Jarawa (also known as Jar, Jara, or in Hausa: Jaranci) is the most populous of the Bantu languages of northern Nigeria. It is a dialect cluster consisting of many varieties.
| Jarawa | |
|---|---|
| Region | northern Nigeria, near Bauchi |
Native speakers | 250,000 (dialects with ISO codes) (2006–2011)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:jjr – Zhár (Bankal)dbm – Zugur (Duguri)bau – Mbat (Bada)jgk – Gwak (Gingwak) |
| Glottolog | jara1263 |
Phonology
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | (ʔ) | |
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | k͡x | ||||
| voiced | d͡ʒ | ɡ͡ɣ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ||
| voiced | (β) | z | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Rhotic | r | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
- /β/ only appears as a marginal phoneme.
- [ʔ] only appears in non-word-initial syllables.
- Sounds /n, t, l, r/ can be heard as palatal or retroflex [ɲ, ʈ, ɭ, ɽ] in word-final position. /k/ can also be heard as uvular [q] in the same position, and may also alternate with [ʁ] or [ɢ].
- Sounds /k͡x, ɡ͡ɣ/ can be heard as fricatives [x, ɣ] or [χ, ʁ] in intervocalic position.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Mid | (ɛ) | ə | (ɔ) |
| Open | a |
- Sounds /ɛ, ɔ/ only appear after glides.
Dialects
editJarawa dialects are:
- Zhár (Bankal)
- Zugur (Duguri)
- Gwak (Gingwak)
- Ndaŋshi
- Dòòrì
- Mbat (Bada)
- Mùùn
- Kantana
- Dàmùl
Kantana may be a distinct language.
Blench (2019) lists these varieties as dialects of Jar (Jarawa).[3]
References
edit- ^ Zhár (Bankal) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Zugur (Duguri) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Mbat (Bada) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Gwak (Gingwak) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ a b Green, Christopher R. (2020). Harmony and disharmony in Mbat (Jarawan Bantu) verbs. In Linguistique et Langues Africaines 6: Syracuse University. pp. 43–72.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
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