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The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. The languages extend through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa: from Algeria to Benin in the west; from Libya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the centre; and from Egypt to Tanzania in the east.
Benue–Congo is a major branch of the Volta-Congo languages which covers most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Sara languages comprise over a dozen Bongo–Bagirmi languages spoken mainly in Chad; a few are also spoken in the north of the Central African Republic. They are members of the Central Sudanic language family. Greenberg (1966) treats all varieties as dialects of a Sara language, whereas Tucker and Bryan (1966) consider the Sara to be a dialect cluster of several languages. Most members of the different Sara languages/dialects consider their speech form distinct languages, but there is currently insufficient language information to determine which speech varieties need to be considered distinct languages, and which are dialects of other languages.
The forty or so Plateau languages are a tentative group of Benue–Congo languages spoken by 15 million people on the Jos Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Nasarawa State and in adjacent areas in central Nigeria.
Eggon, erroneously referred to as Mada - formerly a Plateau language spoken in central Nigeria. It is one of the major language in Nasarawa State.
There are over 525 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The Nigerian official language is English, the language of former colonial British Nigeria. As reported in 2003, Nigerian Pidgin was spoken as a second language by 60 million people in Nigeria.
Lau (Law) is a Jukunoid language of Lau LGA, Taraba State, Nigeria. Lau speakers claim that their language is mutually intelligible with the Jukunoid language varieties spoken in Kunini, Bandawa, and Jeshi. They also live alongside the Central Sudanic-speaking Laka, who live in Laka ward of Lau LGA.
The Kaba languages, also called Sara Kaba but not to be confused with the Sara languages, comprise three to five languages of Chad and the Central African Republic. They are Bongo–Bagirmi languages of the Central Sudanic language family.
The Jukunoid languages are a branch of the Benue-Congo languages spoken by the Jukun and related peoples of Nigeria and Cameroon. They are distributed mostly throughout Taraba State, Nigeria and surrounding regions.
Zeem, or Chaari, is an endangered Chadic dialect cluster of Nigeria, whose speakers are shifting to Hausa. Dyarim is closely related.
Lau is a Local Government Area in Taraba State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is in the town of Lau and the area is dominated by Hausa Fulani people. Lau Local government has a border with Ardo Kola, Jalingo, Yorro and Zing local governments of Taraba state. It also shares a border with Numan, Adamawa State.
Alumu is a Plateau language spoken by approximately 7,000 people in Nassarawa State, Nigeria. It has lost the nominal affix system characteristic of the Niger–Congo family.
Ahwai, also called the Ndunic languages, is a Plateau language cluster spoken to the southwest of Fadan Karshi in Sanga LGA, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Most villages are located at the foot of the Ahwai Mountains in Kaduna State.
Idun (Idũ), or Dũya, is a poorly attested Plateau language of Nigeria. Its classification is uncertain, but it may be closest to Ashe.
Kuteb also known as Ati, Kutev, Mbarike is a Nigerian ethnic language. The Kuteb people mostly live in the southern part of Taraba state in Nigeria, with a thousand-or-so speakers across the border in Cameroon. In Nigeria, it is spoken mostly in Takum and Ussa LGAs, and Yangtu SDA Taraba State.
Jukun (Njikun), or more precisely Jukun Takum, is a Jukunoid language of Cameroon used as a trade language in Nigeria. Though there are only a few thousand native speakers, and only a dozen in Nigeria, it is spoken as a second language in Nigeria by tens of thousands.
Lela or C'lela is a Kainji language of Nigeria. It is known as Cilela in Hausa, and it is also known as Dakarkari, because it is spoken by the Dakarkari people
Ju is a language from the West Chadian branch of the Chadic language family. The language is spoken solely in Nigeria, and had approximately 900 native speakers in 1993. The language is unwritten.
Tunzu (Tunzuii), or Itunzu, also known as Duguza (Dugusa) in Hausa, is a Kainji language of Nigeria.
Hõne is a Jukunoid language spoken in Gombe State and Taraba State, Nigeria. Speakers of the two dialects, Pindiga and Gwana, can only understand each other with difficulty. It belongs to the Jukun Wapan (Kororofa) language cluster.
References
- ↑ Still misclassified in Ethnologue (22nd ed.) and Glottolog 4.1.
- 1 2 3 Idiatov, Dmitry, Mark Van de Velde, Tope Olagunju and Bitrus Andrew. 2017. Results of the first AdaGram survey in Adamawa and Taraba States, Nigeria . 47th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL) (Leiden, Netherlands).
- ↑ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
- ↑ Blench, Roger. "The Central Sudanic languages in the context of Nilo-Saharan: a new overview". Academia.edu. Retrieved 25 August 2018.