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Dẹgẹma is a Nigerian Delta Edoid language spoken in two separate communities on Degema Island by about 22,000 people, according to 1991 census figures (including projection figures for the two Dẹgẹma-speaking communities). The two communities are Usokun-Degema and Degema Town (Atala) in the Degema Local Government Area in Rivers State. Each community speaks a mutually-intelligible variety of Dẹgẹma, known by the names of the communities speaking them: the Usokun variety (spoken in Usokun-Degema) and the Degema Town (Atala) variety (spoken in Degema Town). Both varieties are similar in their phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic properties. No standard variety has so far emerged between the two varieties of Dẹgẹma. However, there appear to be more scholarly and descriptive linguistic publications on the Usokun variety than on the Degema Town (Atala) variety.〔Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2003. ''Clitics in Degema: A meeting point of phonology, morphology, and syntax'': Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). ISBN 4-87297-850-1.〕〔Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2008b. ''Degema–English dictionary with English index''. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). ISBN 978-4-86337-018-0.〕 The Dẹgẹma language is not also called "Atala" or "Udekaama", as stated in some publications. Atala is the alternative name for one of the Degema-speaking communities (Degema Town), and Udekaama is the name of a clan (which comprises Usokun-Degema and Degema Town). Similarly, "Kala Degema" is not an alternative name for the Usokun-Degema variety of Dẹgẹma as contained in the entry for Degema in the Ethnologue. ==Phonology== Dẹgẹma is the only Edoid language to match the vowel inventory reconstructed for Proto-Edoid. There are ten vowels, in two harmonic sets: and .〔Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. ''Grounded phonology'', p 181''ff''〕 Dẹgẹma has 24 consonants (including labialized velar-glottal sounds): 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Degema language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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