A PROPOSED ORTHOGRAPHY OF UVWIẸ

This study investigates the phonology of Uvwie, an endangered language spoken in parts of Delta State, aiming to construct orthography for the language. Orthography is a system which facilitates the writing of a language, and its documentation. It also facilitates literacy in the
language. It refers to the agreed system (of alphabets) used to represent the spoken form of a given language. Literacy as well as documentation– as means for revitalising or maintaining an endangered language – requires the creation of a writing system for the language (Cf. Grenoble and Whaley, 2006).The study is thus motivated, in part, by the need to codify the language. In addition, implementing Nigeria’s policy on language of instruction in pre-primary and early primary education (See NPE, 2004) in the Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State also requires that a writing system should be constructed for Uvwie, the ‘language of the immediate environment’; hence this study. The process employed in designing the proposed orthography in this work is not haphazard but follows certain principles and procedures: main research tools are Sociophonology (cf. Awonusi, 2007; Milroy, 2001; Ugorji, 2009) and the Principles of Orthography (Williamson 1984). Data were drawn from native speakers using the SIL wordlist, and phonetically transcribed. The outcome of the analyses is an inventory of ‘sociophonemes’ and tonemes, to which orthographic equivalence are assigned for the purpose of writing the language.