| Akpes | |
|---|---|
| Abesabesi | |
| Pronunciation | [àbèsàbès] |
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Ondo State |
Native speakers | 7,000 (2021)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ibe |
| Glottolog | akpe1248 |
| ELP | Ikorom |
| Coordinates:7°37′58″N5°52′41″E / 7.632653°N 5.877947°E /7.632653; 5.877947 (Gedegede) | |
Akpes (Àbèsàbèsì) is anendangered language ofNigeria. It is spoken by approximately 7,000 speakers[1] in the North ofOndo State. The language is surrounded by several other languages of the Akoko area, whereYoruba is the lingua franca.Yoruba replaces Akpes in more and more informal domains and thus forwards a gradual shift from Akpes towardsYoruba. Akpes is generally attributed to theVolta-Congo Branch of theNiger-Congo phylum.
The language is commonly referred to as 'Akpes' in literature. As this term is in fact the name of one of the four dialects, it is not supported by the whole speaker community. A meeting of representatives of all nine settlements has coined the term 'Abesabesi' to denote the language. It is a reduplication of the wordàbès meaning 'we'.[2]
Abesabesi is spoken in nine different settlements in theAkoko North-East andAkoko North-West LGAs ofOndo State. While Àkùnnù, Àsẹ̀, Gèdègédé, Ìbáràmù, Ìkáràmù, and Ìyànì are independent towns, three settlements form a quarter of the multilingual town Àjọwá: Dája, Ẹ̀ṣùkù, Ìlúdọ̀tun (also: Ìlọ̀dùn or Àkùnnù Àjọwá).[3] The quarter Efifa of Ajowa used to speak Akpes in the past but switched to the localYoruba variety Owe.[4] Agoyi (2009) classifies the varieties of these nine settlements into four dialects: Akpes, Èkiròmì, Èṣùkù, Ìluẹnì.[2] Her analysis is mostly based on differences in lexicon and phonemics (especially vowel harmony). All dialects are mutually intelligible.[5] Below is a table of all dialects, the settlements they are spoken in, and alternate names.
While most scholars attribute Abesabesi somewhere in theVolta–Niger branch ofNiger–Congo, its exact position within this branch is disputed. Some claimed that it forms a separate sub-branch and others claimed a closer relationship to theEdoid languages orUkaan.[6][7]
TheASJP 4.0 classifies Abesabesi as most closely related to theUkaan language.[8]
Abesabesi has a rich phoneme inventory comprisinglabial-velar andlabialized consonants and anadvanced tongue root (ATR) distinction for the oral mid vowels. The orthography used here followsLau (2020),[9] which is based onIPA.Abesabesi is a tonal language with a high, a mid, and a low tone. These tones are symbolized through anacute accent, no accent, orgrave accent on the tone-bearing unit. All three tones are lexical tones. However, the high tone only rarely appears on baselexemes but is often used as grammatical tone marking the mood of a clause, possession, location, or relativization. Frequent phonological processes in Abesabesi includevowel deletion,assimilation, andvowel harmony. A syllable can have the structure N (syllabic nasal) or (C)V(V)(C). Closed syllables only appear at the end of a word and are likely to have resulted from word final vowel deletion.[10]
Abesabesi exhibits seven oral and five nasal vowels. While anATR distinction exists for the oral mid vowels (/o/ vs. /ɔ/ and /e/ vs. /ɛ/), nasal vowels do not differentiate +ATR from -ATR (/ɔ̃/ and /ɛ̃/).[11]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e ɛ | o ɔ | |
| Open | a |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ĩ | ũ | |
| Mid | ɛ̃ | ɔ̃ | |
| Open | ã |
Abesabesi's consonant inventory consists of 29 consonants. While 20 of these consonants are frequently used in lexemes, nine only appear marginally (indicated in parentheses). Many of these marginal consonants are labialized equivalents of stops, nasals, and fricatives, such as /bʷ/, /mʷ/, and /hʷ/. Agoyi treats these consonants as a result of deleted rounded vowels.[12] The phoneme /ʃ/ can be realized as[ʃ] or as the affricate[t͜ʃ].
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | (p) b (bʷ) | t d | k (kʷ) ɡ | k͜p ɡ͜b | |||
| Nasal | m (mʷ) | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Fricative | f (fʷ) | s (sʷ) | ʃ (ʃʷ) | h (hʷ) | |||
| Affricate | d͜ʒ | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | r | j (j̃) | w |