Ukue language

Ukue
Ukue
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Ondo State
Native speakers	14,000 (2000)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Niger yeai Edoid Northwestern Osse River Ukue; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	uku
Glottolog	ukue1238

Ukue (Epinmi) is an Edoid language of Ondo State, Nigeria. It is sometimes considered the same language as Ehuẹun.

Phonology

Ukue 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]

The language arguably has no phonemic nasal stops; [m, n] alternate with [β, l], depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. Unusually, it has fricatives but no sibilants. The inventory is:^[3]

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Plosive	b	t̪ d̪	t d		k ɡ	k͡p ɡ͡b
Fricative	f v						h
Rhotic*			r̝
Rhotic*			r
Approximant	β [m]		l [n]	j		w

(*See Edo for a likely interpretation of the two rhotics.)

References

^ Ukue 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

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[e18-1] Ukue at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. Grounded phonology, p 181ff

[3] Jeff Mielke, 2008. The emergence of distinctive features, p 136ff;
also found in Variation and gradience in phonetics and phonology, p 26ff

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