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Benue is a State in the North Central region of Nigeria. It has an estimated population of about 4,253,641 in the 2006 census. The state was created in 1976 and was among the seven states created at that time. The state derives its name from the Benue River initially called Ber-nor, a compound word in Tiv language which means river or lake of hippopotamus the name Ber-nor was corrupted to BENUE by colonial masters, the river is the second largest river in Nigeria after the River Niger. The state borders Nasarawa State to the North; Taraba State to the East; Kogi State to the West; Enugu State to the South-West; Ebonyi and Cross-Rivers State to the South; and has an international border with Cameroon to the South-East. It is inhabited predominantly by the Tiv, Idoma and Igede people. Minority ethnic groups in Benue are Etulo, Igbo, hausa and Jukun people etc. Its capital is Makurdi. Benue is a rich agricultural region; common crops cultivated in the state include oranges, yams, mangoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, soya bean, guinea corn, flax, sesame, rice, groundnuts and palm trees.
Tiv are a Bantu ethnic group. They constitute approximately 2.4% of Nigeria's total population, and number over 5 million individuals throughout Nigeria and Cameroon. The Tiv language is spoken by over 5 million people in Nigeria, with a few speakers in Cameroon. Most of the language's Nigerian speakers are found in Benue, Taraba, Nasarawa, Plateau, Cross River, Adamawa, Kaduna, and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. The language is a branch of Benue–Congo and ultimately of the Niger–Congo phylum. In pre-colonial times, the Fulani ethnic group referred to the Tiv as "Munchi", a term not accepted by the Tiv people.
Taraba is a state in north-eastern Nigeria, named after the Taraba River, which traverses the southern part of the state. It is known as "Nature's Gift to the Nation". Its capital is Jalingo. The state's main ethnic groups are the Fulani, Mumuye, Mambilla, Jukun, Kuteb, Karimjo Wurkun, Tiv, Yandang, Ndola, Ichen, Jenjo, Tigon, and Jibu. The northern part is mainly dominated by the Fulani, Wurkun, Mumuye and Sho. The southern part is dominated by the Jukun, Tiv, Chamba, Kuteb and Ichen. The central region is mainly occupied by the Fulani, Mambilla, Ndola, Tigon, Jibu, Wurbo, and Daka people. There are about 80 distinct ethnic groups and their languages in the state.
The Tivoid languages are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in parts of Nigeria and Cameroon. The subfamily takes its name after Tiv, the most spoken language in the group.
SardaunaLocal Government Area is located in the extreme southeast of Taraba State in Nigeria. It is synonymous with the Mambilla Plateau, which is dotted by many towns and villages. The capital of the LGA is Gembu, an ancient Mambilla settlement whose name is a corruption of "Gelmvu", the name of an ancient monarch of the area. Other ethnic groups from the mainstream Nigeria and neighbouring Cameroon Republic such as Hausa, Kanuri, Igbo, Banso, Kambu, Fulani, etc can be found in the commercial centres as business communities.
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There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The official language is English, which was the language of Colonial Nigeria. The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by the British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century – is the most common lingua franca, spoken by over 60 million people.
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The Grassfields languages are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and some parts of Taraba state, Nigeria. Better known Grassfields languages include the Eastern Grassfields languages, Bamun, Yamba, Bali, and Bafut and the Ring languages, Kom, Nso, and Oku. Almost all of these languages are closely related, sharing approximately half of their vocabulary.
Dadiya is one of the Savanna languages of northeastern Nigeria. They are found in Gombe, Adamawa & Taraba state. The Dadiya people of Gombe State are found in Balanga local government, while those in Adamawa and Taraba are found spread in Lamurde and Karim-Lamido Local government area respectively.
Nyong (Daganyonga), also known as Mubako and Bali-Kumbat, is a Leko language spoken in two well-separated enclaves in Cameroon and Nigeria. Cameroonian speakers consider themselves to be ethnically Chamba.
Vute is a Mambiloid language of Cameroon and Gabon, with a thousand speakers in Nigeria. The orthography was standardized on March 9, 1979. Noted dialect clusters are eastern, central, and Doume.
Otank (Utanga) is a Tivoid language spoken by the Utanga group of tiv people in both Nigeria and Cameroon. It is used as a second language by Obanliku speakers.
Iyive, also referred to as Uive, Yiive, Ndir, Asumbos, is a severely endangered Bantoid language spoken in Nigeria and Cameroon. The ethnic group defined by use of this language is the Ndir.
Proto-Bantu is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Bantu languages, a subgroup of the Southern Bantoid languages. It is thought to have originally been spoken in West/Central Africa in the area of what is now Cameroon. About 6,000 years ago, it split off from Proto-Southern Bantoid when the Bantu expansion began to the south and east. Two theories have been put forward about the way the languages expanded: one is that the Bantu-speaking people moved first to the Congo region and then a branch split off and moved to East Africa; the other is that the two groups split from the beginning, one moving to the Congo region, and the other to East Africa.
Lists of villages in Nigeria organised by state:
Adamawa Fulfulde is a variety of the Fula language. It is spoken mainly in Cameroon but also by significant communities residing in Nigeria, Chad, and Sudan by Fulani pastoralists across the Sahel. It is also known as Eastern Fulfulde and by various other names including Boulbe, Dzemay, Fula, Fulfulde, Mbororo, Palata, Peul etc.
The Tiv religious beliefs or Jighjigh u nan u Tiv, comprises the traditional and spiritual beliefs of the Tiv people. In the 21st century, most Tiv people are Christians, but some traditional practices are observed by some Tiv people.
References
- ↑ Tiv at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ↑ Bohannan, Laura; Bohannan, Paul (3 February 2017). The Tiv of Central Nigeria: Western Africa Part VIII. ISBN 9781315295794.
- ↑ "A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages". Oxford University Press.
- ↑ "The grammar of Tiv". Abraham, Roy Clive.
- ↑ "A dictionary of the tiv language". Abraham, Roy Clive.
- 1 2 3 4 Bohannan, Laura; Bohannan, Paul (2017-02-03). "Language". The Tiv of Central Nigeria: Western Africa. Routledge. ISBN 9781315295794.
- ↑ Blench, Roger (June 2016). "The Tivoid languages: overview and comparative wordlist" (PDF). p. 16.
- ↑ "Definition of ANGLOPHONE". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
- ↑ https://www.joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15505/CM
- ↑ "The Tivoid languages: Overview and Comparative Word List". Blench, Roger M. 2016.
- ↑ "Historicolinguistic study of convergence and divergence in the Tivoid languages phylum". University of Nigeria MA thesis. (172pp.), Alyebo, Nelson Orkaan. 2018.
- ↑ Sokpo, Rosaline M. (2016). An Autosegmental Analysis of Tiv Phonology.
- ↑ "The grammar of Tiv". Kaduna: Nigeria Political Service. 108+202pp. Abraham, Roy Clive. 1933.
- ↑ "A dictionary of the Tiv language". Abraham, Roy C. 1968 [1940?].
- R.C.Abraham, A Dictionary of the Tiv Language, Government of Nigeria 1940, republished by Gregg Press Ltd., Farnborough, Hants., England 1968. ISBN 0576116157
