Gwari language

Gbari
Gbari
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Abuja, Kaduna State, Niger State, and Nasarawa State
Ethnicity	Gbagyi people
Native speakers	1,290,000 Gbagyi (2020); 550,000 Gbari (2020)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Niger noi Nupoid Nupe–Gbagyi Gbari; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; gbr – Gbagyi; gby – Gbari
Glottolog	gbag1256

Last updated November 14, 2025

Gwari is a Nupoid language spoken by the Gbagyi people, which make up over a million people in Nigeria. There are two principal varieties, Gbari (West Gwari) and Gbagyi (East Gwari), which have some difficulty in communication; sociolinguistically they are distinct languages.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ		u ũ
Mid	e ẽ		o õ
Open		a ã

/i, u, e, o/ can also have allophones [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ʌ].
Nasal vowels /ĩ, ũ, ẽ, õ/ can also be heard as [ɪ̃, ʊ̃, ɛ̃, ʌ̃].

Consonants

Gbagyi consonants^[2]
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	( ɲ )	( ŋ )
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	( t͡ʃ )	k	k͡p
Stop/ Affricate	voiced	b	d	( d͡ʒ )	g	ɡ͡b
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	( ʃ )			h
Fricative	voiced	v	z	( ʒ )
Approximant	central		( ɹ )	j		w
Approximant	lateral		l

The following sounds may be labialized as /pʷ, bʷ, fʷ, vʷ, kʷ, ɡʷ, mʷ, k͡pʷ, ɡ͡bʷ, hʷ/ and palatalized as /pʲ, bʲ, fʲ, vʲ, kʲ, ɡʲ, mʲ, lʲ, wʲ/.
Sounds /t, d, s, z, n/ when palatalized are always heard as [tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ, ɲ].
Sounds /f, b/ can be heard as bilabial sounds [ɸ, β] in free variation.
/n/ is heard as velar [ŋ] when preceding velar consonants.
/n/ becomes a labialized-velar [ŋʷ] when preceding a /w/.
Sounds /bʷ, ɡʷ, ɡʲ/ are softened to fricatives [βʷ, ɣʷ, ɣʲ] when preceding a glide, in medial-intervocalic position.
/ɡ͡b/ is heard as an implosive [ɓ] in free variation.
/h/ only has a limited occurrence, but it also may be allophonic with /f/ in Northern Gbagyi. In Southern Gbagyi, [h] is heard in free variation with /j/, when /j/ occurs before /i/ in syllable-final position.
The palatalized /lʲ/ may also be heard as a central glide [ɹ].^[2]

Gbari consonants^[3]^[2]
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	( ɲ )	( ŋ )
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k	k͡p
	voiced	b	d		g	ɡ͡b
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
	ejective				kʼ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	( t͡ʃ )
Affricate	voiced			( d͡ʒ )
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	( ʃ )			h
Fricative	voiced	v	z	( ʒ )
Approximant	central		( ɹ )	j		w
Approximant	lateral		l

The following sounds may be labialized as /pʷ, bʷ, fʷ, vʷ, kʷ, ɡʷ, mʷ/ and palatalized as /pʲ, bʲ, fʲ, vʲ, tʲ, dʲ, kʲ, ɡʲ, mʲ, lʲ, wʲ/.
Stops may also be heard as post-nasalized as [pᵐ, bᵐ, tⁿ, dⁿ, kᵑ, ɡᵑ, k͡pᵐ, ɡ͡bᵐ].
Palatalized sounds /tʲ, dʲ/, typically occur as [tʃ, dʒ] or [tʲ, dʲ] in free variation, and as [tʃ, dʒ], they can be represented orthographically as <ch, j>. Sounds /s, z, n/ when palatalized are always heard as [ʃ, ʒ, ɲ], and can be represented orthographically as <sh, zh, ny>.
Sounds /f, fʲ, b/ can be heard as bilabial sounds [ɸ, ɸʲ, β] in free variation.
/d/ can also be heard as [ɾ].
Sounds /b, ɡ/ and /bʷ, ɡʷ, ɡʲ/ are softened to fricatives [β, ɣ] and [βʷ, ɣʷ, ɣʲ] when preceding a glide, in medial-intervocalic position.
/n/ becomes a labialized-velar [ŋʷ] when preceding a /w/.
The palatalized /lʲ/ may also be heard in free variation, as a central glide [ɹ] or as a palatalized equivalent [ɹʲ].
/n/ when palatalized is heard as a palatal nasal [ɲ], and is velar as [ŋ] when preceding velar consonants.^[3]

Varieties

Gbagye is also known as Gwari-Matai or Gwarin Ngenge, which are recently adopted cover terms.^[4]

There are two separate Gbagyi groups living in:^[4]

Minna and Kuta (more prominent group)
around Diko, northeast of Suleja

Gbagye is the only Nupoid language that has the bilabial implosive /ɓ/.^[4]

Gbagyi (also known as Gwari) is a cover term for all the Gbari-speaking peoples, and includes many varieties.^[4]

Gbari-Yama is a cover term used for all southern Gbari dialects. There are two closely related dialects, which are:^[4]

Shigokpna
Zubakpna

Gbedegi is an extinct language (possibly a Nupe dialect) spoken near Mokwa (Nadel 1941).^[4]

References

↑ Gbagyi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Gbari at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
1 2 3 Rosendall, Heidi James (1992). A phonological study of the Gwari Lects. Dallas, Tex.: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
1 2 Rosendall, Elias Patrick (1998). Aspects of Gbari Grammar. University of Texas at Arlington.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Blench, Roger. 2013. The Nupoid languages of west-central Nigeria: overview and comparative word list .

This Volta–Niger language-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[e26-1] Gbagyi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Gbari at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)

[:1-2] 1 2 3 Rosendall, Heidi James (1992). A phonological study of the Gwari Lects. Dallas, Tex.: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

[:0-3] 1 2 Rosendall, Elias Patrick (1998). Aspects of Gbari Grammar. University of Texas at Arlington.

[Blench2013-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Blench, Roger. 2013. The Nupoid languages of west-central Nigeria: overview and comparative word list .

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]