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A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Jakattoe [Jrt] Language of Plateau State, Nigeria, with Reference to Jorto

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A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Jakattoe [Jrt] Language of Plateau State, Nigeria, with Reference to Jorto DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2020-011 A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Jakattoe [jrt] Language of Plateau State, Nigeria, with Reference to Jorto Ken Decker, Adedamola Aregbesola, Fittokka Gobak, John Muniru, John Sacson, Christina Riepe, Samuel Eju A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Jakattoe [jrt] Language of Plateau State, Nigeria, with Reference to Jorto Ken Decker, Adedamola Aregbesola, Fittokka Gobak, John Muniru, John Sacson, Christina Riepe, Samuel Eju SIL International® 2020 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2020-011, August 2020 © 2020 SIL International® All rights reserved 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. Abstract This report describes a sociolinguistic survey conducted among the Jakattoe-speaking communities in the town of Dokan Tofa in Shendam Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State, in central Nigeria. Jakattoe [jrt] is an A.3 language within the West Chadic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (Eberhard et al. 2020a). We estimate the population of Jakattoe speakers to be 500, but the ethnic group may be larger. The goals of this research included gaining a better understanding of the role of Jakattoe and other languages in the lives of the Jakattoe people. Our data indicate that Jakattoe is spoken by a relatively small population living amidst populations of speakers of much larger language groups. Jakattoe language use is assessed as EGIDS level 6b and seems threatened. Parents are not intentionally using Jakattoe with their children and some children are not fluent in speaking the language. The speakers of Jakattoe appear to be shifting to one of the various languages (mainly Hausa or Goemai) used in most domains in the community. Information was also collected on the so-called Jorto language, concluding that it is the same language as Jakattoe. This study of Jakattoe is part of a larger initiative to provide baseline sociolinguistic information to mission, development agencies, and local communities who are working collaboratively towards meeting the language development needs of the ethnolinguistic groups of Nigeria. The purpose is to have a more realistic understanding of language development needs on a national scale. Linguistic and sociolinguistic data were collected using group and individual interviews, participatory discussions, observations, and wordlist collection. Contents Languages in this Report 1 Introduction 2 Purpose and research questions 3 Previous research on Jorto / Chakato / Jakato / Jakattoe 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 Jakattoe 5.5 Other social descriptions 5.5.1 Occupations 5.5.2 Education 5.5.3 Religions 5.5.4 Intermarriage 6 Linguistic relationships 6.1 Classification 6.2 Phonology 6.3 Comparison with Miship and Goemai 6.4 Discussion of analysis 7 Influence from other languages 7.1 Language contact 7.2 Multilingualism 8 Language vitality 8.1 Functions of languages in the repertoire of the Jakattoe 8.2 Means of acquiring languages in the repertoire of the Jakattoe 8.3 Motivation for using languages in the repertoire of the Jakattoe 8.4 Environmental support for the maintenance of Jakattoe 8.5 Differentiation of languages in the repertoire of the Jakattoe 8.6 EGIDS assessment for Jakattoe 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: Wordlists Appendix F: Jakattoe Plurals References iii Languages in this Report Languages mentioned in this report with ISO 639-3 codes • Arabic [arb] • Bəlnəŋ (currently no ISO 639-3 code) • Berom [bom] • Cakfem-Mushere [cky] • Chakato,1 formerly considered an alternate name for Jakattoe [jrt] • Doemak, reported to be one of the Pan cluster varieties associated with Kofyar [kwl] • English2 [eng] • Fulfulde [fuv] • Goemai [ank] • Hausa3 [hau] • Igbo [ibo] • Jakattoe1 [jrt] • Jorto,1 alternate name for Jakattoe [jrt] • Koenoem [kcs] • Kofyar [kwl] • Mernyang, reported to be a dialect of Kofyar [kwl] • Miship [mjs] • Montol,4 alternate name for Tehl [mtl] • Mwaghavul [sur] • Ngas [anc] • Nigerian Pidgin English2 [pcm] • Pan cluster, a number of varieties that have been associated with the name Kofyar [kwl] • Piapung5 [pcw] • Pyapun,5 alternate name for Piapung [pcw] • Tal [tal] • Tarok [yer] • Teel,4 alternate name for Tehl [mtl] • Tiv [tiv] • Yoruba [yor] • Ywom [gek] 1 See section 3 for an explanation of the names Chakato, Jakattoe, and Jorto. 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. 4 Current language catalogues, such as the Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. 2020a), refer to the language as Montol; Tehl and Teel are given as alternate names. The name Montol, however, is considered a derogatory name. It was found during Pye survey (Decker et al. 2020b) that Tehl is the preferred name, which will be used through this report. 5 Current language catalogues, such as the Glottolog 4.1 (Hammarström et al. 2019), refer to the language as Pyapun It was found during Piapung survey (Decker et al. 2020a) that “Piapung” is the preferred spelling for the name, which will be used throughout this report. iv 1 Introduction This report describes a sociolinguistic survey conducted among the Jakattoe-speaking community of Dokan Tofa, in the Shendam Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State, in central Nigeria. Jakattoe [jrt] is an A.3 language within the West Chadic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (Eberhard et al. 2020a). This report also addresses confusion over the relationship between the Chakato (Blench 2016a) and Jorto languages. The fieldwork was conducted on the 24th of April 2019 by Fittokka Gobak, John Muniru, Adedamola Aregbesola,6 John Sacson, Christina Riepe, and Samuel Eju,7 members of the SIL Nigeria language survey team. Ken Decker served as a consultant on the survey and provided writing assistance on this report. We collected information in the village of Dokan Tofa. This survey report includes linguistic, sociolinguistic, geographic, and demographic information which we use to profile the sociolinguistic environment8 of the Jakattoe people. This profile is used to draw conclusions about the possibilities for language planning and development. Through this research we learned that the Jakattoe are a small language group living in one village. We concur with Blench’s (2017:4) estimate of 500 speakers. While Jakattoe children still learn their language as a first language, they also learn English, Hausa, and other languages at the same time. Due to these facts, in terms of language vitality, we consider that the language is threatened, EGIDS level 6b. Jakattoe has recently been classified as most closely related to the Pan cluster varieties associated with the name of Kofyar (Blench 2019). However, the people identify with the Goemai and sometimes identify themselves as Goemai. They expressed more interest in literacy in Goemai than in Jakattoe. Dokan Tofa is a very multilingual community with speakers of Jakattoe, Goemai, Mernyang, Miship, Tal, Koenoem, Berom, Tarok, Ngas, and Mwaghavul living together. In addition, Hausa is the main language of wider communication and English, which is learned in school and used in churches, is also considered prestigious. Any of several languages may be used in any domain and no domain is reserved for Jakattoe. There has been confusion over the identity of Jakattoe, also referred to by Blench as Chakato (2016a) or Jakato (2019), and a language called Jorto (Ames 1934). It appears that they are the same language and that the name Jorto was used by the Goemai for the Jakattoe. In this report, the survey purpose and research questions are described in section 2. Background research is discussed in section 3. The methods used in our research are explained in section 4. In section 5 we described some of the geographic, social, and cultural factors that may influence language use. In section 6 we describe linguistic data that was collected and how it was analysed, and we draw conclusions relevant to answering the research question about the language environment of the heritage language. In section 7 we look at the multilingual environment and multilingual proficiency. Finally, in section 8 we discuss factors affecting language vitality. In section 9 we summarize what we have described in sections 5–8 and how it answers our research questions presented in section 2. This study is part of a larger initiative to provide baseline sociolinguistic information to mission and development agencies who are working collaboratively towards meeting the language development needs of the ethnolinguistic
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