Rigwe | |
---|---|
Nkarigwe | |
Native to | Nigeria |
Region | Plateau State, Kaduna State |
Native speakers | (40,000 cited 1985) [1] |
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 spoken by the Irigwe people mainly found in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State. [3] [4]
Rigwe has highly complex phonology. [5] 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. [6]
Rigwe phonology: [7]
Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | (Alveolo-) Palatal | Velar | Labial–velar/ | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 |
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 |
Toneme | |
---|---|
High | ˦ |
Mid | ˧ |
Mid-low | ˨ |
Low | ˩ |
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.
There are over 525 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The official language and most widely spoken lingua franca is English, which was the language of Colonial Nigeria. Nigerian Pidgin – an English-based creole – is spoken by 30 million people in Nigeria.
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