Afenmai language

Yekhee
Afenmai
Kukuruku (outdated)
Etsako
Native toNigeria
RegionEdo State
EthnicityAfenmai
Native speakers
510,000 (2020)
Niger–Congo?
  • Atlantic–Congo
    • Volta–Niger
      • yeai
        • Edoid
          • North-Central
            • Yekhee–Ghotuo
              • Yekhee
Language codes
ISO 639-3ets
Glottologyekh1238

Afenmai (Afemai), Yekhee, or Iyekhe, is an Edoid language spoken in Edo State, Nigeria by the Afenmai people. Not all speakers recognize the name Yekhee; some use the district name Etsako.

Previously the name used by British colonial administration was Kukuruku, supposedly after a battle cry "ku-ku-ruku", now considered derogatory.

Afenmai is unusual in reportedly having a voiceless tapped fricative as the "tense" equivalent of the "lax" voiced tap /ɾ/ (compare [aɾ̞̊u] 'hat' and [aɾu] 'louse'), though is other descriptions it is described simply as a fricative and analyzed as the "lax" equivalent of the "tense" voiceless stop /t/.

Etsako, a dialect of Edo itself, has its own dialects which are broadly divided into the Iyekhe and Agbelọ dialects, with the Iyekhe dialect being the more widely spoken.