Mada language

Not to be confused with Maɗa language.

Mada
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Nasarawa State, Kaduna State
Native speakers	(100,000, not counting Nunku cited 1993) [1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Ninzic Mada
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mda
Glottolog	mada1282

Mada is a regionally important language spoken in Nasarawa and southern Kaduna States of the Middle Belt, Nigeria, with many dialects. It is a highly tonal language. A translation of the New Testament into the language was finished in 1999. ^[2] The Nunku dialect has been identified to be a dialect of Mada rather than of Gbantu.

The Mada people are the second most populated tribe in Nasarawa state, mostly populating Akwanga and Kokona local governments. Possible archaeological history suggests that they may be descendants of the Nok civilization. They are closely related to the Ninzo people as well as to the Gbantu people. Their languages are believed to be descended from the Proto-Plateau language.

Phonology

Consonants

Mada Consonants ^[3]

		Labial	Alveolar	Laminal	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
						Normal	Labialized	Normal	Labialized
Nasal		m	n			ŋ	( ŋʷ )
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	t͡s		k	kʷ
	voiced	b	d	d͡z		g	gʷ
	prenasalised	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿd͡z		ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
Implosive		ɓ	ɗ
Fricative	voiceless	f	ɬ	s				h	hʷ
	voiced	v	ɮ	z
Trill			r
Approximant			l		j		w

All consonants can be geminated, and geminated consonants hold equal status as non-geminated ones. ^[3]

• Geninated consonants originated from word inital CV to VC, vowel loss, and reduplication

/ŋ/ was historically a word final allophone of /n/, however that changed due to borrowing. ^[3]

Allophones

^[3]

1. Laminal consonants become post-alvealor consonants in palatalized words
2. Implosives are unreleased word finally
3. /t͡s, d͡z/ are grooved
4. /h(ʷ)/ is in free variation with [x(ʷ)], though /h(ʷ)/ is more common

Occurance

Voiceless plosives are more common word initaly then finally, overall /p/ is 3 times less common than /t/ and 7 times less common then /k/

Generally /ɗ/ is 3 times more common than /ɗ/, however word finally it its 8 times more common

Prenasalized consonants are more common word medially than initially, inatilly /ᵐb, ᵑɡ/ are twice as common as /ⁿd/

Voiceless fricatives are 3 times more common as voiced ones word finally

/t͡s/ is very rare word finally

/n/ is overall the most common consonant, however world initally /m/ is 5 times as common

/l, r/are rare world initally

Vowels

Mada has 2 vowels, /a/ the vowel, and /Ø/ the lack of a vowel. ^[3]

Epenthetic vowels are inserted to break up consonant clusters, they are [ə], [ɪ], [ʊ], and [ʏ] depending on prosody, and 3 times shorter than a normal vowel ^[4]

/V, Ø/ have the following realizations: ^[3]

1. [a, ə] when no prosody applies
2. [o, u] when labialisation prosody applys (/V/ here is realized as [ɔ] in closed syllables)
3. [e, i] when palatalization prosody applys (/V/ here is realized as [ɛ] in closed syllables)
4. [ø~œ, y] when both labialization and prosody applys

Vowels can be rounded preceding labiovelars or /m, w/, turning /i, ɪ, e, ɛ/ into /y, ʏ, ø, œ/. ^[3]

Vowel raising also occurs in mada, where central vowels are raised to /ə/, back vowels to /u/, front unrounded vowels to /i/, and front rounded vowels to /y/. It occurs in the following circumstances ^[3]

1. Before consonant clusters and liquids
2. Between 2 indentical consonants
3. In certain consonant clusters
4. In the sequences CVwC and CVjC
5. In word final CVj sequence
6. In the penultimate syllable of a word (somtimes, post lexical)

Long vowels do occur but are rare and come from vowel contraction, partial reduplication, or contact with semi vowels ^[3]

Vowels are slightly lengthened word finally, not enough to be considered long though.

Prosody

^[3]

Mada also has labialization and palatalization prosodys which can also combine

Palatalization and labialization also spread leftwords across morpheme boundarys

Palatalization indicates direction twoards the speaker, while labialization indicates direction away from the speaker, paltalization can also turn adjectives into diminutives

Frequency

Prosodys have the following frequences on nouns

1. No prosody: 58%
2. Palatalization: 26%
3. Laialization: 14%
4. Labiopalatalization: 2%

And the following frequences on verbs ^[5]

1. No prosody: 58%
2. Palatalization: 19%
3. Labialization: 15%
4. Exceptions: 5%
5. Labiopalatalization: 3%

Palatalization also orthographicly spreads leftwords the following percentages ^[3]

1. No spreading: 65%
2. Spreading to the verb root: 28%
3. Spreading to the subject prefix: 7%

Phonotactics and syllables

Syllabification is a surface structure phenomenon and therefor unstable ^[6] . Syllable boundarys can change according to the speech and metrical structure of phrases.

Syllables can also be word initaly palatalized and word finally labialized ^[3]

Mada words are built off of consonant skeletons, which are made into full words by addinf vowels, prosodies, and tones to them. Mada words must contain atleast one vowel, and the same applys to noun roots, but not to verb roots. Overall mada has the following phontactical rules: ^[3]

1. No consonant clusters are allowed in the coda
2. the final syllable of a word must have a full vowel
3. Final syllables should (usually) be stressed
4. /z(ⁿ)d, bm, dn, d͡zn, g(ʷ)ŋ/ are not allowed
5. /wk, wg, wᵑɡ/ can only exist at morpheme or syllable boundary
6. Voiced, prenasalized, and geminated consonants can not exist word finally
7. Sounds closer to the syllable nucleus become more sonorius
8. /b, d, g/ can only be followed by a liquid or semi vowel
9. /ⁿd/ cant be followed by any consonant
10. /ᵐb, ᵑɡ/ can only be followed by liquids or lateral fricatives
11. /d͡z/ never occurs world finally and can only be followed by /h, r/
12. /t͡s/ can only be followed by /k, h/
13. /ŋ/ doesnt occur word initally

Noun roots

Mada contains ths following noun roots ^[3]

Number of consonants	Structure
1	CV
	VCV
2	CCV
	CVC
	CVCV
	VCVC
	VCCV
	VCVCV
3	CCVC
	CVCVCV
	CVCCV
	CVCVC
	VCVCVC
	VCCVC
	VCVCVCV
	VCCVC

Verb roots

Mada contains the following verb roots ^[3]

Number of consonants	Structure
1	CV
2	CC
	CVC
	CVCV
	CCV
3	CCVC
	CVCVC
	CVCVCV
	CCVCV

Syllables

Roots with vowels attatched can be split into the following syllables ^[3]

Structure	Distribution
V	Word initialy only
VC
CV	Everywhere
CVC
CCV
CCVC	Words with only one syllable

References

1. Mada at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Blench, Roger. "A brief history of Mada literacy, and the creation of a Mada dictionary".
3. "The Phonology of Mada". SIL Global. 2018-10-15. Archived from the original on 2024-11-15. Retrieved 2025-11-19.
4. Pearce, 2014, Personal communication
5. Barrateau & Brunet (2000, p. 40)
6. Roberts, 2001, p. 16