Ikwerre language

The Ikwerre language is a member of the Volta-Niger branch of Niger-Congo family of languages. Based on lexicostatistical analysis, Kay Williamson first asserted that the Ikwerre, Ekpeye, and Ogba, languages belonged to the same language cluster, and were not dialects.{{cite book | last=Williamson | first=Kay | title=ODUMA: The Lower Niger Languages | year=1974 | volume=1 | publisher=Rivers State Council of Arts & Culture, Port Harcourt}} After subsequent studies and more research by both Williamson and Roger Blench, it was concluded that lexical similar languages like Ikwerre, Ogba, Igbo and Ekpeye form a "language cluster" and that they are somewhat mutually intelligible.{{cite book | last=Williamson | first=Kay |author2=Roger M. Blench | title=African languages: an introduction | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2000}}

Ikwerre distinguishes vowels by quality (frontedness and height), the presence or absence of nasalization, and the presence or absence of advanced tongue root.

There is also a vowel *{{IPA|/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 {{IPA|[ɨ̃]}} or a syllabic nasal which is homorganic to the following consonant.

Ikwerre exhibits two kinds of vowel harmony:

1. Every vowel in an Ikwerre word, with a few exceptions, agrees with the other vowels in the word as to the presence or absence of advanced tongue root.
2. Vowels of the same height in adjacent syllables must all be either front or back, i.e. the pairs {{IPA|/i/}} & {{IPA|/u/}}, {{IPA|/ɪ/}} & {{IPA|/ʊ/}}, {{IPA|/e/}} & {{IPA|/o/}}, and {{IPA|/ɛ/}} & {{IPA|/ɔ/}} cannot occur in adjacent syllables. Vowels of different heights, however, need not match for frontness/backness either. This doesn't apply to the first vowel in nouns beginning with a vowel or with {{IPA|/ɾ/}}, and doesn't apply to onomatopoeic words.

The oral consonants {{IPA|[ḅ ʼḅ l ɾ j ɰ w h hʷ]}} occur before oral vowels, and their nasal allophones {{IPA|[m ʼm n ɾ̃ ȷ̃ ɰ̃ w̃ h̃ h̃ʷ]}} before nasal vowels. The "non-explosive stops" {{IPA|[ḅ ʼḅ]}} are not plosives (not pulmonic) and are equivalent to implosives in other varieties of Igbo.

The tap {{IPA|/ɾ/}} may sometimes be realized as an approximant {{IPA|[ɹ]}}.

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.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last=Clements |first=George N. |author2=Osu, Sylvester |year=2005 |title=Nasal harmony in Ikwere, a language with no phonemic nasal consonants |journal=Journal of African Languages and Linguistics |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=165–200 |doi=10.1515/jall.2005.26.2.165|s2cid=144317723 }}
• {{cite book |last=Williamson |first=Kay |year=1970 |title=Reading and writing Ikwerre |location=Ibadan |publisher=Institute of African Studies}}

{{Languages of Nigeria}}

{{Volta-Niger languages}}

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Category:Igboid languages

Category:Languages of Nigeria

Category:Indigenous languages of Rivers State