Eloyi | |
---|---|
Afu | |
Native to | Nigeria |
Region | Benue State, Nassarawa State |
Native speakers | 100,000 (2021) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | afo |
Glottolog | eloy1241 |
Eloyi, or Afu (Afo) or Ajiri, [2] is a Plateau language of uncertain classification. It is spoken by the Eloyi people of Agatu LGA and Otukpo LGA of Benue State and Nassarawa State in Nigeria.
Armstrong (1955, 1983) [3] [4] classified Eloyi as Idomoid, but that identification was based on a single word list and Armstrong later expressed doubts. [5] Other preliminary accounts classify it as Plateau, [6] and Blench (2008) leaves it as a separate branch of Plateau. [7]
Blench (2007) considers Eloyi to be a divergent Plateau language that has undergone Idomoid influence, rather than vice versa. [8]
Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | k͡p | ||||
voiced | b | d | g | g͡b | |||||
Affricate | d͡z | d͡ʒ | |||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | ||||
voiced | v | z | |||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||
Rhotic | r / ɾ | ||||||||
Approximant | l | j | w |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | o | |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
Open | a |