Ukue language

Ukue (Epinmi) is an Edoid language of Ondo State, Nigeria. It is sometimes considered the same language as Ehuẹun.

Ukue
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Ondo State
Native speakers	(14,000 cited 2000)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Niger yeai Edoid Northwestern Osse River Ukue
Language codes
ISO 639-3	uku
Glottolog	ukue1238

Phonology

Ukue has a rather reduced system, compared to proto-Edoid, of seven vowels; these form two harmonic sets, /i e a o u/ and /i ɛ a ɔ u/.^[2]

The language arguably has no phonemic nasal stops; [m, n] alternate with [β, l], depending on whether the following vowel is oral or nasal. Unusually, it has fricatives but no sibilants. The inventory is:^[3]

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Plosive	b	t̪  d̪	t  d		k  ɡ	k͡p  ɡ͡b
Fricative	f  v						h
Rhotic*			r̝
			r
Approximant	β [m]		l [n]	j		w

(*See Edo for a likely interpretation of the two rhotics.)