Language family | Niger–Congo? - Atlantic–Congo
- Volta–Congo
- Volta–Niger
-
Epie (or Epie–Atịsa) is a language spoken in Nigeria by the Epie–Atissa people. Phonology The language has a partially reduced system, compared to proto-Edoid, of eight vowels; these form two harmonic sets, /i e a o u/ and /i ɛ a ɔ ʊ/.[2] Epie 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, /j ɣ w/, are also nasalized in this position: see Edo language for a similar situation.) The inventory is:[3] | | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | | Nasal | m | | | | | | Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | | | | | Plosive | p b | t d | | k ɡ | k͡p ɡ͡b | | Fricative | f v | s z | | | | | Trill | | (r) | | | | | Approximant | | l [n] | j | ɣ | w | References - ^ Epie at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
 - ^ 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 Further reading - Thomas, Elaine and Kay Williamson. 1967. "Wordlists of delta Edo: Epie, Engenni, Degema." In Occasional Papers 8, p. 105. Accra: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan.
|
|---|
