The Kainji Languages of Northwestern and Central Nigeria (original) (raw)

The East Kainji languages of Central Nigeria

Afrika und Ubersee, 2021

The paper is an overview of current scholarship on the East Kainji language group of Central Nigeria. It reviews the existing published and manuscript sources and describes recent research, as well as the development of orthographies for some languages. Many East Kainji languages are severely threatened and some have gone extinct with the period under review. The paper presents an internal classification and briefly discusses the external relationships of these languages. On the basis of existing data, a review of the basic phonology and noun class prefix systems is given.

Gyem: an endangered east Kainji language of Northern Nigeria

The paper analyses preliminary data on the Gyem language, an endangered East Kainji language spoken in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Although thought to be threatened, as it has only a small number of speakers, it is still spoken and transmitted to children. The data consists of a wordlist of some 350 items, and the phonology which can be deduced from the transcribed list. Some differences emerge from the much shorter list presented in collected by Shimizu in the mid-1970s. Gyem has a rich noun morphology, but not much of it is not inherited from a putative proto-East Kainji, as it has undergone considerable renewal of the affixes which have produced incipient semi-vowel alternations. There are many uncertainties and Gyem represents a suitable opportunity for more detailed research.

AN ATLAS OF NIGERIAN LANGUAGES

2019

A listing and introduction to the languages of Nigeria. 2019 edition of a document first published in 1976 as 'An Index of Nigerian Languages'

Zora: a highly endangered East Kainji language of Northern Nigeria

This paper analyses preliminary data on the Zora language, an endangered East Kainji language spoken in Plateau State, Nigeria. Zora is moribund, only spoken by a small number of old men, and many lexical items no forgotten. The data consists of a wordlist of some 300 items, and the phonology which can be deduced from the transcribed list. Some differences emerge from the much shorter list presented in collected by Shimizu in the mid-1970s. There are many uncertainties and Zora represents an opportunity to recover more data before it finally is forgotten.

The Kwaŋ language of Central Nigeria and its affinities

2021

This is an introduction and annotated wordlist of the Kwaŋ language, spoken in Jan[n]eret village in Plateau State, Nigeria. Kwaŋ is a Plateau language, part of the Bijim-Yaa cluster and ultimately part of Tarokoid. Kwaŋ has a reduced nominal prefix system marking number in nouns, as well as fossil suffixes on verbs indicative of an extension system. The annotated wordlist in the final section includes comparisons with a wide range of Plateau languages.

The Languages of Rivers State of Nigeria: An Overview

Marang: Journal of Language and Literature, 2019

This paper provides an updated overview of the languages of Rivers State of Nigeria in respect of the number, linguistic classification and features of the languages, as well as the distribution of the languages across the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. This is because the existing overviews contain little or no data on the linguistic features of the languages. It notes that Rivers State is a multilingual state in which 28 native or indigenous languages are spoken, and that the languages fall into two major sub-families (Benue-Congo and Ijoid) within the Niger-Congo phylum. With relevant data, the paper highlights and illustrates some of the interesting linguistic characteristics of the languages, which include advanced tongue root vowel harmony, noun classification via noun prefixes and noun classifiers, inclusive-exclusive distinction in personal pronouns, sex gender, verbal extensions, serial verb constructions and subject and/or object agreement marking. Furthermore, the paper considers the distribution of Rivers State languages and notes that the languages are not evenly distributed across the LGAs, and that many indigenous people of the state are bilingual or multilingual in the languages of the state. Finally, the paper notes that despite the enabling national and state policies and laws favouring mother-tongue education, Rivers State languages have not actively been used at the levels stipulated by the policies and laws. It recommends the enforcement and implementation of existing laws and policies so that the indigenous languages of the state are used at the levels stipulated by the National Policy on Education for the benefit of the citizens, state and country.

A Description of Dzә (Jenjo) Nouns and Noun Phrases, an Adamawa Language of Northeastern Nigeria

2020

Dzə [jen] is an Adamawa language spoken in some parts of Taraba, Adamawa and Gombe states in Northeastern Nigeria. The study presented in the article syntactically describes nouns and noun phrases in Dzə. In an attempt to document Dzə and taking into consideration that Dzə is an under-investigated and under-documented language, the result will provide important data to typological research and to linguists working on Adamawa languages. The study adopts a descriptive research design in collecting, describing and analyzing the data. The data was obtained from fieldwork in December 2014, personal observations of daily conversations, introspection and the Dzə Bible. In the article, a brief overview of the phonology and tone of Dzə is provided. It also shows the different kinds of nouns, pronouns and noun phrases in Dzə; simple and complex noun phrases. The language is rich in pronouns, consisting of subject pronouns, object pronouns, reflexive pronouns, interrogative pronouns and posses...

Belnәng, an undocumented Chadic language of Central Nigeria

This is an introduction and basic phonology, orthography proposal and a short dictionary of Belnəng, a previously undocumented language in southern Plateau State, Nigeria. Belnəng is part of West Chadic, A3, and the paper presents evidence for its affiliation within the A3 group. The phonology is simplified, like northern languages such as Mwaghavul, without the secondary stop and fricative series characteristic of the neighbouring Tal. Although the Belnəng claim cultural links with the Ngas, linguistically, this is not supported by the lexical data. Belnəng shows some lexical influence from Tal immediately to the east and Miship to the west. However, the presence of idiosyncratic lexical items suggests the possibility that Belnəng is a remnant of former languages spoken in the area now settled by the expanding Tal. The paper argues that Belnəng should be identified as a distinct language and thus assigned an ISO code.

Review: An Introduction to African Languages

An introduction to African languages is a somewhat atypical work that serves, on the one hand, as a kind of extended scholarly review of a selection of significant linguistic research on African languages from as for back as Koelle (1854) to the present day, while, on the other hand, adopting a tone and format more along the lines of an introductory textbook than a book for specialists.

Preliminary dictionary of the Fɨran language of Central Nigeria

2024

This is a preliminary dictionary the Fɨran language [fir], which is spoken in Kwakwi and surrounding hamlets in Ganawuri District, Riyom LGA, Plateau State, in central Nigeria. Fɨran is an Izeric language, one of the subgroups of Plateau and ultimately of Benue-Congo. Fɨran is a noun class language with alternating prefixes marking number.