Edo (Ẹ̀dó)

Edo is a member of the North Central Edoid branch of the Volta-Niger language family. It is spoken by about 2 million people in Edo State in southern Nigeria, particularly in and around Benin City in the south of Edo State. There are also some Edo speakers in Delta State and Ondo State, and other parts of Nigeria.

Edo is also known as Benin, Bini, Addo, Oviedo or Ovioba. It is mainly an oral language, however there is some written material, including dictionaries, textbooks and historical texts. It is written with the Latin alphabet.

Edo alphabet and pronunciation

Notes

Before nasal vowels, b and p = [m]; d, l and t = [n]; g and k = [ŋ]; gb and kp = [ŋ͡m]; w = [ŋʷ], and y = [ɲ].
Long vowels are indicated by doubling the vowel letters
Nasal vowels are indicated by adding an n after them, or a nasal consonant before them
The low tone is indicated by a grave accent (à), the high tone by an acute accent (á), the falling tone by a circumflex accent (â), and the mid tone is unmarked.

Hear the Edo alphabet

Sample text in Edo

Emwan ne agbon hia ne a biere, a bie iran noyan-egbe iran kevbe wee, umwon-mwen o ree etin hia ne o kheke iran khin. A ye ewaen kevbe ekhoe ne o maa wu iran, ne iran gha yin da egbe vbe orhion oghe eten-okpa.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample phrases in Edo

Ób’ókhían = Welcome
Ób’ówa = Greetings to you at home
Kóyo = Hello
Vbèè óye hé? = How are you?
Òy’ èsé = It is fine, o.k.
Ób’ówie = Good morning
Ób’ávàn = Good afternoon
Ób’ ótà = Good evening
Òkhíen òwie = Until tomorrow morning/good night
Ù rú èsé = Thank you

Source: http://www.edofolks.com/html/pub44.htm

Sample videos

Information about Edo | Numbers | Tower of Babel

Links

Information about Edo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_language
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Édo_(langue)
http://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/bin
http://www.edofolks.com/html/pub44.htm
http://www.edofolks.com/html/1language.htm
http://www.edoworld.net/Edo_Alphabet.html

Edoid languages

Degema, Edo, Egene, Esan, Isoko, Ivbiosakon, Ososo, Urhobo

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page last modified: 25.05.26

[top]

The Fastest Way to Learn Korean with KoreanClass101

You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways.

If you find all the adverts annoying, there is now an Ad-free version of Omniglot which you can access for a small monthly or annual donation.

Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission if you click on any of them and buy something. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site.

[top]