Tarokoid languages

Last updated
Tarokoid
Plateau VII
Geographic
distribution		 Nigeria
Linguistic classification Niger–Congo?
Glottolog taro1265

The five Tarokoid languages are a branch of the Plateau family spoken in central Nigeria, just north of the middle reaches of the Benue River. Tarok itself has 300,000 speakers, with Pe and Sur about 5,000 each. Yangkam is severely endangered, being spoken by around fifty elderly men.

Contents

The Tarokoid languages have significantly influenced the Ron languages and later Ngas, but not the other West Chadic languages of Tel, Goemai, Mupun, and Mwaghavul. Most borrowed words went from Tarok to Chadic, although occasionally Chadic words were also borrowed into Tarok. Today, Tarok remains the lingua franca of the southern Plateau region of Nigeria. [1]

Classification

The only language with significant data is Tarok. Pe (Pai) has been placed in various branches of Plateau, and Kwang (Kwanka) was only recently added, but it now seems clear that the following five languages belong together. The classification below follows Blench (2004). [2]

Tarokoid 

Tarok (Yergam)

Pe (Pai)

Yangkam (Bashar)

Sur (Myet, Tapshin)

Kwang (Kwanka)

Shall-Zwall [3]

Names and locations

Below is a list of Tarokoid language names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019). [4]

LanguageDialectsAlternate spellingsOwn name for language Endonym(s)Other names (location-based)Other names for language Exonym(s)SpeakersLocation(s)
Tarok iTarok (Plain Tarok), iZini (Hill Tarok), Səlyər, iTarok Oga aSa, iGyangiTarokAppa, Yergam, Yergum Plateau State, Langtang and Wase LGAs
Yangkam YaŋkamBashiriBasharawa[20,000 (1977 Voegelin and Voegelin)]. Ethnic population given; these groups now speak only Hausa. As of 1996, there were likely fewer than 400 speakers, all over 40 years old. Plateau State, Langtang and Wase LGAs, Bashar town

Reconstruction

Reconstructed Proto-Tarokoid forms proposed by Longtau (2016): [5]

GlossProto-Tarokoid
to burn*bi-ʃi
head*iki-ʃi
tongue*iki-lerem ~ *iti-lem
to monger iron*kɨ-la
bed*iki-ler
tail*iku-ʃol
hyena*mmu-tuŋ
duiker *in-tep
guinea fowl *iru-nshyok
ladder*n-kwaŋ
fonio *iti-ʃi
head-pad*ati-kat
knee*itu-kuruŋ
bone*atu-kubi
corpse*atu-kum
skin*a-tukwa
heart*itun-rum
money*igi-ʧam
fruit bat *igi-gyak
husband*u-rom
termite*i-ʃum
hunger*y-yɔŋ

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Longtau, Selbut (25–26 March 2004). Some Historical Inferences from Lexical Borrowings and Traditions of Origins in the Tarokoid/Chadic Interface. International Symposium on Endangered Languages in Contact: Nigeria’s Plateau Languages. Hamburg: Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg.
  2. ↑ Blench, Roger. 2004. Tarok and related languages of east-central Nigeria.
  3. ↑ Blench, Roger. 2023. The Pe language of Central Nigeria and its affinities . Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
  4. ↑ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
  5. ↑ Longtau, Selbut (1–3 September 2016). A comparative morphology of non-productive Tarok affixes and stems for suggested Proto-Tarokoid reconstruction of some lexemes (PDF). Towards Proto-Niger-Congo: Comparison and Reconstruction (2nd International Congress). Paris: Langage, Langues et Cultures d'Afrique (LLACAN).

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References

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