Phonology

Vowels are /ieɛaɔou/. Long vowels and the large number of diphthong in the language are derived from sequences of short vowels, often from the optional elision of /l/.

Afenmai has a complex system of morphotonemic alterations based on two phonemic tones, high and low. At the surface level there are five distinctive tones: high, low, falling, rising and mid. Mid tone is the result of downstep of a high tone after a low tone. The contour tones (falling and rising) either occur on long vowels or diphthongs, from a sequence of high+low or low+high, or on short vowels produced from the contraction of such a long vowel or diphthong. Rising tones are rather uncommon, as they tend to be replaced by high, low or mid. [4]

Consonants of the Ekpheli dialect are:

BLLDDAvPAVeLV
mː mn(ɲ)
b pt(ː) dkː ɡːk͡pː k͡p ɡ͡bː ɡ͡b
ts dz(tʃ dʒ)
f v(ː)θs(ʃ)x ɣ
ʋljw
ɾ

The consonants marked long have been analyzed in various ways, including 'tense' or 'fortis' and paired up with 'lax' or 'lenis' partners, though there is no phonological basis for grouping the supposed 'long' consonants together, or for partnering them with particular 'short' consonants. The clear cases are /k͡pːɡ͡bːmː/, which are twice as long as /k͡pɡ͡bm/ but otherwise identical in a spectrogram. /kːɡː/ are likewise twice as long as /xɣ/. However, alveolar /t/ is only slightly longer than dental /θ/, and while /v/ is longer than /ʋ/, that's to be expected for a fricative compared to an approximant. [4]

The postalveolar consonants are allophones of the alveolars before /i/ plus another vowel, where /i/ would otherwise become [j], as in /siesie/[ʃeʃe] 'to be small'. It addition, /ts/ optionally becomes [tʃ] before a single /i/, as in /itsi/ 'pig' ([itsi]~[itʃi]). The other alveolar consonants do not have this variation, unless the triggering environment is provided within a prosodic word: /odzi/ 'crab' ([odzi] in citation form) > /odzioɣie/ 'the king's crab' ([odʒoɣje]). (The sounds transcribed with ⟨ʃʒɲ⟩ may actually be closer to [ɕʑnʲ].)

Apart from /ptsdzθ/, these consonants appear in all dialects of Afenmai investigated by Elimelech (1976). /p/ is absent from Uzairue dialect, being replaced by /f/, and is quite rare in most other dialects. /tsdz/ are fricativized to /sz/ in Aviele and South Uneme dialects. /θ/ is retracted to /ɹ̝̊/ in most other dialects, as in [aθu~aɹ̝̊u] 'hat'. [4]

Orthography

A B C CH D E Ẹ F G GB GH GW I J K KH KP KPH KW L M MH N NW NY O Ọ P R S SH T TH TS U V VH W Y Z.

Phrases

Etsako phrases include:

EtsakoEnglish
Moo!Well done
Abee!/See!Hello (How is it?)
O somi/O chiIt is good. (Response)
Na ẹgbiaGood morning
Na ẹlẹ(Response)
AgbelọGood morning
Agbe(Response)
U vhẹẹ ze?Hope you are fine.
EliYes
U lẹ guẹ?Did you sleep well?
A kpẹmiWe give thanks
Moo ota / Oviẹna / TogiGood afternoon
Moo ogode / ObugalaGood evening
O ki akọ / O kila akhuẹGood night (until tomorrow)
O ki laGoodbye
O ki idegbeUntil later
Lẹ khia / Guẹ khiaGo well.
R'ẹlo ku egbeTake care.

Common Etsako phrases showing dialectical variations between Iyekhe and Agbelo:

EnglishIyekheAgbelo
I am comingI badeMi aa balẹ
Where are you?Obo u ya?Obo u la?
Where are you going to?Obo u ye?Obo u aa ye?
What do you want?Eme u kele?Elọ u aa nono?
This is my brotherIyọkpa mẹ ki ọnaInyọguo mẹ kh' ọna
I am hungryOsami ọ gbe mẹOkiami o aa gbe mẹ

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References

  1. 1 2 Yekhee at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. ↑ Udo, Reuben K. (1970). Geographical Regions of Nigeria . University of California Press. p.  109.
  3. ↑ Laver (1994) Principles of Phonetics, p. 263.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Elimelech (1976) "A Tonal Grammar of Etsako", UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 35
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