| Also Known As: Ikwerri,Ikwerre
Description:
Ikwerre (also Ikwere) is a language of the Ikwerre people spoken by over 980,000 people (according to the 1991 census) in Nigeria. Ikwerre is one of the major languages spoken in Rivers State of Nigeria.
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 /ə̃/, which may be realized as [ɨ̃] or a syllabic nasal whose articulation is determined by adjacent consonants.
Ikwere exhibits two kinds of vowel harmony:
The tap /ɾ/ may sometimes be realized as an approximant [ɹ].
/ḅ ʼḅ l ɾ j ɰ w h hʷ/ are realized as [m ʼm n ɾ̃ ȷ̃ ɰ̃ w̃ h̃ h̃ʷ], respectively, preceding a nasal vowel.
Ikwere is a tonal language...... full article at Wikipedia |
