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| Esan (Anwain, Esa, Isa, Ishan) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Nigeria | |
| speaker | 200,000 (1973) | |
| Linguistic classification |
Niger-Congo
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 |
ish |
|
The Esan is a edoide language in Nigeria .
It is a tonal language and has a comparatively rich literature. There are dictionaries and grammar texts in the Esan language, which helps the Esan people to be able to write their written language; there is a high rate of illiteracy among the Esan. The language has a large number of dialects including Ẹkpoma, Ewohimi, Ẹkpọn, and Ohordua. Most annual Esan King's Council meetings are therefore held almost exclusively in English for this reason.
The word 'gbe' has the highest usage rate in Esan and at the same time it has up to 76 different meanings in a normal dictionary. Many names begin with the prefix Ọsẹ; Ẹhi, Ẹhiz or Ẹhis; and Okoh (male), Ọmọn (female) are the most common in Esan: Ẹhizọkhae, Ẹhizojie, Ẹhinọmẹn, Ẹhimanre, Ẹhizẹle, Ẹhimẹn, Ẹhikhayimẹntor, Ẹhikhayimẹnle, Ẹhijantor; and Ehijantor; and Ọsẹmundiamẹn and Ọsẹmhẹngbe; Okosun, Okojie, Okodugha, Okoemu, Okouromi, Okougbo, Okoepkẹn, Okoror, Okouruwa and Oriaifo. To each oko-, 'Ọm-', the suffix of the name can be added to achieve the feminine version - like Ọmosun and Ọmuromi.
alphabet
Esan uses different scripts and alphabets, Latin script is the most commonly used script and has a total 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 types of double letters:
bh, gb, gh, kh, kp, kw (rarely used), mh, nw, ny, sh.
eg
Bh i, I bh a,
Gb e, A gb a
Gh a, U gh e
Kh u, A kh uẹ
Kp a, Ẹ kp oma
E mh in
Nw ẹn
Ny ẹn
Sh i
AEEIOOU
