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A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Bijim [Jbm] Language of Plateau and Bauchi States, Nigeria, with Mention of the Kadung [Dkg] and Tiyaa [Tyy] Languages

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A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Bijim [Jbm] Language of Plateau and Bauchi States, Nigeria, with Mention of the Kadung [Dkg] and Tiyaa [Tyy] Languages Digital Resources Journal of Language Survey Report 2021-033 A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Bijim [jbm] Language of Plateau and Bauchi States, Nigeria, with Mention of the Kadung [dkg] and Tiyaa [tyy] Languages Ken Decker, Luther Hon, Julius Dabet, Benard Abraham, Innocent Jonah A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Bijim [jbm] Language of Plateau and Bauchi States, Nigeria, with Mention of the Kadung [dkg] and Tiyaa [tyy] Languages Ken Decker, Luther Hon, Julius Dabet, Benard Abraham, Innocent Jonah SIL International® 2021 Journal of Language Survey Report 2021-033 2021 SIL International® ISSN: 2766-9327 As a peer-reviewed journal for original research articles, SIL Electronic Survey Reports (ISSN: 1559-1417) has been well-known since 1999. The SIL journal title was changed to Journal of Language Survey Reports, starting with the first issue in 2021. Fair-Use Policy: Documents published in the Journal of Language Survey Reports series are intended for scholarly research and educational use. You may make copies of these publications for research or instructional purposes (under fair use guidelines) free of charge and without further permission. Republication or commercial use of Journal of Language Survey Reports or the documents contained therein is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the copyright holder. Orphan Works Note: Data and materials collected by researchers in an era before documentation of permission was standardized may be included in this publication. SIL makes diligent efforts to identify and acknowledge sources and to obtain appropriate permissions wherever possible, acting in good faith and on the best information available at the time of publication. Series Editor Angela Kluge Managing Editor Eric Kindberg Copy Editor Eleanor J. McAlpine Compositor Bonnie Waswick Abstract This report describes a sociolinguistic survey conducted among a cluster of language varieties that have been described as Vaghat-Ya-Bijim-Legeri [bij].1 They are located in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Local Government Areas (LGA)s of Bauchi State and Mangu and Pankshin LGAs in Plateau State, Nigeria. This cluster was thought to comprise five varieties: Vaghat, Bijim, Luggere, Tiyaa, and Kwaŋ. This study finds that there are three different, but closely related languages: Bijim, Tiyaa, and Kadung: Vaghat is an ethnic name and Luggere is a Bijim village. This report focuses on the Bijim but includes information about Kadung and Tiyaa. Blench (2019) classifies this cluster of varieties as Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Plateau, Tarokoid. We estimate that the population of Bijim speakers is about 13,000. The population of Kadung speakers is about 19,000. The population of Tiyaa speakers is about 5,000. This study of the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa is part of a larger initiative to provide sociolinguistic information to development agencies, organizations, and local communities who are working collaboratively towards meeting the language development needs of the ethnolinguistic groups of Nigeria. The goals of this research included gaining a better understanding of the linguistic relationship of Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa. We were also interested in the role of Bijim and other languages in the lives of the Bijim people. With these goals in mind, this study utilizes linguistic and sociolinguistic data collected through group and individual interviews, participatory discussions, observations, and wordlist collection. We learned that the Bijim people use Bijim in the home but, in some homes, they also use Hausa with the children. Hausa is used in virtually all domains. Other languages, such as English, Ngas, Kusur- Myet, and Pyam also serve certain limited functions in the Bijim communities. Considering the indicators of vitality, language use for all three languages is best described as EGIDS level 6a – “Vigorous orality” (Lewis & Simons 2017). 1 The ISO codes have changed from Vaghat-Ya-Bijim-Legeri [bij] to Bijim [jbm], Kadung [dkg], and Tiyaa [tyy]. Contents Languages Mentioned in this Report 1 Introduction 2 Purpose and research questions 3 Previous research 4 Research methods 4.1 Group interview 4.2 Select leader interviews 4.3 Observation 4.4 Analysis of qualitative data 4.5 Wordlist collection and analysis 5 Geographic, demographic, and social description 5.1 Language and people identification 5.2 Location, settlements, and administrative division 5.3 Population 5.4 Origin of the Bijim 5.5 Other social descriptions 5.5.1 Bijim 5.5.2 Kadung 5.5.3 Tiyaa 6 Linguistic relationships 6.1 Perceptions of linguistic similarity 6.2 Classification 6.3 Phonetic inventory of Bijim-Kadung-Tiyaa 6.4 Morphology of Bijim-Luggere-Kadung-Tiyaa 6.5 Lexical similarity between Bijim-Kadung-Tiyaa 6.6 Phonological variation between Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa varieties 6.7 Discussion of analysis 7 Influence from other languages 7.1 Language contact 7.2 Multilingualism in the Bijim communities 8 Language vitality 8.1 Functions of languages in the repertoires of the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa communities 8.1.1 Bijim 8.1.2 Kadung and Tiyaa 8.2 Means of acquiring languages in the repertoires of the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa communities 8.3 Motivation for using languages in the repertoires of the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa communities 8.4 Environmental support for the maintenance of Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa 8.5 Differentiation of languages in the repertoires of the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa communities 8.6 EGIDS assessment of language use in the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa communities 8.6.1 Bijim 8.6.2 Kadung and Tiyaa 9 Summary 10 Recommendations Appendix A: Dialect Mapping Instructions and Group Sociolinguistics Questionnaire Appendix B: Church Leader Questionnaire Appendix C: School Teacher Questionnaire Appendix D: Sample Observation Schedule Appendix E: Wordlist Appendix F: Plurals Wordlists Appendix G: GPS Points for Select Villages References iv Languages Mentioned in this Report These are languages mentioned in this report, with their ISO 639-3 code. ISO 639-3 provides international standard three-letter codes that give a unique identifier for each recognized language. The Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. 2020a) is a catalogue of all the world’s languages and is published by SIL International, which is the registration authority for ISO 639-3. Most of these names are also used for the ethnic group which speak the language as their heritage language. Often the names are used in the text primarily as a reference to the ethnic group. • Ankwai, alternate name for Goemai [ank] • Berom [bom] • Bijim, formerly [bij], now [jbm] • Chala, an alternate name for Ron [cla] • English2 [eng] • Goemai [ank] • Hausa3 [hau] • Jara [jaf] • Jarawa, an alternate name for Mbat [bau] • Jere [jer] • Idoma [idu] • Igbo [ibo] • Kadung, formerly thought to be a variety of the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa cluster [bij], now [dkg] • Kusur-Myet [tdl] • Kutep [kub] • Kwanka, an alternate, pejorative, name for Kadung [dkg] • Luggere, formerly thought to be a variety of the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa cluster [bij] • Mbat [bau] • Mwaghavul [sur] • Ngas [anc] • Nigerian Pidgin English2 [pcm] • Nyalang, reported to be a variety of Ngas [anc] • Pe, an alternate spelling for Pye [pai] • Pyam [pym] • Pye [pai] • Ron [cla] • Rumada, previously unreported, may be a different language or variety of Pyam [pym] or Mwaghavul [sur] • Saya [say] • Sayawa, an alternate name for Saya [say] • Sigdi, reported to be a dialect of Saya [say] 2 In Nigeria, there is a variety of English recognized by linguists as Nigerian English and another called Nigerian Pidgin English by linguists. However, both are frequently referred to colloquially as English. We did not pursue specification in this distinction. 3 There are different dialects of Hausa, but we did not pursue specification in this distinction. v vi • Sur, a variety of Kusur-Myet [tdl] • Takkas, a variety of Mwaghavul [sur] spoken in Gotfwan • Tapshin, alternate name for Kusur-Myet [tdl] • Tarok [yer] • Tiyaa, formerly thought to be a variety of the Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa cluster [bij], now [tyy] • Vaghat, used in this report to refer to a cluster of varieties including Bijim, Kadung, and Tiyaa • Ya, an alternate name for Tiyaa [tyy] • Yangkam [bsx] • Yoruba [yor] 1 Introduction This report describes a sociolinguistic survey conducted among a cluster of language varieties that have been described as Vaghat-Ya-Bijim-Legeri [bij].4 The communities where these varieties are spoken are located in the Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Local Government Areas (LGA)s of Bauchi State and Mangu and Pankshin LGAs of Plateau State, Nigeria. This report focuses on the Bijim but also includes information about Kadung and Tiyaa. Blench (2019) classifies this cluster of varieties as Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Plateau, Tarokoid. We estimate that the population of Bijim speakers is about 13,000. The population of Kadung speakers is about 19,000. The population of Tiyaa speakers is about 5,000. These estimates are for both the speaker populations and ethnic groups. The fieldwork was conducted on December 15, 2016, April 24, September 4, and October 5, 2019, and July 17, 2020 by Luther Hon, Julius Dabet, Benard Abraham,5 Yakubu Danladi, Fittokka Gobak, Lewinan Andrew, and Innocent Jonah,6 members of the SIL Nigeria language survey team. Ken Decker served as a consultant on the survey and provided writing assistance on this report. This survey report includes linguistic, sociolinguistic, geographic, and demographic information which is used to profile the sociolinguistic environment7 of the Bijim people. This profile is used to draw conclusions about the possibilities for language planning and development. Through this research it was learned that this cluster, which was thought to comprise five varieties: Vaghat, Bijim, Luggere, Tiyaa, and Kwaŋ, is better described as being three different, but closely related languages: Bijim, Tiyaa, and Kadung. Luggere is an alternate name for the Bijim village of Kaduk. Furthermore, the term Vaghat does not refer to a language, but rather is an ethnic reference.
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