By Ambrose Ekhosuehi

Benin-Edo Language writing culture follows one another in the following letters order — a. b. d. e. e. f. g. h. i. k. I. m. n. o. o p. r. s. t. u. V. w. y. z.

The words contain low and high tones, mid and low tones, then those with rise and fall tones.

Un-nasalized vowels have no precedence over nasalized ones, except where the tones are the same.

Words beginning with e or e prefix occur mostly in context and often not pronounced when isolated but the grammatical elements like en are entered under appropriate consonant.

Different items with the same phonetic and tonal form are differentiated. Different meanings may be explained as semantic developments of words are marked within the same item.

Different meaning may be brought about by the addition in the genitive or objective relationship.

In the case of verbs, the verbal combinations are given before the verb- noun combinations. In the verb-noun combinations the two elements join where they are followed by an object. If there is no further object, the two elements are written separately.

Tones of imperfect forms are used in the headings and sub-headings and in the case of verbal combinations; each verb is given its independent tone, irrespective of tonal interrelations in actual speech.

In illustrative sentences and materials, the actual intonations are reproduced. Early writers used inverted commas occurring as in English equivalent.

In the translations of sentences, idioms and explanatory notes, inverted commas denote either a literal translation or a quotation.

E and 0 vowels occur nasalized as result of assimilator with preceding nasals, and as separate phonemes.

When nasalized vowels are elided in front of an e or o, only a nasalized glide shows in its previous existence. The middle and end of the e or o vowel remains unnasalized, at least in slow speech.

Nasalized vowels are left unmarked when the vowels follow the nasal. Consonants — M.N. MW; because their nasalization is the result of assimilation. The use of the nasalization mark has also been strictly limited in case of nasalized vowel preceding MW and not every vowel preceding MW is nasalized — Umwen- (salt) U-mwe (you have) umweni (proper name of a person)

I mwe — I have (Conjunctive pronouns)
I mwen — I haven’t. So also in Ukomwen, Ukonmwen, planting, foolishness, respectively, Diphthongs occur in Benin — Edo Language writing — ae, ai, ie, ie, i0, 1o ,ua, ue, Ue, uo, uç,Etc. and Triphthongs eq. Uae as in eguae, and e,e,i are usually very short in triphthongs the middle part is usually the most prominent.

V is a voiced bilabial fricative in literature while Vb is a nasalized bilabial fricative distinct from v and mw.
S and Z are sometimes heard palatalized in speech of English ‘ch; sh and

j. R is trilled between vowels; fricative at the beginning of a word. While Rh is a voiceless fricative trilled.

N is a post alvelar, mw is a velar nasal with lip rounding; while the velar nasal n is found in Onomatopoeic words.

Gh and Kh are respectively the voiceless and the voiced frIcatives. Gb and kp are labio-Velars require the lips and the back of the tongue against the soft palate, with simultaneous release.

W is a semi-vowel, while y is a voiced palatal fricative, Palatal and velar semi-vowels are often used in diphthongs and triphthongs.

There is evidence that languages have gained some positive aspects through contact with other languages.

 

The transcription of ancestral language makes it possible for scholars to translate most of the foreign languages.

It is now possible to keep record of much of traditional oral literature and heritage into further action in writing.

The broadcast of such a language makes the Language and the culture enjoy wider consumption,.
Language that draws advantage from contact with other cultures is a pride of history to be acknowledged. It is universally acknowledged that a child learns best in his ancestral vernacular or original mother tongue because it is natural of the child’s spiritual realm.

Some linguistic scholars observed that different Languages are bound to interact when people of different cultures come together.

This contact gives rise to the phenomenon of linguistic borrowing, instead of consolidating the language, the phenomenon is rather corrupting the vernacular.

The main reason for borrowing lexical terms lies in the need to find names for people, pleases, objects, ideas, nations and the concepts with which a language has come into contact.

This occurs, sometimes, when the speaker of the dialect cannot find solution to the linguistic challenges encountered in the previously learned patterns of the vernacular. Other known reason is prestige, where the knowledge of a particular language carries prestige.

Language is a kind of human speech. It gives pride to parents in seeing their children speak vernacular, the native language as well as foreign languages.

The joy and hope equated are that the language won’t be lost. Individual language lives progeny while separate language can exist side by side by maintaining their integrity with the vigour of incompatible tissues; and may come together, fuse, replicate and give rise to nests of new words or tongues.

Writing is genetically determined mechanism holding together the core and vehicle of culture, housing them in art, music or functions of the same universal mechanism of expression, in language writing culture.