Alternation of Lenis and Fortis Consonants in Ẹ̀dó and Ésàn as Indicators of a Dynamic Sound Change in Ẹdo

Abstract

Ẹdo and Esan belong to the group of genetically related languages referred to as the Ẹdoid group of languages, which in turn belongs, along with other Nigerian languages such as Yoruba, Igbo, Nupe, Idoma, and Izọn, to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The similarities between the speech forms of Ẹdo and Esan compared to the other Ẹdoid languages are evidenced in the high number of cognate sets based on a lexical statistical analysis. This naturally implies that the behaviour of sound segments in any of the two languages could serve as indicators of any evolutionary trend in any of the two languages. It is observed that the phonetically weak consonants [ɱ, n, ɹ] in Ẹdo lexical items alternate with their corresponding strong counterparts [m and l] in similar lexical items in Esan. The relative stability of the strong forms in contemporary Esan language seems to give credence to the claim of a dynamic sound change observable in contemporary Ẹdo language where the proto bilabial stops /b/, and /m/; the alveolar lateral stop, /l/, evolved into the relatively weak bilabial oral and labiodental nasal approximants, [β] and [ɱ] respectively, and the alveolar lateral approximant [ɹ], which is currently being outrightly deleted in any position of the words in which it occurs, thus following the evolution pattern /l/ > [ɹ] > [ø]. The over bearing influence of the English language and the Nigerian pidgin, the two languages that have taken over practically all Ẹdo homes, and the non-teaching of the language in the Ẹdo State educational system have been identified as catalysts to the endangerment of the Ẹdo language that may go into extinction in the very near future if drastic measures aimed at reversing the trend are not urgently and diligently applied.