Ikwerre | |
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Pronunciation | [ìkʷéré] |
Native to | Rivers state, Nigeria |
Ethnicity | |
Native speakers | 2,000,000 |
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Dialects | Apara, Ndele, Ọgbakiri, Ọbịọ, Akpor Alụụ, Ịbaa, Elele[1] |
Latin script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ikw |
Glottolog | ikwe1242 |
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. |
Ikwerre, sometimes spelled Ikwere, or ikwerri[2], is an language spoken primarily by the Ikwerre people, who inhabit certain areas of Rivers State, Nigeria.
The Ikwerre language is classified as an Igboid language. Based on lexicostatistical analysis, Kay Williamson first asserted that the Ikwerre, Ekpeye, Ogba, Etche and other Igbo languages belonged to the same language cluster, and were not dialects.[3] After subsequent studies and more research by both Williamson and Roger Blench, it was concluded that Igboid languages like Ikwerre, Ogba and their sister languages apart from Ekpeye form a "language cluster" and that they are somewhat mutually intelligible.[4]
Ikwerre distinguishes vowels by quality (frontedness and height), the presence or absence of nasalization, and the presence or absence of advanced tongue root.
Front | Back | ||
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High | +ATR | i ĩ | u ũ |
−ATR | ɪ ɪ̃ | ʊ ʊ̃ | |
Mid | +ATR | e ẽ | o õ |
−ATR | ɛ ɛ̃ | ɔ ɔ̃ | |
Low | −ATR | a ã |
There is also a vowel */ə̃/ which is posited to explain syllabic nasal consonants in accounts of the language which state that Ikwerre has no nasal stops. This sound is realized as [ɨ̃] or a syllabic nasal which is homorganic to the following consonant.
Ikwerre exhibits two kinds of vowel harmony:
Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar orpalatal |
Velar | Glottal | ||||
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unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |||||
Plosive orAffricate |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | kʷ | ||
voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ɡʷ | |||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | |||||
voiced | v | z | ||||||
Non-plosive stop | plain | ḅ~m | ||||||
glottalized | ʼḅ~ʼm | |||||||
Tap | ɾ~ɾ̃ | |||||||
Approximant | l~n | j~j̃ | ɰ~ɰ̃ | w~w̃ | h~h̃ | hʷ~h̃ʷ |
The oral consonants [ḅ ʼḅ l ɾ j ɰ w h hʷ] occur before oral vowels, and their nasal allophones [m ʼm n ɾ̃ ȷ̃ ɰ̃ w̃ h̃ h̃ʷ] before nasal vowels. The "non-explosive stops" [ḅ ʼḅ] are not plosives (not pulmonic) and are equivalent to implosives in other varieties of Igbo.
The tap /ɾ/ may sometimes be realized as an approximant [ɹ].
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2008)
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Ikwerre is a tonal language with seven tones: high, mid, low, high-low falling, high-mid falling, mid-low falling and rising. Ikwerre also has a tonal downdrift. For example: rínya᷆ (high, mid-low falling) means "weight, heaviness", rìnyâ (low, high-low falling) means "female, wife", mụ̌ (rising) means "to learn", mụ̂ (high-low falling) means "to give birth", etc.
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Official languages |
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National languages |
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Recognised languages |
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Indigenous languages |
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Sign languages |
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Immigrant languages |
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Scripts |
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Ayere-Ahan |
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Gbe |
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Igboid |
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Yoruboid |
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Edoid |
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Nupoid |
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Idomoid |
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Others |
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Authority control databases: National |
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