The Jagham language, Ejagham, also known as Ekoi, is an Ekoid language of Nigeria and Cameroon spoken by the Ekoi people. The E- in Ejagham represents the class prefix for "language", analogous to the Bantu ki- in KiSwahili
| Ekoi | |
|---|---|
| Ejagham | |
| Native to | Nigeria, Cameroon |
| Ethnicity | Ekoi people |
Native speakers | 120,000 (2000)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Nsibidi Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | etu |
| Glottolog | ejag1239 |
The Ekoi are one of several peoples who use Nsibidi ideographs, and may be the ones that created them.
Phonology edit
Consonants edit
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal |
Velar | Labio- velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | k͡p |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ɡ͡b | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | |||
| voiced | (β) | (ɣ) | ||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||
- Stop sounds /b, ɡ/ are lenited to fricatives [β, ɣ] when in intervocalic positions.
- Velar sounds [k, ɡ; (ɣ)] can be heard as uvular [q, (ʁ)] when in syllable-final position.[2]
Vowels edit
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ʉ[a] | u |
| Close-mid | e[b] | ə | o[b] |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Writing System edit
A Jagham alphabet was developed by John R. Watters and Kathie Watters in 1981.
| a | b | bh | ch | d | e | ə | f | g | gb | gh | i | j | k | kp | m | n | ny | ŋ | o | p | r | s | t | u | ʉ | w | y |
Dialects edit
Ekoi is dialectally diverse. The dialects of Ejagham are divided into Western and Eastern groups:
- Western varieties include Bendeghe, Northern and Southern Etung, Ekwe and Akamkpa-Ejagham;
- Eastern varieties include Keaka and Obang.[4]
Blench (2019) also lists Ekin as an Ejagham dialect.[5]
Morphology edit
Ekoi has the following noun classes, listed here with their Bantu equivalents. Watters (1981) says there are fewer than in Bantu because of mergers (class 4 into 3, 7 into 6, etc.), though Blench notes that there is no reason to think that the common ancestral language had as many noun classes as proto-Bantu.
| Noun class | Prefix | Concord |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | N- | w, ɲ |
| 2 | a- | b |
| 3 | N- | m |
| 5 | ɛ- | j |
| 6 | a- | m |
| 8 | bi- | b |
| 9 | N- | j, ɲ |
| 14 | ɔ- | b |
| 19 | i- | f |
('N' stands for a homorganic nasal. 'j' is "y".)
References edit
- ^ Ekoi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Watters, John R. (1981). A Phonology and Morphology of Ejagham- with notes on Dialect Variation. Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles.
- ^ Tadadjeu 1993, p. 73.
- ^ Blench, Roger. "Ekoid: Bantoid languages of the Nigeria-Cameroun borderland" (PDF). p. 1.
- ^ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
Works cited edit
- Tadadjeu, Maurice (1993). "Cameroun". In Rhonda L. Hartell (ed.). Alphabets des langues africaines. Dakar: Unesco et Société internationale de linguistique.
External links edit
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