Rigwe language

Rigwe
Nkarigwe
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Plateau State, Kaduna State
Native speakers	(40,000 cited 1985) [1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Central  ? Rigwe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	iri
Glottolog	irig1241

Rigwe
People	Nneirigwe
Language	Nkarigwe

ɾȉgʷȅ [2]
Person	ƴîɾìgʷȅ
People	yíɾìgʷȅ
Language	ɾȉgʷȅ

The Rigwe language, Nkarigwe, is a Plateau language of Nigeria ^[3] spoken by the Irigwe people mainly found in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State. ^{[4] [5]}

Rigwe has highly complex phonology. ^[6] The presence of the lateral fricative /ɬ/ in Rigwe, unusual among Plateau languages, suggests that there used to be West Chadic languages in the area with this phoneme. ^[7]

Phonology

Rigwe phonology: ^[8]

Rigwe Consonants

		Bilabial			Labiodental		Dental		Alveolar			Palato-alveolar		(Alveolo-) Palatal				Velar			Labial–velar/ Glottal
		plain	pl.	lb.	plain	pal.	plain	pl.	plain	pl.	lb.	plain	lb.	plain	pl.	lb.	glo.	plain	lb.	glo.	plain	pal	glo.
Nasal	voiced	m	mʲ	mʷ	ɱ				n					ɲ , ɲː		ɲʷ		ŋ	ŋʷ, ŋʷʲ		ŋ͡m
Stop	voiceless	p	pʲ						t					c	cʲ	cʷ	ˀc	k	kʷ	ˀk	k͡p		ˀkp
	voiced	b , ˀb	bʲ						d					ɟ	ɟʲ	ɟʷ		ɡ	ɡʷ	ˀɡʷ	ɡ͡b		ˀɡb
Fricative	voiceless				f	fʲ			s , ˀs			ʃ	ʃʷ, ˀʃʷ								h	hʲ
	voiced				v	vʲ	ð	ðʲ	z			ʒ	ʒʷ
Affricate	voiceless	ps							ts	tsʲ		t̠ʃ	t̠ʃʷ	tɕ	tɕʷ
	voiced											d̠ʒ	d̠ʒʷ
Approximant	voiceless								ɬ							j̊ʷ					w
	voiced								l					j		jʷ	ˀj				ʍ	ʍʲ	ˀʍ, ˀʍʲ
Tap									ɾ	ɾʲ	ɾʷ
Trill		ʙ							r	rʲ	rʷ

Rigwe Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	Oral	Nasal	Oral	Nasal	Oral	Nasal
Close	i	ĩ			u	ũ
Close-mid	e	ẽ			o	õ
Open	ɛ	ɛ̃	a	ã	ɔ	ɔ̃

Rigwe Tones

	Toneme
High	˦
Mid	˧
Mid-low	˨
Low	˩

References

1. Rigwe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Irigwe". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
4. "Irigwe (African people)". Library of Congress. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
5. "Rigwe". Ethnologue. SIL International. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
6. Blench, Roger M. 2018. Nominal affixes and number marking in the Plateau languages of Central Nigeria. In John R. Watters (ed.), East Benue-Congo: Nouns, pronouns, and verbs, 107–172. Berlin: Language Science Press. doi : 10.5281/zenodo.1314325
7. Blench, Roger (2022). Contact between West Chadic and Plateau languages: new evidence languages: new evidence . 11-12 November 2022, presentation given at Universität Wien.
8. "PHOIBLE 2.0 -". phoible.org. Retrieved 2022-06-10.

External links

• Roger Blench: Rigwe page