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ABSTRACT
Language is typically a human phenomenon and should not be allowed to die so long as the human race continues to exist. Therefore, this work examines the sound scope of Ọza, an endangered language spoken in Akoko North in Edo State, Nigeria. It aims at developing a writing system for the language which will represent the spoken form as articulated by the native speakers.
The theoretical framework employed in this research is based on the five principles of a good orthography postulated in Williamson 1984. Data was sourced through oral interview of Ọza native speakers using the Ibadan 400 wordlist as well as other basic words outside the wordlist. The data was transcribed phonetically and analyzed after which sounds in the language were assigned graphemes based on their phonemic realities.
We observed that the language re-syllabifies loan words to suit its syllable structure. Ọza has a number of homonyms which are context determined.
