On the Phonemic Status of /ε/ in Ukwuani

AbstractThis paper examines the phonemic status of /ε/ in Ukwuani, an Igboid language spoken in Delta State, Nigeria. It evaluates whether the sound is a phoneme capable of creating meaningful differences in words or whether it is a variant of another phoneme as the case with other Igbo languages. The study also investigates the distribution of the sound and showswhether there are restrictions to its occurrence. To analyze the data, the Structgenautcy framework by Yul-Ifode, Okumo, and Ezenwafor (2016) was employed using data sourced from competent native speakers through the Ibadan four hundred wordlists. The qualitative method of analysis was adopted in analyzing the data. It was found out that the mid-front unexpanded vowel, /ε/, is a phoneme in Ukwuani in contrast with the phoneme /a/ and other phonemes. The language has nine vowels divided into two harmonic sets with the /a/ occurring with both sets. This is not the case in most other Igbo languages that have an eightvowel system neatly divided into two sets with the exclusion of /ε/. Thus, while /ε/ is realized as a variant in Igbo, it is a phoneme in Ukwuani contrasting minimally with other phonemes.Keywords: contrast, Igboid, phoneme, phonemic status, structgenautcy, Ukwuani