| Yekhee | |
| Also Known As: | Afenmai Kukuruku (outdated) |
| Nativename: | Etsako |
| States: | Nigeria |
| Region: | Edo State |
| Ethnicity: | Afenmai |
| Date: | 2020 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta–Niger |
| Fam5: | Edoid |
| Fam6: | North-Central |
| Fam7: | Yekhee–Ghotuo |
| Iso3: | ets |
| Glotto: | yekh1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Yekhee |
Afenmai (Afemai), Yekhee, or Iyekhe, is an Edoid language spoken in Edo State, Nigeria by Afenmai people. Not all speakers recognize the name Yekhee; some use the district name Etsako.
Previously the name used by British colonial administration was Kukuruku, supposedly after a battle cry "ku-ku-ruku",[1] now considered derogatory.
Afenmai is unusual in reportedly having a voiceless tapped fricative as the "tense" equivalent of the "lax" voiced tap pronounced as //ɾ// (compare pronounced as /[aɾ̞̊u]/ 'hat' and pronounced as /[aɾu]/ 'louse'[2]), though is other descriptions it is described simply as a fricative and analyzed as the "lax" equivalent of the "tense" voiceless stop pronounced as //t//.
Etsako, a dialect of Edo itself, has its own dialects which are broadly divided into the Iyekhe and Agbelọ dialects, with the Iyekhe dialect being the more widely spoken.
Vowels are pronounced as //i e ɛ a ɔ o u//. Long vowels and the large number of diphthong in the language are derived from sequences of short vowels, often from the optional elision of pronounced as //l//.
Afenmai has a complex system of morphotonemic alterations based on two phonemic tones, high and low. At the surface level there are five distinctive tones: high, low, falling, rising and mid. Mid tone is the result of downstep of a high tone after a low tone. The contour tones (falling and rising) either occur on long vowels or diphthongs, from a sequence of high+low or low+high, or on short vowels produced from the contraction of such a long vowel or diphthong. Rising tones are rather uncommon, as they tend to be replaced by high, low or mid.
Consonants of the Ekpheli dialect are:
| BL | LD | D | Av | PA | Ve | LV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mː m | n | (ɲ) | ||||
| b p | t(ː) d | kː ɡː | k͡pː k͡p ɡ͡bː ɡ͡b | |||
| ts dz | (tʃ dʒ) | |||||
| f v(ː) | θ | s | (ʃ) | x ɣ | ||
| ʋ | l | j | w | |||
| ɾ |
The consonants marked long have been analyzed in various ways, including 'tense' or 'fortis' and paired up with 'lax' or 'lenis' partners, though there is no phonological basis for grouping the supposed 'long' consonants together, or for partnering them with particular 'short' consonants. The clear cases are pronounced as //k͡pː ɡ͡bː mː//, which are twice as long as pronounced as //k͡p ɡ͡b m// but otherwise identical in a spectrogram. pronounced as //kː ɡː// are likewise twice as long as pronounced as //x ɣ//. However, alveolar pronounced as //t// is only slightly longer than dental pronounced as //θ//, and while pronounced as //v// is longer than pronounced as //ʋ//, that's to be expected for a fricative compared to an approximant.[3]
The postalveolar consonants are allophones of the alveolars before pronounced as //i// plus another vowel, where pronounced as //i// would otherwise become pronounced as /[j]/, as in pronounced as //siesie/ [ʃeʃe]/ 'to be small'. It addition, pronounced as //ts// optionally becomes pronounced as /[tʃ]/ before a single pronounced as //i//, as in pronounced as //itsi// 'pig' (pronounced as /[itsi] ~ [itʃi]/). The other alveolar consonants do not have this variation, unless the triggering environment is provided within a prosodic word: pronounced as //odzi// 'crab' (pronounced as /[odzi]/ in citation form) > pronounced as //odzi oɣie// 'the king's crab' (pronounced as /[odʒoɣje]/). (The sounds transcribed with (IPA|ʃ ʒ ɲ) may actually be closer to pronounced as /[ɕ ʑ nʲ]/.)
Apart from pronounced as //p ts dz θ//, these consonants appear in all dialects of Afenmai investigated by Elimelech (1976). pronounced as //p// is absent from Uzairue dialect, being replaced by pronounced as //f//, and is quite rare in most other dialects. pronounced as //ts dz// are fricativized to pronounced as //s z// in Aviele and South Uneme dialects. pronounced as //θ// is retracted to pronounced as //ɹ̝̊// in most other dialects, as in pronounced as /[aθu ~ aɹ̝̊u]/ 'hat'.[3]
A B C CH D E Ẹ F G GB GH GW I J K KH KP KPH KW L M MH N NW NY O Ọ P R S SH T TH TS U V VH W Y Z.
Etsako phrases include:
| Etsako | English | |
|---|---|---|
| Moo! | Well done | |
| Abee!/See | Hello (How is it?) | |
| O somi/O chi | It is good. (Response) | |
| Na ẹgbia | Good morning | |
| Na ẹlẹ | (Response) | |
| Agbelọ | Good morning | |
| Agbe | (Response) | |
| U vhẹẹ ze? | Hope you are fine. | |
| Eli | Yes | |
| U lẹ guẹ? | Did you sleep well? | |
| A kpẹmi | We give thanks | |
| Moo ota / Oviẹna / Togi | Good afternoon | |
| Moo ogode / Obugala | Good evening | |
| O ki akọ / O kila akhuẹ | Good night (until tomorrow) | |
| O ki la | Goodbye | |
| O ki idegbe | Until later | |
| Lẹ khia / Guẹ khia | Go well. | |
| R'ẹlo ku egbe | Take care. |
Common Etsako phrases showing dialectical variations between Iyekhe and Agbelo:
| English | Iyekhe | Agbelo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I am coming | I bade | Mi aa balẹ | |
| Where are you? | Obo u ya? | Obo u la? | |
| Where are you going to? | Obo u ye? | Obo u aa ye? | |
| What do you want? | Eme u kele? | Elọ u aa nono? | |
| This is my brother | Iyọkpa mẹ ki ọna | Inyọguo mẹ kh' ọna | |
| I am hungry | Osami ọ gbe mẹ | Okiami o aa gbe mẹ |