ABSTRACT
This work examined ‘a contrastive and comparative analysis of the sound system of Etsako and Edo languages. It sought to arrive at a systematic and linguistic assumptions of what the similarities and differences that exist among the sounds of both languages are. The primary motivation for this work is the language situation of Edo state, where the attention on language documentation is mostly centred on the Edo language. Most of the other languages have been poorly documented. For instance, in the University of Benin, the Edo language is a focus of an arm of Linguistics Studies (Linguistics and Edo). In this department, the Edo language is richly studied and continuously documented whereas only on few occasions are other languages within the state cited. This study aims at encouraging the study and documentation of the other languages within the state.
Various data, textbooks and other reliable resources were consulted to enable the concreteness of this study, both primarily and secondarily. Data from Etsako language were obtained from two respondents; Mrs. Ekpekuru Aminat, a business woman, aged fifty-five years old and Miss Momodu Tohibat, a teacher, twenty-four years old. The method of analysis that was suitable for this study was the concept of the phoneme. This framework was used because everything that was done in this work revolves around the phoneme, from the analysis of the sounds in both languages, to the phonological processes that are evident in both languages.
From this work, it was examined that the sound systems of Edo and Etsako although share a level of similarities also possess certain distinctiveness that differentiaites them from each other. One significant difference between both languages is in their inventory of sounds. Whereas the Etsako language comprises a total of thirty-three sounds (twenty-six consonants and seven oral vowels), Edo on the other hand contains an inventory of thirty-nine sounds (twenty-seven consonants and twelve vowel sounds. Five vowel sounds are nasal while the seven others are oral). The tonal pattern analysis of both languages revealed that whereas Etsako language has three tones (high, low and mid), Edo has a tone system of two basic tones (high and low). Both languages maintain a steady syllable structure of two syllables (C and CV). Lastly, the analysis of the phonological processes evident in both languages revealed that four phonological processes are consistent in both languages (assimilation, insertion, glide formation and elision respectively).
