Vadi language

Not to be confused with Vadi language (Chadic).

Vadi
tsɨVaɗi
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Niger State
Ethnicity	Kambari
Native speakers	130,000 (2011) [1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Benue–Congo Kainji Kambari Vadi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tvd Tsuvadi
Glottolog	tsuv1239
ELP	Tsuvadi

Vaɗi
People	Avaɗi
Language	Tsɨvaɗi

Gaɗi
People	Agaɗi
Language	Tsɨgaɗi

The Vadi language, Tsuvadi, is a Kainji language of Nigeria spoken by the Kambari people.

Kakihum (or Gadi, Gaɗi),^{[ citation needed ]} is a dialect.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar			Glottal
			plain	pal.		plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.	lab.
Nasal		m	n	nʲ	(ɲ)	(ŋ)
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	kʲ	kʷ	ʔ	ʔʲ	ʔʷ
	voiced	b	d			ɡ	ɡʲ	ɡʷ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s		t͡ʃ
	voiced		d͡z		d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	s		ʃ				h	hʲ	hʷ
	voiced	v	z		ʒ
Tap/Trill			ɾ ~ r	ɾʲ
Approximant			l	lʲ	j			w

• /f/ only rarely occurs.
• /ɾ/ can be heard as either a tap [ɾ] or a trill [r] in free variation.
• /n/ as a homorganic nasal, can be heard as palatal [ɲ] when preceding a palatal or post-alveolar consonant, and as velar [ŋ] when preceding a velar or glottal consonant.
• /nʲ/ may also be heard as a palatal nasal [ɲ]. ^[2]

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
High	i iː	ĩ ĩː	(ɨ ɨː)	(ɨ̃ ɨ̃ː)	u uː	ũ ũː
High-mid					o oː	õ õː
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː	ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː			ɔ ɔː	ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː
Low			a aː	ã ãː

• The status of [ɨ] is only heard as an alternate of sounds /i, u/ within speech, as well as its lengthened and nasalized equivalents.
• The sounds of /ɛ, ɛ̃, ɛː, ɛ̃ː/ may be heard as more close-mid [e, ẽ, eː, ẽː] across dialects. ^[3]

References

1. Vadi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Buttacavoli, Ryan (2022). A Phonological Sketch of the Tsuvaɗi Language with a Focus on the Tsudugu Dialect. SIL Nigeria.
3. Blench, Roger (2007). A sketch of the phonology and an extended wordlist of TsuVaɗi, a Kambari language of Western Nigeria.