Phonology
Edo has a rather average consonant inventory for an Edoid language. It maintains only a single phonemic nasal, /m/, but has 13 oral consonants, /ɺ, l, ʋ, j, w/ and the 8 stops, which have nasal allophones such as before nasal vowels. There are seven vowels, /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/, all of which may be long or nasal, and three tones. Syllable structure is simple, being maximally CVV, where VV is either a long vowel or /i, u/ plus a different oral or nasal vowel.
| Labial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | ||||||
| Plosive | p b |
t d |
k ɡ |
k͡p ɡ͡b |
|||
| Fricative | f v | s z | x ɣ | h | |||
| Close approximant | ɹ̝̊ ɹ̝ | ||||||
| Open approximant | ʋ |
l ɹ |
j |
w |
The three rhotics have been described as voiced and voiceless trills plus a lax English-type approximant. However, Ladefoged found all three to be approximants, with the voiced–voiceless pair being raised (without being fricatives) and perhaps at a slightly different place of articulation compared to the third, but not trills.
The Edo alphabet has separate letters for the nasalized allophones of /ʋ/ and /l/, mw and n:
| A | B | D | E | Ẹ | F | G | Gb | Gh | H | I | K | Kh | Kp | L | M | Mw | N | O | Ọ | P | R | Rh | Rr | S | T | U | V | Vb | W | Y | Z |
| /a/ | /b/ | /d/ | /e/ | /ɛ/ | /f/ | /ɡ/ | /ɡb/ | /ɣ/ | /h/ | /i/ | /k/ | /x/ | /kp/ | /l/ | /m/ | /ʋ/ | /l/ | /o/ | /ɔ/ | /p/ | /ɹ/ | /ɹ̝̊/ | /ɹ̝/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /v/ | /ʋ/ | /w/ | /j/ | /z/ |
Long vowels are written by doubling the letter. Nasal vowels may be written with a final -n or with an initial nasal consonant. Tone may be written with acute accent, grave accent, and unmarked, or with a final -h (-nh with a nasal vowel).
Read more about this topic: Edo Language