Okpe language (Southwestern Edo)

Not to be confused with Okpe language (Northwestern Edo).

Okpe
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Delta State
Ethnicity	Urhobo
Native speakers	25,000 (2000)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Niger yeai Edoid Southwestern Okpe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	oke – inclusive code Individual code: ids – Idesa
Glottolog	okpe1250

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

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/. 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