Ivbiosakon
Aoma
Native toNigeria
RegionEdo State
Native speakers
(100,000 cited 1987)[1]
Niger–Congo?
  • Atlantic–Congo
    • Volta–Niger
      • yeai
        • Edoid
          • North-Central
            • Edo
              • Ivbiosakon
Dialects
  • Emai
  • Ora
  • Iuleha
  • Ivhimion
  • ?Ihievbe (Isewe)
Language codes
ISO 639-3ema – inclusive code
Individual code:
ihi – Ihievbe
Glottologemai1241

Ivbiosakon, or Aoma, is an Edoid language of Edo State, Nigeria. The dialect names Ora and Emai are also used for the language.

Phonology

Aoma 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]

It has only one clearly phonemic nasal stop, /m/; [n] alternates with [l], depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. (The other approximants, /ɹ j w h/, are also nasalized in this position: see Edo language for a similar situation.) The inventory is:[3]

  Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Nasal m l [n]      
Plosive p  b t  d k  ɡ k͡p  ɡ͡b  
Fricative f  v s  z x  ɣ  
Trill   r        
Approximant   ɹ j   w h

References

  1. ^ Ivbiosakon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Ihievbe 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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