Abua language

Abua
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Rivers State
Native speakers	(25,000 cited 1989)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Cross River Central Delta Abua–Odual Abua
Language codes
ISO 639-3	abn
Glottolog	abua1244

Abua (Abuan) is a Central Delta language of Nigeria.

Writing system

Abua alphabet

a

aa

ạ

ạạ

b

ḅ

d

ḍ

e

ee

ẹ

ẹẹ

f

g

gb

gh

i

ii

ị

ịị

j

k

kp

l

m

n

nm

ng

ny

o

oo

ọ

ọọ

p

ph

r

s

t

u

uu

ụ

ụụ

v

w

y

z

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Labial–velar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m		n		ɲ	ŋ͡m	ŋ
Stop	unvoiced	p		t			k͡p	k
	voiced	b		d			ɡ͡b	g
Affricate
Fricative	unvoiced		f	s						h
	voiced	β	v	z				ɣ
Tap/flap				ɺ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l
Semivowel						j	w
Implosive		ɓ		ɗ

Vowels

	Front	Mid-front	Central	Mid-back	Back
Close	i	e	ɨ	o	u
Near-close				ʊ
Mid			ə
Open	a	ɛ		ɔ

Tones

Abua has 3 tones. /˦/ is high tone, /˨/ is low tone, and /↓˦/ is falling tone.

Further reading

• Elugbe, Ben Ohi; Williamson, Kay (1984). "Loss of the fortis-lenis contrast in Abuan languages". In Higgs, Jody; Thelwall, Robin E.W. (eds.). Topics in linguistic phonetics in honour of E.T. Uldall. Ulster University Press. OCLC 17442863.
• Gardner, Ian (1980). Abuan-English English-Abuan dictionary. Jos: University of Port Harcourt. ISBN 978-978-2321-08-4.
• Joshua, Kiikpoye Jonny (2006). The basics of Abuan grammar. Port Harcourt: The Joe Publishers.
• Miehe, Gudrun (1983). "Die Nominalklassen des Abuan". Afrika und Übersee (in German). 66 (1): 159–174.
• Ward, Ida Caroline (1937). "Phonology of Abua". Archiv für vergleichende Phonetik. 1: 51–52.
• Ward, Ida Caroline (1935). "A note on the Abua language". Africa. 8 (3): 377–378. doi:10.1017/S0001972000015680.
• Wolff, Hans (1969). Berry, Jack (ed.). A comparative vocabulary of Abuan dialects. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-0288-0.

External links

• Listen to a sample of Abua from Global Recordings Network