Abidji language

Abidji
Abidji
Abiji
Native to	Ivory Coast
Region	Lagunes District
Ethnicity	Abidji
Native speakers	85,000 (2017)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Kwa Abidji; ; ;
Dialects	Enyembe; Ogbru;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	abi
Glottolog	abid1235

Abidji (also known as Abiji and Ambidji) is a language of uncertain classification within the Kwa branch of the Niger–Congo family. It is spoken in the Ivory Coast.^[2]

It has two dialects: "enyembe" and "ogbru". These dialects' names are used by the members of these Abidji-speaking ethnic groups to refer to themselves. The name Ambidji was given to the language by these groups' neighbors.^[3]

Villages

Abidji is spoken in these villages:^[4]

Village Name	Native Name (IPA)
Soukoukro	sukwebi
Badasso	gbadatɛ
Elibou	elibu
Sahuyé	sayjɛ
gomon	goma
Yaobou	jawebi; joabu ;djabõ ; nadja côtôcô ; Amougbroussandou
Sikensi	sikãsi
Bécédi	besedi
Brafoueby	brafwebi
Bakanou A, B	gbakamɔ̃
Katadji	kalaɟi
Abiéhou	abjeu
Akakro	akabi
Ahimangbo	emãgbo
Akoungou	akpũmbu

Writing system

Abidji is written with a Latin alphabet, using the graphemes of the practical writing for the languages of the Ivory Coast. The letter upsilon ⟨Ʊ, ʊ⟩ is often replaced with the V with hook ⟨Ʋ, ʋ⟩.

Abidji alphabet
Capital letters
A	B	C	D	E	Ɛ	F	G	Gb	J	I	Ɩ	K	Kp	L	M	N	Ny	O	Ɔ	P	R	S	T	U	Ʊ / Ʋ	W	Y	ʔ
Lowercase letters
a	b	c	d	e	ɛ	f	g	gb	j	i	ɩ	k	kp	l	m	n	ny	o	ɔ	p	r	s	t	u	ʊ / ʋ	w	y	ʔ
Phonetics
/a/	/b/	/c͡ç/	/d/	/e/	/ɛ/	/f/	/ɡ/	/ɡ͡b/	/ɟ͡ʝ/	/i/	/ɪ/	/k/	/k͡p/	/l/	/m/	/n/	/ɲ/	/o/	/ɔ/	/p/	/r/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/ʊ/	/w/	/j/	/ʔ/

The nasal vowels are written with ⟨n⟩ (⟨m⟩ before ⟨p⟩ and ⟨b⟩): ⟨an, en, ɛn, in, on, ɔn, un, ʊn ou ʋn, ɩn⟩.

Phonology

Consonants

Abidji consonants^[5]
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial– velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c͡ç	k	k͡p	ʔ
Plosive	voiced	b	d	ɟ͡ʝ	g	ɡ͡b
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Fricative		f	s				h
Approximant			l	j		w
Trill			r

Vowels

All vowels except /e/ have contrastive nasal forms.^[5]

Abidji vowels^[5]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Mid	e		o
Near-open			ɔ
Open		a

Tones

Abidji has phonemic tones, described as high /˦/ and low /˨/.^[5]

References

^ Abidji at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ Tresbarats, Chantal (April 1990). "Tone in Abidji morphology". Studies in African Linguistics. 21 (1): 107–143. doi:10.32473/sal.v21i1.107440.
^ Vick, Renée (1990), Le système aspecto-modal de l'abidji (in French), Abidjan: Institut de linguistique appliquée
^ Dumestre, Gérard (1971). Atlas linguistique de Côte-d'Ivoire : les langues de la région lagunaire (in French). Abidjan: Institut de Linguistique Appliquée.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Moran, Steven; McCloy, Daniel (eds.). "Inventory Abidji (GM 1526)". PHOIBLE. 2.0. Retrieved 29 May 2022., citing Tresbarats, Chantal; Vick, Renée (1992). Esquisse linguistique de l'abidji (in French). Universite d'Abidjan. OCLC 43063085.