Esan language
| Esan | |
|---|---|
| Ishan | |
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Ethnicity | Esan people |
|
Native speakers
|
300,000 (1994) |
|
Niger–Congo
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | esan1238 |
Esan is a tonal Edoid language of Nigeria. Dictionaries and grammar texts of the Esan language are being produced. There is a high level of illiteracy among the Esan, and a large number of dialects, including [[Ẹkpoma, Ewohimi, Ewatto, Ẹkpọn, Ebelle and Ohordua. Most annual Esan Kings' Council meetings are largely conducted in English for this reason. However, the Esan language has been described as regionally important. It is taught in schools throughout Esanland, and Esan language radio and television is prevalent.
Linguistic finding has shown the word ‘gbe’ to have the highest number of usages in Esan, with up to 76 different meanings in a normal dictionary. Names starting with the prefixes Ọsẹ; Ẹhi, Ẹhiz or Ẹhis; and Okoh (for male), Ọmọn (for female) are the commonest in Esan: Ẹhizọkhae, Ẹhizojie, Ẹhinọmẹn, Ẹhimanre, Ẹhizẹle, Ẹhimẹn, Ẹhikhayimẹntor, Ẹhikhayimẹnle, Ẹhijantor,Ehicheoya etc.; Ọsẹmundiamẹn, Ọsẹmhẹngbe, etc.; Okosun, Okojie, Okodugha, Okoemu, Okouromi,Okoukoni, Okougbo, Okoepkẹn, Okoror, Okouruwa, Oriaifo etc. To any Oko-, 'Ọm-' the suffix of the name can be added to arrive of the female version e.g. Ọmosun, Ọmuromi, etc.
Esan uses several alphabets, Romanized Esan being the most commonly used with a total number of 25 letters:
a, b, d, e, ẹ, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ọ, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, y, z.
The digraph consists of 10 sets of double letters:
bh, gb, gh, kh, kp, kw (rarely used), mh, nw, ny, sh.
e.g.
All Esan nouns begin with vowel letters (i.e. a, e, ẹ, i, o, ọ, u): aru, eko, ẹbho, itohan, ozẹ, ọrhia, uze, etc. Due to the influence of neighbouring tongues and Western languages, especially English, there is the tendency among Esan to pronounce many non-Esan nouns beginning with a consonant letter. In the event of such within the boundary of Esan write-up, an apostrophe may be employed before the first consonant letter both to Esanize and ease the pronunciation. In speech however such apostrophe is often pronounced as ‘i’ /i:/: ’bazaar, ’Jonah, ’labour, ’zoo, etc.
Each Esan noun ends in either a vowel letter (e.g. ato, Ẹkpoma, uri, oya) or the vowel-associated letter ‘n’: agbọn, eran, ẹnyẹn, itọn, isẹn, etc. Exception to this rule is the writing of proper nouns where a name can end in letter ‘r’ always after a letter ‘ọ’ to make it sound like ‘or’ in English as well as the use of letter ‘h’ after a letter ‘o’ to make it sound as ‘oh’ in English: Isibor, Oko'ror, Okoh, Okoọboh, etc.
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Wikipedia