Jagham language

Ekoi
Ekoi
Ejagham
Native to	Nigeria, Cameroon
Ethnicity	Ekoi people
Native speakers	120,000 (2000)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Ekoid–Mbe Ekoid Ekoi; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Akin; Bendeghe; Northern Etung; Southern Etung; Ekwe; Akamkpa-Ejagham; Keaka; Obang; Nkim; Nkum; Ekajuk;
Writing system	Nsibidi Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	etu
Glottolog	ejag1239

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

The Ekoi are one of several peoples who use Nsibidi ideographs, and may be the ones that created them.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k	k͡p
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ	ɡ͡b
Fricative	voiceless	f	s
Fricative	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

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ʉ^[a]	u
Close-mid	e^[b]	ə	o^[b]
Open-mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open		a

^ Occurs as unrounded /ɨ/ in the eastern Ejagham dialect. Does not occur in the southern dialect.
^ ^a ^b Only occurs in the southern Ejagham dialect.

Writing System

A Jagham alphabet was developed by John R. Watters and Kathie Watters in 1981.

Western Jagham alphabet^[3]
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

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

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

^ 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

Tadadjeu, Maurice (1993). "Cameroun". In Rhonda L. Hartell (ed.). Alphabets des langues africaines. Dakar: Unesco et Société internationale de linguistique.

External links

Ejagham basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

This article about Southern Bantoid languages is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[Close_central_vowel-3] Occurs as unrounded /ɨ/ in the eastern Ejagham dialect. Does not occur in the southern dialect.

[Mid-vowels-4] Only occurs in the southern Ejagham dialect.

[e18-1] Ekoi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Watters, John R. (1981). A Phonology and Morphology of Ejagham- with notes on Dialect Variation. Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles.

[FOOTNOTETadadjeu199373-5] Tadadjeu 1993, p. 73.

[6] Blench, Roger. "Ekoid: Bantoid languages of the Nigeria-Cameroun borderland" (PDF). p. 1.

[BlenchAtlas4-7] Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.

[1]

[2]

[a]

[b]

[3]

[4]

[5]