![A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Jakattoe [Jrt] Language of Plateau State, Nigeria, with Reference to Jorto](http://data.docslib.org/img/f787b31aa6c7b31f0f6a8cde992b0c69-1.webp)
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 groups of Nigeria. Collaborating organizations include SIL Nigeria, the Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Community Development Associations (CONAECDA), Luke Initiative for Scripture Translation (LIST), Lutheran Bible Translators (LBT), Calvary Ministries (CAPRO), and the Kay Williams Educational Foundation (KWEF).
6 Mr. Aregbesola worked with the team as part of his post-graduate services through the National Youth Services Corps. We are grateful for his valuable contribution to the research. 7 We wish to thank CAPRO for the secondment of Mr. Eju to the survey team, and for his valuable contribution to the research. 8 The term ‘environment’ is used throughout this report to generally refer to any factors that are relevant to decision- making for language planning and development. However, in section 8 it more specifically refers to government policies that either support or oppose minority language development.
1 2
2 Purpose and research questions
The purpose of this study is to gather relevant sociolinguistic information for those who are working towards meeting the language development9 needs of minority ethnolinguistic groups. There are two major concerns when addressing language development needs, including the environment for heritage language development and the meeting of multilingual needs. The environment we are describing here includes the amount of linguistic variation within the language community, the attitudes towards linguistic and social variation within the community, and the attitudes towards language maintenance and shift. The long-term usefulness of heritage language development depends on the identification of an acceptable central variety10 to develop. The acceptability often depends on the perceptions and attitudes held by the people towards the social and linguistic variation. It also depends on a good linguistic analysis. In general, it is not possible to develop an alphabetic orthography that attempts to unite too much variation. Minority language communities need multilingual proficiency, and they need people who can access information available in languages of wider communication.11 The global predominance of languages of wider communication threatens the survival of minority languages, but multilingualism also offers many opportunities to those with proficiency. It is neither possible nor desirable to preserve monolingualism in a minority language. And the reality in most minority language communities is that they already speak a repertoire of languages. The challenge is to maintain heritage language use while addressing the communities’ needs to improve their proficiencies in other languages. To address these realities, we investigated language variation, the repertoire of languages, attitudes towards other languages, literacy, and the vitality of Jakattoe. We also discussed the potential for development of Jakattoe. The following research questions were formulated to help focus the data collection and analysis: • What do the people call their language and its speakers? • What evidence of variation between Jakattoe lects can be found? • How is Jakattoe linguistically related to other languages, particularly Jorto, Goemai, and Miship? • Which languages are used regularly within the Jakattoe community? • Which languages are used for reading and writing and what is the literacy rate? • What are the social relationships of the various language communities in and around the Jakattoe? • What variation in language use patterns is found in the Jakattoe community? • What impact has multilingualism had on the vitality of the Jakattoe language?
3 Previous research on Jorto / Chakato / Jakato / Jakattoe
There is a fair bit of confusion behind the attestation of Jakattoe, Jakato, Chakato, and/or Jorto. According to Blench (2016a:23, 2017:3), Ames (1934:198) was the first to report a language called Jorto. Ames said the language was spoken by about 5,000 people. Blench (2017:3) cites CAPRO (2009)12 as stating that the Jorto live in the village of Doemwai,13 located in what is now the Pankshin LGA, Plateau State, Nigeria. In April 2016, Blench (2017:3) went to Doemwai looking for Jorto. He found that, “Dumwai proved to be a Miship-speaking village and its residents knew nothing about the Jorto.”
9 For more on the goals and process of language development, see Cooper (1989), and Spolsky (2004 and 2009). 10 For more on the factors involved in the identification of a central variety see Sanders (1986) and Boone (2012). 11 For more on language vitality and multilingualism see Lewis and Simons (2017). 12 Blench does not include a citation in his reference section for CAPRO (2009), so we do not know if this is a typo indicating the 2004 volume or if it refers to some other publication that we do not know about. 13 Blench and earlier reports used the spelling “Dumwai” for this village, but we found during this survey that “Doemwai” is a more appropriate spelling of the name. In many languages in the area, the [ə] sound is written as oe. 3
However, in the village of Dokan Tofa about 30 kilometers (20 miles) to the east southeast of Doemwai, he found a previously unreported language that he called Chakato. In a more recent paper, Blench (2019:5) revisits the information presented in his presentation given at Leiden (2016a) and revises the name to Jakato. Blench (2016a:23, 2017:3, 2019:5) questions whether Jakato/Chakato was Jorto but by a different name. He points out several problems with this hypothesis: they were in a different village location, their origin story was different from that reported by Ames (1934:198), and there were only about 500 Jakato/Chakato speakers—rather than 5,000 reported by Ames. We believe that Jorto and Jakattoe are the same language. Regarding Blench’s questioning of this identification, we do not find any contradictory information. Ames (1934:198) specifically says that the ancestor of the Jorto founded Dokan Tofa after leaving Doemwai. There is no explanation as to why CAPRO (2004) reported the people as still living in Doemwai. Part of the origin story related by Ames (1934:24) states that Jorto came from a group who had at one time resided at Garram. We were told this same history. As for the population size, tribal groups are notorious for giving inaccurate population figures. We were given a population estimate of 7,000 speakers, and they told us of other villages in the district where Jakattoe is supposedly spoken. When we went to those villages, there were no Jakattoe speakers there. So, it is probable that the population figures given to Ames and us included speakers of other languages that live in the area. Blench’s population estimate may have been lower because he was the one making the estimation based on observation. During our survey, we visited Dokan Tofa where the people identified their language as Jakattoe, pronounced as /ʤakato/. They told us that Jorto is a name used by the Goemai for them. We also asked Miship speakers if they had heard of Jorto and they said they did not know of any group by that name, but they do know of the Jakattoe. Interestingly, the Global Recordings Network website (Jakatoe n.d.) has an entry for “Jakatoe” and lists “Jorto” as the name of the people who speak “Jakatoe.” Other than Ames’ 1934 report on Jorto and Blench’s 2016 visit to Dokan Tofa (2016a, 2017, 2019), we know of no other previous data collection on this language. Jorto has been included in several publications discussing the classification of West Chadic languages, but these are only based on Ames (1934). See section 6.1 for more on the classification confusion of Jorto and Jakattoe.
4 Research methods
Our methods of data collection consisted of the following tools: group and individual interviews, dialect mapping, observation, and wordlist collection. The data collected with these tools were compared to ensure an accurate analysis of the data. (See Appendices A, B, and C for samples of the questionnaires, Appendix D for a sample observation schedule, and Appendix E for the wordlists.)
4.1 Group interview
We conducted a group interview in Dokan Tofa. We first spoke to a community leader to explain our purpose and to obtain permission to gather information from the people. The community leader invited a group of people to attend a group meeting. He specifically asked several community leaders to be involved and a group of thirteen people of various age categories ranging from 35 years and above participated in the meeting. The discussion was conducted in Hausa. Using the Group Interview Questionnaire (see Appendix A for a sample), we asked the group about their community’s: • population • linguistic variation in their language • literacy and access to literature • contact patterns • use of Jakattoe and other languages • potential for language development project support 4
Responses given to our questions were mostly a consensus of the group. Information from the group interview is discussed in sections 5, 7, and 8. Working with these same groups we also used a tool called “Dialect Mapping.” This tool is designed as a participatory activity which engages community members in the research (Hasselbring 2008). This participatory activity focuses the group’s discussion on the geographic distribution of the language and interaction with neighbouring language groups (see Appendix A for more details). We made use of visual aids—papers, markers, pictures, drawings, strings, etc.—to help the groups think and talk through: • where their language is spoken • neighboring languages • perceived levels of comprehension in neighboring languages and languages of wider communication. Information from the dialect mapping is discussed in sections 5, 7, and 8.
4.2 Select leader interviews
In addition to the group interview, we also interviewed a church leader and a schoolteacher in the village. The church leader was the Chairman of the Catholic Church’s men’s fellowship. The interview provided information about the religious affiliations in the community, patterns of language use in church, the opinions of church authorities on scripture accessibility, and the perceived benefit of vernacular scripture translations (see Appendix B for a questionnaire sample). We also interviewed a schoolteacher from the Roman Catholic Mission Primary School in Dokan Tofa. This interview provided information regarding the number of staff and their roles, the number of children and their age ranges, the language groups they come from, and language use and attitudes (see Appendix C for a questionnaire sample). Information from these interviews is discussed in sections 5, 7, and 8.
4.3 Observation
As we observed language use in Dokan Tofa we noted how the choice of language differed depending on factors including: the age category of the speaker and listener, the time, location, and topic of discussion. We also took note of the current state of development projects such as schools, roads, and health clinics in each community. We recorded our observations in a notebook and used the observed information to fill in an observation schedule (see a sample of the observation schedule in Appendix D). The reader should understand that in a one-day survey the number of documented observations is relatively small, 29 in this case. However, these observations are useful to either confirm or contradict the reported information. Interviews with teachers were conducted in English. Information from observations is distributed in sections 5, 7, and 8.
4.4 Analysis of qualitative data
Since the data we gather is so limited, we can employ a simple “pencil and paper” method of analysis. We list out the major categories of information we are interested in: names, locations, population, physical infrastructure, occupations, cultural insights, intermarriage, religions, education, literacy, perceived dialectal differences, domains of heritage language use, language use in religious practices, other-language contact, language use with other language groups, domains of other-language use, proficiency in other languages, interest in language development, and attitudes towards other dialect and language groups. Next, we go through the interview and observation forms and sort the information to relevant categories. There are many ways by which we consider different data. When there are differences in quantifications, for example in population estimates, we simply give the range. When there are differences in non-linguistic descriptions, for instance the ease of access to an area, we may need to refer to the surveyor’s memories. We also triangulate information, for example, correlating if they said they 5 could speak Hausa, if we observed them speaking Hausa, and if a team member engaged them in a conversation in Hausa. For a language like English, which in this part of Nigeria is only acquired through education, we will also consider how much education the person has or how long schools have been available in the village in order to assess the possibility of higher proficiency. For linguistic similarity we compare what the people say about the similarities or differences, their perceptions of levels of comprehension, and information learned from wordlist analysis (see section 4.5). There is simply not enough data to quantify the responses. We recognize that much of the information is anecdotal, but we are looking for inconsistencies. If there are no inconsistencies, then we consider that we may be gaining accurate answers to our research questions. Since the surveys are so brief, sometimes there are inconsistencies that cannot be resolved without making a phone call or taking another trip back to the area. Or they may not be resolved.
4.5 Wordlist collection and analysis
A phonostatistical comparison of wordlists collected in different locations is one method of measuring the similarity between the speech in these locations. Communities with speech varieties that have higher lexical similarity (more words in common) have a greater probability of having higher levels of comprehension. SIL Nigeria uses the 70% threshold as a standard criterion for using phonostatistics to differentiate languages from dialects (Bergman 1989:8.1.5–8.1.6). Lexical similarity above 70% typically corresponds with acceptable levels of comprehension between the compared varieties. These may be considered closely related dialects. Lexical similarity below 70% corresponds with inadequate comprehension between the compared varieties. These are typically considered different languages. However, sociolinguistic factors need to be considered also. We used the SIL Nigeria standard wordlist of 348 items for our elicitation in Dokan Tofa. We elicited the list of 348 words from two people who were recommended by the chief as being good speakers of Jakattoe and having a relatively good knowledge of English. The language helpers were males, 45 and 52 years of age. They were both from Dokan Tofa and the parents of each were speakers of the language. Due to confusion on the history and linguistic relationships of Jakattoe we made a comparison of the Jakattoe wordlist with wordlists from Miship and Goemai. The Miship wordlist was collected in Kapil (Chip) village in Pankshin LGA. The so-called Longmaar dialect spoken in Kapil is said to be the most culturally central variety of Miship. Our Miship language helpers were two men about 41 and 60 years old. The Goemai wordlist was collected in Gwalong village, Shendam LGA, from two men 38 and 50 years old. Wordlists were handwritten on a printed wordlist form using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). We elicited both singular and plural forms (where applicable) for nouns. (The Jakattoe plural forms of nouns are in Appendix F.) Verbs were elicited in the infinitive form. Adjectives, prepositions and conjunctions were also elicited both in isolation and with an example noun. For documentation purposes, audio recordings were made using a ZOOM Handy Recorder H2 recording device. In addition, a smartphone was used to make a video recording of the recorded words. See Appendices E and F for the wordlists. These wordlists were then compared using the WordSurv 7 wordlist analysis program (White & Colgan 2012). The primary method is to compare the phonetic pronunciation of words to determine a phonostatistical comparison. Our intention is to identify the potential for comprehension between the languages. Our method does not attempt to identify cognates. A similarity comparison is calculated using a variation of the algorithm described by Blair (1990:31–33). This method is like that used by Gooskens et al. (2008). Despite attempts by Blair to create an unambiguous way to compare words, there are still uncertainties when deciding if two words are similar enough to be counted as similar. Thus, we calculate one comparison in which we include all marginal similarities, and another calculation that excludes all marginal similarities. In this way, we arrive at a range of possible lexical similarity. We believe this gives a more realistic prediction of possible comprehension. 6
5 Geographic, demographic, and social description
In this section we provide a brief description of some geographic, demographic, and social patterns that influence the environment in which the language is spoken. In some cases, these may have an influence on language use patterns and language vitality.
5.1 Language and people identification
As described in section 3, the people we spoke with said that the name of their language is Jakattoe, pronounced as [ʤǽkɜ́tō]. They said that they prefer the spelling “Jakattoe.” In respect of their preference we use this spelling throughout this report. The interviewees told us that the name Jakattoe means “punish before killing.” We were told that the name Jorto is a name that the Goemai use for them.
5.2 Location, settlements, and administrative division
Jakattoe is spoken in one community called Dokan Tofa, in the Dokan Tofa District, of Shendam LGA, Plateau State. It is located at latitude 9.065°, longitude 9.361° on the Shendam-Panyam Road, at the junction of a road that leads to Dokan Kasuwa and Doemwai. Map 1. Location of Dokan Tofa village and neighboring language communities14
Source of roads: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/9.0338/9.3113. CC BY-SA 2.0. Accessed Dec. 20, 2019.
14 Towns, neighboring communities, and location of the Dokan Tofa have been added by the authors. They do not represent official boundaries or locations. 7
There is confusion with the location of Dokan Tofa on Google Earth. Dokan Kasuwa located at latitude 9.09°, longitude 9.32° is mistakenly labelled as Dokan Tofa (Google Earth 2019). Mernyang is spoken in Dokan Kasuwa. See map 1 for the location of Dokan Tofa where Jakattoe is spoken. The location of Dokan Tofa in the Shendam LGA is important because the dominant language in the LGA is Goemai and this has influenced certain aspects of Jakattoe identity, language use, and language attitudes. This will be further discussed in sections 6, 7, and 8. During the group interview the people were asked about other villages where their language is spoken. They listed the names of other villages in the district. We have checked and confirmed that these other villages are inhabited by speakers of other languages. The interviewees said that there are also Jakattoe speakers who live in Jos, Pankshin, Shendam, Mikang, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, and Lagos. These are people who have moved away looking for employment or education.
5.3 Population
As with all the other information about Jakattoe, there is confusion on the population. Ames (1934:198) said there were about 5,000 Jorto speakers. Blench (2017:4) reported fewer than 500 speakers. The Global Recording Network (GRN) website (Jakatoe n.d.) gives the population as 4,876. The people we interviewed estimated the population of Jakattoe speakers to be about 7,000. We assume that that number includes speakers of other languages in the neighboring area. Possibly the difference in population size reported to Ames, Blench, and this current survey could be the result of different perspectives on who to include. Most certainly, the population estimation we were given included speakers of other languages found in Dokan Tofa District, see sections 3 and 5.2. Several websites and other sources have listed extremely inaccurate estimations of the population for Jakattoe (which they referred to as Jorto), but it is doubtful that these are based on actual fieldwork. The 15th edition of the Ethnologue (Gordon 2005) included a population estimate of 17,284 and gave a year 2000 citation. The current editor was unable to identify where this figure came from. As of May 2019, the Joshua Project website (Jorto in Nigeria n.d.a) lists the population of Jorto as 30,000 and the peoplegroups.org website (Jorto in Nigeria n.d.b) lists 28,000 speakers. These figures may have been produced by a computer algorithm estimating the growth from the 2005 Ethnologue figure. They are most certainly too large. Blench’s (2017:4) estimate of 500 speakers is probably very close to accurate.
5.4 Origin of the Jakattoe
The people we spoke with said that they trace their origin from Yemen, to Maiduguri, to Garram, to Dangmet, to Doemwai, and finally to their present location in Dokan Tofa District. This is a typical migration story given by many groups in this region of Nigeria. They said that they consider Doemwai to be a sacred place because that is where their forefathers lived. Doemwai was their former place of residence and they still hold their cultural festivals there. They said that an ancestor named Fomter settled the Jakattoe people in Dokan Tofa. CAPRO (2004), citing Netting (1968:41–42), reported that “Jorto is a branch of Miship, and the traditional ancestor, Fonter [sic], left Miship and founded the town of Dumwai, between Miship and the present Dokan Tofa.” According to CAPRO, the Jakattoe are said to have come down from the Garram Valley, which is about 20 km (12 miles) to the east. This agrees with what we were told.
5.5 Other social descriptions
In this section we give a brief description of social categories: occupations, education, literacy, religions, and intermarriage. These are relevant categories in a sociolinguistic study because they can be directly correlated to language use patterns. 8
5.5.1 Occupations
Traditional occupations like farming tend to support the maintenance of a heritage language (Gal 1979). While mining, logging, and trading can hinder language maintenance by creating more contact with other language groups (Headland 2004). The primary occupation of the Jakattoe is farming. Millet is their primary crop along with rice, beans, guinea-corn, and yam. Some are entrepreneurs and some work with the government in unofficial capacities. They farm alongside speakers of multiple languages. When marketing produce or products or purchasing in marketplaces, people need at least a limited proficiency in the languages of the other buyers and sellers. Speakers of Mernyang, Igbo, Tiv, Koenoem, Miship, Goemai, and Yoruba attend their markets. The Jakattoe hold no reservations towards any groups attending their markets or farming with them.
5.5.2 Education
Education influences language use choices and may compete with the language goals of parents and the community. Education is also a pathway to better socio-economic opportunities and parents may desire to prepare their children for school by using the school language in the home. The Jakattoe children attend schools with children from different language groups: Goemai, Koenoem, Miship, Hausa, Fulfulde, Tal, Ngas, Mwaghavul, and Mernyang. Although the teachers use English to teach and their textbooks are in English, the major language used by teachers with families outside school is Hausa. But they are also able to use English and Jakattoe. The primary school has an attendance of 376 with 13 teachers. The children are discouraged from using the local languages in school so as to be able to learn and understand English better. The children use English and Hausa on the playground among themselves. The schoolteacher we interviewed said that he would prefer to teach in English, but if he were to teach in any local language, it would be in Hausa. He explained that there are many language groups attending the school, and Hausa would be the best for overall understanding. Literacy is a requirement for survival in the modern world, regardless of how remotely and isolated some people may live. Therefore, literacy and access to literature, including on the internet, can be a strong motivation for learning another language. Literature that is available in the town is written in either English or Hausa. The literature includes Christian Bibles, novels, magazines, and textbooks used by primary and secondary schools’ students. Muslims have copies of the Quran in Arabic. The Muslims in Dokan Tofa might influence language choice since they most likely prefer to use Hausa.
5.5.3 Religions
Religions can either support or hinder language maintenance depending on the policies of the institution. Traditional religions may support language maintenance since they would tend to hold on to traditional patterns. In the Christian churches, services are attended by speakers of neighboring and immigrant language groups. The interviewees estimated that 70% of the population are Christians. A further 25% are Muslims and 5% are adherents of traditional African religions. The church denominations in the area include the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), the Roman Catholic Church, and the Baptist Church.
5.5.4 Intermarriage
Intermarriage can influence language choices in several ways. A mother from another language group may teach her children both languages. A husband and wife may choose a third language, a language of wider communication, rather than the heritage language of either spouse. Furthermore, if intermarriage is infrequent, it will probably have little impact on language use in the community. But if intermarriage is a common practice, it can influence language use choices throughout the community. If the spouse who marries into the language group learns the local language, it may be an indication of the vitality of that language. An unwillingness to marry from a certain language group may be an indication of negative attitudes towards that language. The Jakattoe intermarry mostly with speakers of Miship, 9
Goemai, Koenoem, Mernyang, Tal, and Ngas. Since the Jakattoe claim to have proficiency in all these languages, in the homes of these inter-tribal marriages they may use any of the languages and have comprehension. Unfortunately, we were unable to determine how typical intermarriage is these days. This would give more of an indication as to the potential impact of this kind of contact with other language groups.
6 Linguistic relationships
As discussed at the beginning of section 2, one purpose of this research is to gather data that will help make decisions about language planning and development. One environmental factor for language development is the amount of linguistic variation in the spoken varieties. Much of this survey is based on the reported perceptions of members of the speech community. Often people will make vague comments describing the similarities of different varieties. They may also have non-linguistic motivations for their assessment of similarities or differences. For good language planning and development both the linguistic and non-linguistic assessments need to be considered. Since Jakattoe is only spoken in one community, there probably is no significant amount of variation, none was reported. However, there has been a question about the relationship of Jakattoe to Miship or Goemai to better determine classification of the language. In section 6.1 we will discuss the linguistic classifications that have been proposed. This helps us to identify the scope of varieties that should be considered in our investigation of comprehension between varieties. In section 6.2 we present a preliminary phonology of Jakattoe that may help refine the classification of Jakattoe. This is considered preliminary because a true phonology requires the detailed analysis of a trained phonologist, which we have not done. In section 6.3 we provide a comparison of Jakattoe with Miship and Goemai. In section 6.4 we provide a discussion and summary of the findings in sections 6.1–6.3.
6.1 Classification
For nearly a century, the classification of Jakattoe, formerly known as Jorto, was based solely on Ames (1934). It was classified as an Afro-Asiatic, Chadic, West, A, A.3, Angas Proper, 1 language and linguists have continued to present this classification without substantiation. (For example, see Hoffmann 1975, Hansford et al. 1976, Newman 2010, Jungraithmayr 1981, Wente-Lukas 1985, and Haruna 2005.) The accepted grouping of A.3 languages was divided into two branches, Angas Proper and Ywom. Angas Proper was divided into groups 1 and 2, presented in figure 1. In this classification Jakattoe was recognized as being more closely related to Ngas, Cakfem-Mushere, Kofyar, Miship, and Mwaghavul. This arrangement made sense in that Jakattoe is surrounded by those languages and historically it was reported that the Jakattoe had come from Miship. The Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. 2020a) has adopted this classification and grouping of West Chadic A.3 languages. 10
A.3
Angas Proper Ywom
1 2 Ngas Tehl Cakfem-Mushere Koenoem Mwaghavul Tal Kofyar Piapung Jakattoe Goemai Miship Figure 1. Previous classification of West Chadic A.3 (adapted from Eberhard et al. 2020a).
With new data on West Chadic A.3 languages, Blench (2017:1) proposed a new refinement of the classification of West Chadic A.3 languages. This classification has been further refined in his 2019 documentation of Jakattoe (see figure 2). In this new classification, Ywom is moved into group 2 and Jakattoe has been moved to a closer relationship with the Pan cluster of languages, also known as Kofyar. He also explains that there has been some recognizable influence on Jakattoe from the neighboring Koenoem language. This makes sense given that Jakattoe is geographically on the edge of the Pan Cluster of languages and beside Koenoem.
Figure 2. Classification of Central West Chadic languages. Adapted with permission from Blench and Bulkaam (2019:3). Original spellings are used.
6.2 Phonology
In this section, we discuss some initial, cursory observations on the phonology of Jakattoe. The reader may find other features in the transcribed wordlist that have not been discussed. (See the wordlists in Appendix E.) The Jakattoe consonants in our wordlist are presented in table 1. These findings are tentative as they are based on a small data set which has not been thoroughly studied. Blench (2019) presented his wordlists in the form of a dictionary with “a possible orthographic solution.” It is beyond the scope of this research to be involved in orthography development, but in the analysis of our data we offer a few observations that may help the process. We present our comparison to Blench’s findings in the spirit of support for an orthography that could be used by this small language community. Orthography development is a process of refinement. Comparing our results with Blench’s, we find that there are only a few small differences in the phones found in our wordlists. These differences may indicate areas that need further study for the improvement of an orthography. 11
Blench (2019) reports that Jakattoe has a voiceless velar ejective, transcribed as [ƙ],15 that does not occur in our wordlist. There are three glosses shared between our wordlists that included this phone. Our transcription had [k] for two of them and [ɡ] for the other. We had one occurrence of [q], which is not found in Blench’s inventory. Table 1. Jakattoe consonant inventory
Bilabial Labio- Alveolar Alveo- Palatal Velar Labial Uvular Glottal dental palatal Velar Plosive p b t d k ɡ (q) Implosive ɓ ɗ Nasal m n ŋ Rhotic r ɾ Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ (ç) (x) ɣ (ʁ) (h) Affricate ʤ Approximant l j w NOTE: Symbols in parenthesis ( ) had very few occurrences.
In the nasals, Blench includes /ɲ/, which is not in our wordlist. However, there is only one occurrence—[ɲɑ̄ŋ] nyang ‘to refuse’, which comes right before [njə̄ɾ] nyər ‘needle’. Due to the similar pronunciation of these two phones, they may be the same. These are the only two occurrences of a palatal nasal or palatalized alveolar nasal in either wordlist. Many of the Jakattoe consonants have at least one or two examples of palatalization.16 This may be another example. Considering the affricates, Blench includes the affricate [ʧ] in his inventory of consonants, but we do not find any examples in his wordlist. We have one example of [ç] in our wordlist, so it is probably not phonemic. There are several examples of [ʤ] in both wordlists. However, Blench represents both the [ʤ] and [ʒ] with j in his proposed orthography, so we assume that he does not consider the affricate as phonemic. This should be tested with speakers, but it is probably true. Blench discusses the possible relationship of non-nasal voiced dorsal velar sounds, saying “/ɡ/ and /ɣ/ are probably allophones, with /ɡ/ realized as /ɣ/ in intervocalic positions.” In his wordlist there are at least five words17 that are transcribed with /ɡ/ intervocalically. We also find [ɡ] intervocalic. Interestingly, we do not find any [ɣ] preceding [i] or [e] in either wordlist. All the /ɣ/ in our wordlist are intervocalic; however, we have a few words in which /ɣ/ precedes [ɪ] or [ɨ] but Blench transcribes these vowels as /ə/. We also have several examples of [x] and [ʁ] that are intervocalic, between [ɑ] and [ɑ], in all examples (see table 5). So, it appears that the environment of the intervocalic has a phonological impact on the expression of dorsal non-coronal obstruents. Moving on to vowels, Blench (2017:12) says that West Chadic A.3 languages tend to have a six- vowel inventory and length contrast on all vowels. He shows this system in Mwaghavul (Blench 2016b: viii) and Jakattoe (Blench 2019:3). In our Jakattoe wordlist there are occurrences of fourteen different short vowels and seven long vowels. However, several of these vowels may be allophones of the cardinal vowels.
15 This symbol was withdrawn from the IPA in 1993 (IPA 2003). It is used here to represent an ejective because that is how it is written in the Hausa orthography. 16 Blench (2016b: xi-xiii) explains labialization and palatalization of consonants as a common feature of West Chadic A.3 languages, or Central West Chadic as he calls them in Blench (2019:1). 17 [bɑ̀ɡɑ̀ kɔ̄ŋ] ‘river’, [dùɡùm] ‘to kneel down’, [dùɡǔŋ] ‘he-goat’, [wɑ̄ɡəʒí] ‘to return’, [jɑ̀ɡùɾùm] ‘twenty’. 12
Table 2. Jakattoe vowel inventory
Non-lengthened vowels Lengthened vowels Front Central Back Back Front Central Back Back unround round unround round Close-High i ɨ (ɯ) u iː ɯː uː Open-High ɪ ʊ Close-Mid e (ə) o eː oː Open-Mid ɛ ɜ ɔ ɔː Open a ɑ ɑː NOTE: Symbols in parenthesis ( ) have very few occurrences.
Blench’s (2019:3) phonemic inventory and does not include [ɪ, ɛ, ɨ, ɜ, ɯ, ʊ, ɔ, ɑ]. However, phonetic [ɛ, ɑ, ɔ] are realized as /e, a, o/ phonemically and e, a, o orthographically. In our wordlist, there are fewer occurrences of the short open-high front [ɪ], open-mid front [e], and open-mid back [o] vowels. These may be allophones of the close front and close back short vowels since Schuh and Yalwa (1999:90) point out that the quality of short vowels in Hausa, another Afroasiatic, West Chadic language, can have a wide range of allophones. Similarly, Newman (2010:623) says that, “The non-final short /e/ and /o/ have a marginal status in Hausa.” The occurrences of the central vowels [ɜ, ɨ, ɯ, ə] may be allophones of lengthened vowels. Some occurrences of [ɯ] may be labialization on a previous consonant but the large number of occurrences in the data suggests that it may be a phonemic vowel in Jakattoe. In all of the shared glosses with [ɯ] in our wordlist, Blench has transcribed [ə]. As is typical for West Chadic languages, there is a contrast between non-lengthened and lengthened vowels. We have examples of [ɯː] and [ɔː] but their phonemic status is questioned as with the related non-lengthened vowels.
6.3 Comparison with Miship and Goemai
The interviewees said that Jakattoe is similar to Koenoem, Tal, and Goemai, which does not agree with the classification shown in figure 2. However, there is a tradition that the Jakattoe came from the Miship area, which implies a closer historical connection with Miship. As explained in section 7.1, the Jakattoe express a strong identification with the Goemai. Therefore, we compared the Jakattoe, Miship, and Goemai wordlists to see if Jakattoe is closer to one than the other. A comparison of the consonant inventories of Goemai, Miship, and Jakattoe shows that they are largely similar, but there are several features that appear to make a closer relationship with Miship more probable. Miship has many examples of both bilabial and alveolar implosives [ɓ, ɗ] like Jakattoe, but there was only one occurrence of [ɗ] in our Goemai wordlist. The Miship wordlist has many occurrences of [q], which are possibly phonemically different from [k]. So, like Jakattoe, the status of [k] and velar stops is more in question than in Goemai, which has no occurrences of [q]. Similarly, Miship has examples of [x, ɣ, ʁ] like Jakattoe and may have a similar feature of the environment of intervocalic having a phonological impact on the expression of dorsal non-coronal obstruents. This is not an issue with the Goemai phonology. The Jakattoe wordlist was compared18 phonostatistically with a wordlist from Kalip village, Pankshin LGA representing the Longmaar variety of Miship and a Goemai wordlist from Gwalong village, Shendam LGA. (See section 4.5 for description of the comparison method. See table 3 for the results of the calculations. In table 3, (n) is the number of words that were compared.) We calculated an apparent lexical similarity of 60–70% between the speech of Jakattoe and Goemai and 66–76% apparent lexical similarity between Jakattoe and Miship. There was 47–62% apparent lexical similarity between Goemai and Miship. This is a very rough comparison and rigorous comparative methods were not used to
18 See the note at the beginning of appendix E describing choices that were made in deciding which words to count and which to exclude. 13 establish cognates. However, it provides an impressionistic suggestion that Jakattoe may be linguistically closer to Miship than to Goemai. Table 3. Surface-level lexical similarity
Goemai 60–70% Jakattoe n=328 47–62% 66–76% Miship n=328 n=327
From historical linguistics we learn that languages change as a phonological innovation diffuses outward to other varieties. These innovations tend to be slight changes from one phone to another phone that is similar. When we see several words that have a pattern of change like this, it may be an indication of the way that the varieties are diverging. It may also be an indication of the differences that people hear when they recognize another dialect of their language. As languages diverge there are more changes like this, and the speakers may have more difficulty understanding the other variety. We look at these patterns of phonological change to better understand the kinds of changes that are making the varieties different. Tables 4 through 6 present sets of examples that demonstrate ways in which Jakattoe words have phonological patterns more similar to Miship than Goemai. In table 4, we see that there is a medial [h] in some Goemai words which is not present in Jakattoe and Miship lexical items. Table 4. Phonological variation – medial [h]
# gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 120 toad nɨmʷɑt nɪmʷat nìm�̄hāt 285 suck mʷɑk̚ m�̄hāk 313 walk mwɑ̄n mʷān mɨhāːn 151 rain fɑn fwan fɨhāːn 298 wash vɑ̀ŋ vʷaŋ vɨhaŋ 177 canoe ʃiŋɑm ʃiː ʃiːhaŋ ɡɨdeːt
In table 5 we see word medial velar [ɡ, x, ɣ] and uvular [ʁ] phones in Jakattoe words that are either absent in Goemai or have a softer [h] in variation with [ɣ]. These Jakattoe words have more similarity to the Miship words than the Goemai word. These differences may be related to the variation of dorsal non-coronal obstruents in intervocalic environments, as discussed in section 6.2. Table 5. Phonological variation – medial velar [ɡ, x, ɣ] and uvular [ʁ]
# gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 81 cough sɑɣɑm sɪɡʌm s�̄hīm 108 horn soɣom soɣom sōhōm 147 iron kuk-ʃɑʁɑl ʃɛɣal lāsòol 148 money ʃɑʁɑl ʃɜʁal sòol 53 chin ʤɑʁɑm ʤaxam ʤòom 218 narrow pɑ̀xɑ̀t paʁat pòt 132 scorpion dɑɡɑr ɗaɣar dʲōor 153 dry season luɡn luɡun lūun 154 dew sɨɡr sɨɡr sɨɨr 110 claw ʃiɡɪn ʃɪɡɜn ʃōon 214 cold zùɡùm zuɡom zòom 14
In the previous examples, items 53, 147, 148, 218, and 132 reveal a consistent pattern of [o] in Goemai words in variation with [a/ɑ] in Jakattoe and Miship words. The following words in table 6 are further examples of this variation in vowels, as well as, in most cases, the pattern of variation between the medial velar and uvular consonants, as in the previous example. Table 6. Phonological variation – [a/ɑ] ~ [o]
# gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 43 soup tɑk taq tok 12 chair/stool tɑɡɑm tāʔám tòːm 292 stand jɑ̄ɣɑ̄l jaɣal jōːl 106 guinea fowl ʃɑɣɑm ʃaʔam ʃōːm 335 tie bùɣɑ̀t ɓʷoɣat boːt
In tables 4–6 we have seen a closer relationship between Jakattoe and Miship. The number system, presented in table 7, is one feature that shows a bit more similarity between Jakattoe and Goemai and difference from Miship. The number five (5) in all three locations is /paːt/.19 So, the numbers seven (7) through nine (9) are five /pV-/ plus two (2) /vel/,20 plus three (3) /kun/, and plus four (4) /fer/ respectively. The difference in the Miship numbers seven (7) through nine (9) is that the Miship word for the number five (5) is a two-syllable morpheme. Furthermore, the numbers twelve (12) and fifteen (15) are ten (10) /sar/ plus two (2) and plus five (5). There appears to be a morpheme that joins the number ten (10) with the second number, [ka] in Jakattoe may be cognate with /ʃika/ in Goemai. The combining morpheme for Miship /po/ seems unrelated. It is possible that the increased contact for trade between the Jakattoe and Goemai has caused the Jakattoe to adapt their counting system for clarity in financial transactions. Table 7. Number system
# gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 182 two vɜl vɛl vèl 183 three kun kun kun 184 four fɛr feːr fíːr 185 five pɑːt̚ paːt pāːt 187 seven pɜ-vɜl poʁo-vel p�̄-vēl 188 eight pɜ-kun poʁo-kun pū-kūn 189 nine pɜ-fɑr poʁo-far pū-faːr 191 twelve sɑr-kɑ-vɛl sar-po-vɛl sár-ʃīkā-vel 192 fifteen sɑ̀r-kɑ̀-pɑ̀ːt sar-po-pal sār-ʃikā-paːt
Despite the claims of the Jakattoe interviewees that their speech is more similar to Goemai than Miship, a wordlist comparison of the three languages reveals that there are more similarities with Miship than with Goemai. We find that there is a higher lexical similarity with Miship than with Goemai. There are also phonological patterns that make Jakattoe seem more similar to Miship than Goemai. It is very possible that their reported comprehension of Goemai is due to their more frequent contact with the Goemai than the Miship and that they have acquired intelligibility with Goemai. Furthermore, based on Blench’s comment (2019: 19) that there are some shared lexical items with Koenoem, and his classification of Jakattoe as close to the Pan cluster varieties, it would be good to compare Jakattoe wordlists with one from Koenoem and ones from Mernyang and Doemak, varieties in
19 We are using phonemic brackets / / in this paragraph to not distract the reader by the small differences in the vowels. We are not implying that we have conducted a phonemic analysis. 20 The vowel in the numbers two (2) and four (4) varies between the three locations but the vowel in all three is essentially an unrounded vowel. 15 the neighbouring Pan cluster. More research is needed to establish the relationships of all these languages.
6.4 Discussion of analysis
In sections 6.1–6.3 we have considered linguistic variation and relationships from five perspectives: in- group perceptions, classification, phonological similarity, lexical similarity, and phonological variation. The Jakattoe people believe they are more closely related to and identify more with the Goemai, than with Miship. Ongoing research by Blench and our own studies is refining the classification of Jakattoe. This classification, presented in figure 2, describes a closer relationship with Miship than with Goemai. The comparison of consonant inventories, lexical similarity, and phonological variation all indicated a closer relationship of Jakattoe to Miship than Goemai. In section 6.2, a comparison of our wordlists with Blench’s (2019) research on Jakattoe gives us a better understanding of the Jakattoe phonology. This work, along with Blench’s research, may help with the development of a useful orthography for the Jakattoe.
7 Influence from other languages
It is a widely accepted principle among sociolinguists that less dominant languages are influenced by more dominant languages when they come in contact with each other. Sometimes it is a neighboring, larger, more powerful, or more prestigious language, and sometimes it is a regional or international language of wider communication. Therefore, the impact of these more dominant languages needs to be considered when describing the environment of the less dominant language. The social relationships between these language communities are not necessarily adversarial. Motivations for acquiring a second language vary (Karan 2001; 2011; Karan and Stalder 2000) and often, speakers of the less prestigious languages are only interested in learning the more dominant languages for the pragmatic benefits of multilingualism. However, there are also some language communities that force their hegemony on the smaller groups around them to achieve greater social, political, economic, or religious power. In these cases, it is often advantageous to learn the more dominant language in order to survive.
7.1 Language contact
The people we interviewed in Dokan Tofa reported that they have contact with Miship and Tal to the north, Mernyang to their west, Goemai to the southeast, and Koenoem to the east. Blench (2017) also noted that the Piapung live nearby to the east, but the Jakattoe did not mention contact with them. There are also nomadic Hausa and Fulani21 cattle herders that live in the area. (See map 1 displaying the neighboring language groups.) The village of Dokan Tofa is a combination of different language groups who live together. These language groups are: Jakattoe, Goemai, Mernyang, Miship, Tal, and Koenoem. There are also some speakers of Berom, Tarok, Ngas, and Mwaghavul living as immigrants with them. The Jakattoe people have closer relationships with some of these groups than others. The people reported that the cultures of the Koenoem, Goemai, Miship, Ngas, Tal, and Mernyang are more similar. They have reservations about close relationships with the Tarok and do not intermarry with them. They feel the Tarok culture is too dissimilar from theirs. The Jakattoe have particularly close relationships with the Goemai. The Jakattoe would refer to themselves as both Goemai and Jakattoe, and to a certain extent identify more with the Goemai. When asked about their interest in language development they replied that they are more interested in Goemai, and Jakattoe as a second option. (See Appendix F for a list of people and churches who were suggested for involvement in any language development efforts.)
21 The heritage language of the Fulani is Fulfulde. Most Fulani maintain their use of Fulfulde but in this region of Nigeria they usually use Hausa when speaking to any non-Fulani people. 16
There are at least four possible reasons for their choice to identify with the Goemai: attitude, prestige, lexical similarities, and for government benefits. They have close social relationships with Goemai speakers and consider them as friends. The Jakattoe are a small language group compared to Goemai and they see Goemai as a more prestigious identity than theirs. Another reason for this might be that there is a high lexical similarity with Goemai. Politically, Goemai is one of the major languages spoken in Shendam LGA and they may want to identify with them to receive government benefits.
7.2 Multilingualism
The Jakattoe we interviewed reported that they are one of the most multilingual language groups. They said they can speak Jakattoe, Hausa, Goemai, Miship, Mernyang, Koenoem, and English. As reported, all generations, including the children, can speak these languages very well, except for the older generation who have less proficiency in English. Goemai is spoken in all domains except in schools. It was reported that when a Jakattoe speaker meets with a Goemai native, they each speak their own different language, and “understand each other perfectly.” When they meet with the Miship, Koenoem, and Mernyang, they both speak their own different languages, and understand most of what each person is saying. Koenoem is also used in most domains except churches and schools. Miship and Mernyang are used primarily with speakers of those languages. It is possible that there is a certain amount of inherent intelligibility with these languages since they are all West Chadic A.3 languages. However, probably most comprehension comes from familiarity with the languages through contact. Hausa is the language of wider communication in this speech community, and all generations are reported to have high multilingual proficiency in it. Children were observed speaking Hausa with each other outside the chief’s palace in the village. However, they reported that Hausa is generally not used on the farms or between friends. The interviewees said that the old generations are the least literate of the Jakattoe. Only some of them can read and write in Hausa and English well, and only a few of the older women have any literacy skills. Middle-aged men and women and the younger generations are the most literate age groups. They are proficient and can adequately read and write in English and Hausa.
8 Language vitality
Lewis and Simons (2017:154) describe five conditions that are critical for the sustainability of a language, which is often referred to as language maintenance. These five conditions are organized by the acronym FAMED: function, acquisition, motivation, environment, and differentiation. a. Function: For the sustainable use of a language the community must be able to employ the language for specific functions. As the number of functions for a language decreases, so does its vitality. b. Acquisition: A community must have a way to acquire proficiency in a language in order to maintain the use of that language. This is most often found in the language used in the home. c. Motivation: For sustainability, the community must be motivated to use the language and perceive some benefit of its use. d. Environment: The environment refers to whether the government provides a route for a language to flourish, or if the government hinders the use of a language. It focuses primarily on government policy, and particularly that which is funded and enforced. e. Differentiation: Differentiation describes a situation in which different languages are used in different domains. In multilingual communities, there needs to be a culturally perceived differentiation of which language is used for which purposes. This serves to protect a minority language from being overwhelmed by a more prestigious language.
17
Language endangerment contrasts with language sustainability or maintenance. When any of the above conditions is not met, a language is in the process of shifting or becoming endangered. A language loses vitality when: a. It loses usefulness in the daily functions for which people need language. b. Children are not provided with opportunities to learn their heritage language. c. The community sees no benefit to the use of the heritage language. d. The government provides no institutional support for the maintenance of the language. e. The community does not value the use of the language in some protected domains.
In multilingual communities we speak of a repertoire of languages that are available for different purposes. In this section we describe the state of these conditions for the sustainable use of Jakattoe. We end with an assessment of the vitality of Jakattoe language use.
8.1 Functions of languages in the repertoire of the Jakattoe
From the evidence we gathered it is obvious that other languages are competing with Jakattoe in all domains. In 22 of the 24 observations that did not involve an outsider, Jakattoe was used at least some of the time. Hausa was the other language that was used sometimes. Nine of the observed conversations were exclusively in Jakattoe. One observed conversation that did not include Jakattoe use was in a Muslim household, which may have been a factor. The other conversation that was all in Hausa was between children outside of the chief’s palace. Hausa is the language of wider communication and one of the predominant languages used in the schools and churches. Goemai is reported to be spoken as much as Jakattoe. Koenoem, Miship, and Mernyang are also used frequently. However, none of these other languages were used during observed conversations. Some language functions are more essential than others when discussing language vitality. It is important to note which languages are used when parents speak to children, among children at play, between husbands and wives, and the most widely used language in the community. Although Jakattoe is spoken in these familial domains, they do not limit which languages they will use in these domains. Jakattoe, Hausa, Goemai, and English are spoken by parents to children in their homes. They are used by children when they are playing and between husbands and wives in their homes. In some homes, Koenoem, Mernyang, and Miship are also used.
8.2 Means of acquiring languages in the repertoire of the Jakattoe
From the available data we see that Jakattoe is acquired by children at home from parents, grandparents, family, and friends through oral transmission. The children hear Jakattoe in most domains. However, they also hear the other languages spoken in the village in those same domains, including the home. This is noteworthy because it may influence the future language use of the children. The people reported that the children learn Goemai, Hausa, and English at the same age they learn Jakattoe. They learn Hausa and English at home, in school, and at church. The other neighboring languages are learned through contact with neighbors who speak those languages.
8.3 Motivation for using languages in the repertoire of the Jakattoe
Being a speaker of Jakattoe is still seen as a part of their identity and so the language still has a place in most domains. However, as described in section 7.1, the people also identify as Goemai in some instances. They even said they were more interested in Goemai language development than Jakattoe. Hausa and English also play important roles as the languages of education and church. 18
8.4 Environmental support for the maintenance of Jakattoe
While Jakattoe does not currently receive any institutional support, the Nigerian government’s language policy encourages oral use of any language in the country and does not hinder any private development of the language (Federal Ministry of Education 1981). Furthermore, the revised policy on the use of minority languages in education says that “every child shall be taught in their own mother tongue or in the language of the immediate community for the first four years of basic education” (Federal Republic of Nigeria 2013: section 1, subsection 8.g.). However, there has been little progress in implementing these policies. The absence of institutional support means a lack of support for language maintenance. Adegbija (2007) presents a lengthy discussion on the language policies of the Nigerian government and presents evidence that there is a greater focus on the development of the major indigenous languages (Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo) and English than concern for the smaller, less prestigious minority languages. This factor might affect the language vitality over time but presently Jakattoe is still used in many domains in community life.
8.5 Differentiation of languages in the repertoire of the Jakattoe
With such a brief time of observation, it was not possible to investigate differentiation in different domains effectively. There does not appear to be any domain that is reserved for the sole use of Jakattoe. As described by the people with whom we spoke, Jakattoe, Hausa, English, or a neighboring language may be used in any domain. This absence of differentiation may be the most critical aspect endangering the future maintenance of Jakattoe.
8.6 EGIDS assessment for Jakattoe
The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) provides a rubric for assessing the potential for sustainability of a language (Lewis & Simons 2017). The EGIDS considers the state of intergenerational support for language maintenance, as well as institutional support, and the stage of literary development for the language. The scale runs from 0 to 10, with 0 representing languages that are used for international commerce and political policy, and 10 representing extinct languages that have no identificational value for any community. Considering the indicators of vitality described in sections 8.1 to 8.5, Jakattoe language use is best described as level 6b- “threatened” on the EGIDS. This level defines a language that is “used for face-to- face communication within all generations, but it is losing users” (Eberhard et al. 2020b). Although the language is taught to children, and used by children, they are also taught in other languages. The one thing that may be delaying language shift at this time is the multitude of languages that are available. In any given situation, except for in the schools or church, they can use any of five or more possible languages. If the Jakattoe are not intentional about using the language more, reserving some specific domains for their language, or making it the only language children speak at home, the people might in the near future shift to another language.
9 Summary
At the beginning of section 2, we identified two major concerns when addressing language development needs, the environment for heritage language development and the meeting of multilingual needs. There are very few Jakattoe speakers, so the question of variation within the language is doubtful, and there were no reports of variation. To understand the environment of the Jakattoe language we have investigated language use patterns within the community, the attitudes towards neighboring languages, proficiency in other languages, and attitudes towards language maintenance and shift. The Jakattoe live in one village, Dokan Tofa, in Shendam LGA, Plateau State, Nigeria. There has been confusion over the identity of Jakattoe 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. Jakattoe 19 has recently (Blench 2019) been classified as more closely related to Miship. Our research supports the classification of Jakattoe closer to Miship than Goemai. However, the Jakattoe more closely identify with the Goemai and 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. 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.
10 Recommendations
If the leaders of the Jakattoe community are concerned about the loss of vitality of their language, we recommend that they attend a Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Community Development Associations (CONAECDA)22 event23 to be exposed to the concepts of language vitality and language development. If they desire to pursue language development, they can seek training in language development from SIL Nigeria. If the leaders are interested in inviting the Luke Initiative (LIST) to implement a limited Scripture translation goals project, this could be a good opportunity to assess their commitment to development efforts. It may also inspire the Jakattoe to further interest in other language development activities and other vernacular products. However, due to the lower vitality of this language, language developers could collaborate with the community to develop realistic short-term goals, such as language documentation, and consider efforts that may assist their shift to another language if that is what the community desires.
22 CONAECDA (Facebook 2020) is a non-governmental organization advocating for the linguistic rights of Nigerian minority ethnolinguistic groups. They provide workshops and other training opportunities to facilitate language development led by the ethnolinguistic communities themselves. 23 CONAECDA is using a modified activity based on the “Language and Identity Journey” (SIL 2020).
Appendix A: Dialect Mapping Instructions and Group Sociolinguistics Questionnaire
Hausa translation is in italics. Participatory guidance instructions are in square brackets [ ].
A.1 Participatory dialect mapping and sociolinguistic interview / Tambayon Hanyar haɓaka Domin Bukasar Harsuna
Village --- Gari: ______Interviewer --- Mai Tambaya: ______Date --- Kwanar Wata: ______State --- Jihar: ______LGA --- Karamar Hukuma: ______District --- Yanki: ______Traditional Chief --- Tsarki: ______Informants --- Jagora: ______
PM involves observation. Both the facilitator and the assistant can observe. Please make note of these observations on this form throughout the PM and interviews. Note people’s responses, agreements, disagreements, number in attendance, group’s variations (gender, age ranges), and whatever else you think may be helpful. • Hanyar Haɓaka ya shafi dubawa. Duk mai gudanarwa da mai taimakawa zasu iya kiyaye. Don Allah a rubuta abubuwan da aka lura da su a wadannan bayanin a duk lokacin da ake yin wadanan tambayoyin. Yi la'akari da amsoshin mutane, yarjejeniya, rashin daidaituwa, yawan masu zuwa, ƙungiyoyi na bambanta (jinsi, jere na jima), da duk abin da kake tsammani zai iya zama taimako.
A.2 Language identity / Harshe Harshe
What is/are the name(s) of your language? [Have them write the name(s) on one piece of paper.] • Mene ne / sunan harshen ku? [Bari su rubuta sunan a kan takarda daya.] Which name(s) do you prefer? [Circle their preferred language name.] • Wanne sunanko sunaye kun fi so? [Kewaye sunan da sun fi so.] What is/are the name of your people? [Have them write the name(s) on one piece of paper.] • Mene ne / sunan mutanen ku? [Bari su rubuta sunan a kan takarda daya.] Which name(s) do you prefer? [Circle their preferred people name.] • Wanne sunan ko sunaye kun fi so? [Kewaye sunan da u n fi so.] What do you call your people in your language? • Menene kuke kira mutanenku a cikin harshenku? What is the word for person in your language? • Menene ana kiran kalman nan mutum a harshenku? When you’re speaking (in your own language) what do you call your language? • Yayin da kuke magana da harshen ku, menene kuke kiran harshen ku? When speaking Hausa with other people, what do you call your language? • Lokacin da kuke magana da harshen Hausa tare da wasu mutane, me kuke kira harshenku? When speaking English with other people, what do you call your language? • Lokacin da kuke magana da Turanci tare da wasu mutane, me kuke kira harshenka?
20 21
What do each of the following call you? (a) Hausa; (b) Others; (c) Government • Menene wadanan suke kiran ku? (a) Hausawa; (b ) Sauran Su; (c) Gwanati What does that name mean? Menene wannan sunan yake nufi? • How do you feel about that name? Yaya kuke ji a ranku idan an kira da wanan sunan? Briefly, please, what is the origin of your people? How do you know this? • A takaice, don Allah, menene asalin mutanenka? Yaya aka san wannan?
A.3 Reported intelligibility / Rehotun Makamantun harsuna
[Take a photo of these two papers and/or write them above.] • [Dauki hoto na takardun nan biyu da / ko rubuta su a sama.] Write observations: • Rubuta bayanai:
A.4 Dialect mapping / Taswirar Yare
Name all villages where [own language______] is spoken. [Have them write each village on a separate piece of paper.] • Rubuta dukan kauyuka inda ake magana da [yaren ku ______] • [Bari su rubuta kowane ƙauye a kan takarda.] [Place these on the mat/table/ground in order to show which villages are next to each other.] • [Sanya wannan a kan taburma / teburi / ƙasa don nuna wajan kauyukan da ke kusa da juna.] [Have them arrange these by location on the ground…use the river, road, mountains, and markets pictures if it helps or if you see these things around. Be sure to circle the villages with a loop and place the language name at the top edge of the loop.] • [Shin, sun shirya wannan ta wurin wuri a ƙasa … amfani da kogin, hanyoyi, tudu, da kuma kasuwanni kalli idan yana taimakawa ko kuma idan kun ga wadannan abubuwa a kusa. Ku tabbata cewa kungiyoyin ƙauyuka da madauki kuma sanya sunayen sunaye a babban gefen madauki.] Which villages speak exactly the same? • Wadanne ƙauyuka suna yin magana daidai da juna? [Mark villages that speak same by letter “S.”] • [Yi makin kauyuka da ke magana iri daya da wata alama “S.”] Which villages speak exactly the same? Wadanne kauyuka ne suna fada abu daidai da juna? [If they name a group, tell them to write the name on a piece of paper and place it based on location. Then ask for the villages of the group to be written on paper and placed based on their locations. This should be done for each group and remember to prompt for the names that we have. Circle villages of each group with a separate colored loop, with their names at the top edge of their separate loops.] • [Idan suna kiran wata kungiya ko kauye, gaya musu su rubuta sunan a kan wani takarda su kuma sanya shi bias bangaren da ya kamata, sa'an nan kuma ka umarci ƙauyuka su kasance a rubuce a takarda ka kuma sanya tushe a wuraren da ya kamata. Kowane rukuni kuma ku tuna don fadakar da sunayen da muke da shi. Kungiyoyin kauyuka na kowane rukuni tare da launi mai launi dabam dabam, tare da sunaye a saman gefen ƙananan madaukai.] Do you learn to speak each other’s dialects? • Kuna koyon yin magana da yarukan juna? [Write: “We learn to speak each other’s language” or “We don’t learn to speak each other’s language” for each paper.] • [Rubuta: “Muna koyi yin yaren juna .” ko “Ba mu koyi yin yaren juna” na kowane takarda.] 22
Which dialect (including your own) do you understand 1st Best? 2nd Best? 3rd Best? etc. [Have them place 1st Choice, 2nd Choice, etc. on the villages or dialect groups.] • Wadanne yare ( har da naku) kukan fahimce shi 1st mafi kyau? 2nd mafi kyau? 3rd mafi kyau? da dai sauransu • [Bar su su aje Zaben 1st, Zaben 2nd da sauran su a kan kauye ko yare.]
A.5 Dialect relationships / Dangantakan Yaruruka
[Pointing to the 1st Best, ask:] Do you understand this dialect completely, most or almost all, half, little, or none? [Place “key” out, then place All, Most, Half, Little, or Non-smiley face marker(s) by the 1st Best. Repeat for 2nd Best, 3rd Best, etc.] • [Mika hanu akan 1st mafi kyau, sai ka tambaya:] • Kuna fahimtar wannan yare gaba daya, mafi yawa ko kusan dukka, rabi, kadan, ko a'a? • [Saka “makwuli” a wurin, sa'an nan kuma sanya Duk, Mafi, Rabi, Ƙanana, ko Babu alamar. Fuskance mai haske a cikin 1st Mafi kyau. Maimaita don 2nd Mafi kyau, 3rd Mafi kyau, da dai sauransu.] [Pointing to the 1st Best, ask:] When you meet people from this dialect group, how do you speak to them? [++ we speak our own dialect and they speak our dialect too, OR they speak their dialect. and we speak our dialect. -- we speak another language and they speak another language. Place “key” out, then place ++, or -- by the 1st Best. Repeat for 2nd Best, 3rd Best, etc.] • [Mika hanu akan 1st Mafi kyau, tambayi:] • Idan kun sadu da mutane daga wannan rukunin harshe, ta yaya kuke magana da su? • [++ muna magana da yaren mu kuma suna magana da yaren mu, KO suna magana da yarensu kuma muna magana da namu - muna magana da wani harshe kuma suna magana da wani harshe. Sanya “makuli”, sannan sanya ++ , ko - ta hanyar 1st mafi kyau. Maimaita don 2nd Mafi kyau, 3rd Mafi kyau, da dai sauransu.] What other language groups live around you? [Have them write the names of the languages and place them outside the loop, based on their geographical locations.] • Wadanne kungiyoyin Harsuna ne suke zaune kewaye da ku? • [Bari su rubuta sunayen harsunan kuma sanya su a waje da madauki, bisa ga wuraren su.] Which of the neighboring languages do you understand? [Have them write we speak or do not speak each other’s languages.] • Wanne daga cikin harsunan da ke kusa da ku kuna fahimta? • [Bari su rubuta mu magana ko ba magana da harsunan juna.] How well do you understand the neighboring language(s)? [Have them write on each either (a) little (b) some (c) well or (d) very well.] • Yaya kuke fahimci harshen makwabcinku? • [Bari su rubuta kowanne ko dai (a) kadan (b) wasu (c) da kyau ko (d) sosai.] [Take photos of these and make SURE you can read the words in the photos.] • [Ɗauki hotunan wadannan ka kuma tabbatar za ka iya karanta kalmomi na hotuna.] If a film or book is going to be produced in your language, which dialect would you prefer it to be in? [Point to the dialect and write answers here.] • Idan fim ko littafi za a samar a cikin harshen ku, wane yarre za ku fi son shi a cikin? • [Nuna waƙa da rubuta amsoshin a nan.] 23
Which dialect should be used as the one for writing, recording, so that you will understand it well? [Have them point.] • Wadanne yare ya kamata a yi amfani dashi a matsayin rubutaccen rubutu, rikodi, don ku fahimta da kyau? • [Bari su nuna.] 1st Choice – Why? • Zabin na Farko – Me yasa? 2nd Choice – Why? • Zabi na biyu – Me yasa? 3rd Choice – Why? • Zabi na Uku – Me yasa? [Write observations. (See first page for suggested observations.)] • [Rubuta abin Lura. (Duba shafin farko don shawarwarin akan abin da zaka yi Lura akai.)]
A.6 Contact and prestige / Hulda da Daraja
Which city town/city/village do your people consider as important for all of you? Why? • Wane birni gari / garin / kauye ne mutanenku suke ganin muhimmancin ku duka? Me yasa? What dialect is spoken in that town/city/village? • Wane harshe ake magana a wannan gari / birni / kauye? Where do all speakers of your language gather for your cultural festival? • A ina ne duk masu magana da harshenku sukan taru don bikin al'adun ku? Why do you gather there? • Me yasa kuke taruwa a can? Where is the palace of your paramount ruler located? • Ina masallacin mai mulkinku ya kasance? Tell me other places where your people are located • Fada mini wadansu wurare inda ake samun mutanenku
A.7 Bilingualism / domains of language use / Yanki na amfani da harshe
What languages can the (below) in this village speak? • Wadanne harsuna ne (a ƙasa) a wannan ƙauyen ke magana da su/ita? Can they speak each language very well? • Za su iya magana da kowane harshe sosai Which language do you hear them speaking most of the time? • Wane harshe kukan ji su suna magana mafi yawan lokaci? [(mark with +), or only a bit ko kawai da (mark with -)?] • [(yi alama tare da +) ko (yi alama tare da +)?] Old Men—Old Women • Tsohon Maza—Sofofi Mata Men—Women • Maza—Mata 24
Young Men—Young Women • Samarai—Matashi Children • Yara Tell me the languages people speak in this community? • Ka gaya mini harsunan da mutane suna yi a cikin wannan al'umma? What language(s) are usedː • Wane harshe ko harsuna ake amfani da su: (a) in markets that are in this community? • a kasuwanni da ke cikin wannan al'umma? (b) in schools that are in this community? • a makarantu da suke cikin wannan al'umma? (c) in churches that are in this community? • cikin majami'u da suke cikin wannan al'umma (d) among friends / age-mates? • tsakanin abokai / masu aure? (e) between grandchildren and grandparents? • tsakanin jikoki da kakanninsu (f) between brothers and sisters? • tsakanin 'yan'uwa maza da mata? (g) at farm? • a gona? (h) for prayer at home? • don addu'a a gida? What language(s) do teachers use for instruction in school? • Menene harshe (ko harsuna) da malamai suke amfani da su a makaranta? Which languages do you use during your cultural festivals? • Wadanne harsuna kuke amfani da su a lokacin bukukuwa naku? Which of these groups speak own language the best? (a) children (b) youth (c) adult men (d) adult women • Wanne daga cikin wadannan kungiyoyi suna magana da harshe mafi kyau? (a) yara (b) matasa (c) tsofaffi maza (d) mata masu girma Which of these groups speak Hausa the best? (a) children (b) youth (c) adult men (d) adult women • Wanne daga cikin wadannan kungiyoyi suna Magana da Hausa mafi kyau? (a) yara (b) matasa (c) tsofaffi maza (d) mata masu girma Which of these groups speak English the best? (a) children (b) youth (c) adult men (d) adult women • Wanne daga cikin wadannan kungiyoyi suna magana daTuranci mafi kyau? (a) yara (b) matasa (c) tsofaffi maza (d) mata masu girma Which of these groups speak any neighboring language the best? (a) children (b) youth (c) adult men (d) adult women • Wanne daga cikin wadannan kungiyoyi suna magana da kyau a kowane harshe kusa da ku? (a) yara (b) matasa (c) tsofaffi maza (d) mata masu girma Which of your neighboring languages do you understand? • Wanda harshe makwabta ne ku ke ganewa? 25
How well do you understand the languages? (a) little (b) some (c) well (d) very well • Yaya iya ganewan ku na harsosin nan? (a) kadan (b) da dan dama (c) da dama (d) sosai When you meet people from neighboring language groups, what language(s) do you speak with them? • Idan kun sadu da mutane daga kungiyoyin Harsuna wanda suke zaune kewaye da ku, wane harshe kuke Magana da su?
A.8 Vitality/Muhimmanci
What language (s) do parents/care givers speak to their children in this community? • Wane harshe ne iyaye suna magana da 'ya'yansu a cikin wannan al'umma? What language (s) do children in this community speak when they are playing? • Menene harshe (ko harsuna) da yara suke yi a lokacin da suke wasa? What language (s) do husbands and wives speak at home? • Menene harshe (ko harsuna) da maza da mata suke yin magana a gida da shi? Which language (s) is/are mostly used everywhere in this community? • Wanne harshe (ko hasuna) ne/ake amfani dashi mafi yawa a cikin wannan al'umma?
A.9 Attitudes towards speakers of neighboring languages / Halin da ake nuna ga masu magana da harsuna makwabta
Which of your neighboring community do your women and men prefer to marry from or into? Why? • Wanne daga cikin ƙauyukan da ke kusa da ku ke yi matanku da maza sun fi so su auri daga ko cikin? Me ya sa? Which language groups do your people feel reluctant to marry from or into? Why? • Wace harshe ne mutanen ku sukan jin kiwiyar yin aure dasu? Me ya sa? Which language groups attend your markets? • Wace kungiyoyi harshe ne suke zuwa cin kasuwa da ku? Which language groups would you not welcome at your markets? • Wace kungiyoyin harshe ne ba ku da marmarin cin kasuwa da su? Which language groups would you not farm with? • Wace kungiyoyin harshe ba za ku je gona da su ba? Which language groups do you attend church service with? • Wace kungiyoyin harshe ne kuke shida majelisa tare? Which language group’s children do your children go to the same school with? • Wace kungiyoyin harshe ne yaran su suke tafiyan makaranta daya da yaran ku?
A.10 Literature and literacy / Litattafai da rubuce-rubuce
What reading materials do you have in this community? • Wadanne kayayakin karatu ne kuke da su a cikin wannan al'umma? In which language(s) are the materials written? • An Rubuto Wadanan kayan karatun a wadane harshe ko harsuna ne? Who of these can read and write? • Wanene daga cikinsu zai iya karatu da rubutu? 26
Old Men—Old Women • Tsohon Maza—Sofofi Mata Men—Women • Maza—Mata Young Men—Young Women • Samarai—Matashi Children • Yara • In which language(s)? • A wanne harshe (ko harsuna)? How well? (in each language) [Chooseː (a) not at all (b) a little (c) some (d) well] • Ta yaya? (a cikin kowane harshe) [Zabi Iraki (a) ba komai ba (b) kadan (c) wasu) (d) da kyau] What kind of information/reading materials do they read? • Wani irin littattafai ne sukan karanta? What language do they use for texting? • Wane harshe ne suke amfani dasu don saƙo na wayar salula?
A.11 Estimated populations / An kiyasta yawancin
What is the number of all your people in the last national headcount? • Menene kimanin dukan mutanenku a cikin kidaya na kasa wanda aka yi a kwanakin baya? Based on the number of people in your community for the last election, what would you say is the total number of your people now? • Bisa ga yawan mutanen da ke cikin al'umman ku don zabe na kwanakin baya, me za ku ce shi ne yawan mutanen ku a yanzu? Estimated percentage of Muslims: • A kimanta kashi dari na Musulmai: Estimated percentage of Christians: • A kimanta kashi dari na Kiristoci: Estimated percentage of African Traditional Religion (ATR): • An kimanta kashi dari na ATR:
A.12 Community perceived roles of vernacular Scriptures in their lives / Yadda al’umma suke ganin amfanin nassosin harshensu a rayuwarsu
Which category of people do you think will benefit the most if Scriptures were translated into your language? • Su wanda mutanene za su fi riba I dan aka juye littafi mai tsaki cikin yaren ku? How do you think they will benefit from the translated Scriptures? • Yaya kuke gani za su yi riba da ga juyeyen littafi mai tsarkin? When do you think they will use those Scriptures? • Yaushe kuke ganin za su fara amfani da littafin? 27
A.13 Project support / Tallafin Ginin
What are the names of your important persons who can be invited to discuss how your community can access Scriptures? • Mene ne sunayen mutanenku masu muhimmanci wadanda za a iya gayyace su domin tattauna yadda za ku iya samun damar samun Nassosi? (a) What are their phone numbers or email addresses? • Menene lambobin waya ko adiresoshin imel nasu? (b) Which city / town / village do they live in? • Wane birni / garin / kauye suke da zama? Which churches can be invited in the Scriptures access discussion? • Wace majami'u za a iya gayyace su a cikin shirin samun Nassosi a harshen ku? (a) What are the names and phone numbers of their leaders? • Mene ne sunayen da lambobin waya na shugabannin ku? (b) Which city / town / village do they live in? • Wace birni / garin / kauye suke da zama? What organizations can be invited for the discussion? • Wadane kugiyoyi ne zaku iya gayyatar don tattaunawa a kai? (a) What are the names and phone numbers or email addresses of their leaders? • Menene sunayen da lambobin waya ko adiresoshin imel na shugabanninsu? (b) Which city / town / village are they located? • Wane birni / garin / kauye ne suke da zama?
Appendix B: Church Leader Questionnaire
Hausa translation is in italics.
Village ______Language ______State ______LGA ______Church Name ______Church Denomination ______Informant ______Position ______Researcher ______Date ______
B.1 Percentage of Christians, Muslims, and ATRs in the area
What percentage of the population is Christian in the area? • Mene ne yawan mutanen da suke Krista a yankin nan? What percentage of the population is Muslim in the area? • Mene ne yawan mutanen da suke musulmi a yankin nan? What percentage of the population is ATR in the area? • Wani kashi na yawan jama'a ne na safi a yankin nan?
B.2 Language(s) that church leaders are interested in having Bible in
Which language(s) do you as a priest / pastor speak with members of your congregation in the community? • Wace harshe kake yi a matsayin firist / fasto yayi magana da mambobi na ikilisiyarku a cikin al'umma? Which language(s) do you use for most activities in the church? • Wanne harshe / harshuna kuke amfani da shi don yawancin ayyuka a coci? In which language(s) do you read the Bible and other materials in? • A wadanne harshe / harshuna kuke karanta Littafi Mai-Tsarki da wasu litatafe ciki? Which language(s) do you think is best to read the Bible and other materials in? • Wanne harshe / harshuna kake tsammani mafi kyau a karanta Littafi Mai-Tsarki da wasu litatafe ciki? Why do you think this language(s) is the best? • Me yasa kake tsammanin wannan harshe/harshuna shine/sune mafi kyau?
B.3 Language use for other church activities
What languages are used in the church for preaching? • Wadanne harsuna ana amfani dasu a coci don wa'azi? What languages are used for: • wadanne harsuna ana amfani dasu a: Bible reading? Hymns / Songs? • Karatun Littafi Mai Tsarki? Waƙoƙi? Prayer? Announcements? • Addu'a? Sanarwe?
28 29
Youth Services? Women’s fellowship? • Ayyukan matasa? Zumuntan mata? Bible studies? Other church activities? • Nazarin Littafi Mai Tsarki? Wasu ayyukan coci?
B.4 Potential project support
What are the names of your important persons who can be invited to discuss how your community can access Scriptures? • Mene ne sunayen mutanenku masu muhimmanci wadanda za a iya gayyace su don tattauna yadda za ku iya samun damar Nassosi What are their phone numbers or email addresses? • Menene lambobin wayan su adiresoshin imel? Which city / town / village do they live in? • Wace birni / garin / kauye suke zaune? Which churches can be invited in the Scripture access discussion? • Wace majami'un za a iya gayyatan su domin tattaunawa na samun Littafi? What are their names and phone numbers of their leaders? • Menene sunayensu da lambobin wayan shugabanninsu? What organization can be invited for the discussion? • Wadanne ƙungiyoyi za a iya gayyata don tattaunawa? What are the names and phone numbers or email addresses of their leaders? • Mene ne sunayen da lambobin waya ko adiresoshin imel na shugabanninsu? Which city / town / village do they live in? • Wace birni / garin / kauye suke zaune?
Appendix C: School Teacher Questionnaire
School ______Language Area ______State ______LGA ______Interviewee/Position ______Others Present ______Researcher ______Date ______
C.1 School staff
Headmaster’s name ______Number of Teachers ______What languages do teachers use outside school with their families? • with other teachers: • with village adults:
C.2 Size and attendance
How many children attend this school? How many children in this area are school-aged? Which villages do your students come from? Which language groups do your students come from?
C.3 Language use and attitudes
What languages are used in class for teaching? What language(s) are the textbooks written in? What language(s) do the children use on the playground, among themselves? • (Confirm this by observation if possible as there may be an “official” answer) What happens if the children use the local language? If a child asks you a question about a school subject away from school grounds, in what language do you respond to him? In what language do you prefer to teach? If you had a chance to teach in the local language, would you do so? Why?
30
Appendix D: Sample Observation Schedule
Community Children Young Young Elderly Elderly Outsiders Observations males females males females Children Young males Young females Elderly males Elderly females Outsiders
Marketplace Children Young Young Elderly Elderly Outsiders Observations males females males females Children Young males Young females Elderly males Elderly females Outsiders
School Teacher Student Teacher Student
31
Appendix E: Wordlists
The SIL Nigeria standard 348-item wordlist is designed after the wordlists used by the following: Blench (for example, 2019), who has done extensive historical comparative work on Nigerian languages; the wordlists used by Dettweiler and Dettweiler (for example, 2002), former SIL Nigeria surveyors; and earlier SIL Nigeria surveys (for example Hon et al., 2018). The transcriptions are preliminary since no in-depth analysis of tones or other phonological or phonetic features was conducted. In the wordlists, all entries represent phonetic transcriptions although the items are not put between square brackets. Some vowels are transcribed with the IPA symbol for vowel lengthening [ː]. By this convention, however, we are not implying to have analysed phonemic lengthening. It also appears that there is extensive labialization and palatalization of consonants (see section 6.2). We have transcribed these consonants with a raised [w] or [j]. However, we are not claiming to have decided that these are phonemic features; these may be separate approximant phonemes. All nouns in this list are in singular form. All verbs are in infinitive form. The plural nouns that were elicited are in Appendix F. A few decisions were made as to words in the following list that were not used in the comparison: • An asterisk (*) in the number (#) column indicates that the word was not included in the final comparison. • Numbers 88, and 247 to 259 were excluded because it appears that the words simply repeat the comparison of another word.
Language name: Jakattoe[jrt] Miship [mjs] Goemai [ank] Dialect name: Jakattoe Longmaar (Chip) Gwalong Village name: Dokan-Tofa Kapil Gwalong LGA: Shendam Pankshin Shendam State: Plateau Plateau Plateau Language helper: PG KP MT Age: 45 41 38 Sex: M M M Other helpers: DF 52 (M) EDD (M) HM (M) Reliability: 1st 1st 1st Elicited by: Christina Riepe Christina Riepe Julius Dabet Date: 24 April 2019 16 April 2019 12 September 2019
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 1 broom jɪmpɛt jɪ́mpɛ̄t mbàt 2 mortar ʃiŋ ʃɪn nɡɨŋ
3 pestle duɡlɛs dūɡūlˈɛ́s hēːs
4 rope teŋ tɛ́ŋ tʲeŋ
5 basket kiʃɑk kɪ̄ʃáʔ tùkʃí
6 clothing biɑt lé ʃalìbiː
7 road / path jɑr jar wākāːm
8 pit ɗʒɑɣɑt tʰuɡl̩ tùːn
32 33
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 9 house / hut lɨ lɪ pìnsēt
10 room pin lɪ pīn
11 door pɨlɑ pɨlə pèːpìn
12 chair / stool tɑɡɑm tāʔám tòːm
13 salt ɡɯn kɯn kɨːn
14 tree tɪŋ tən tɨŋ
15 leaf komim kəmtən jím
16 bark koxɑptɪn kəqɔŋtən kōŋ
17 branch sɑrtɪn sɔŋtɯn ʃāt
18 root sejɪntɪn sentʌn sēːn
19 medicine ɛn ɛn �̄ːn
20 thorn le ɛr ǹk�̄ːn
21 firewood ʃɪt ʃɛp̚ ʃēp
22 shea butter tree din ɗiːn dìn
23 mahogany ten ten bēːt
24 farm (field) mɑr mar mâːr
25 bush ɡɑʤʃit ɗɛm sét
26 grass ʃit ʃɪt̚ sèt
27 forest lɨɡɪt lɨɡɯt èrt�́n
28 seed ʃɛrɛm ʃɛrɛm h�̀ːbìː
29 ground nut komkʷɑn kɔm kʷāmkʷāːn
30 bambara nut qomzuɡut kɔmzʊɡʊt kʷàm
31 guinea corn çʷu ʃu sʷāː
32 millet mɑːr maːr mǎːr
33* millet (another kind) kas ʃōŋ
34 yam ʃim ʃɪ́m ʃīm
35 bean ɛrɛm ʔɨrɯm �̄rīm
36 locust bean tree mɛst mɛs ʃāp
37 zobo leaf ɣɜⁱɣor ɡoɡor ɡòːr
38 okra toklɑh tɔqːla tòklàː 34
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 39 meat lu nu lʷāː
40 fat m̩ ɡr məɡr mɨːr
41 egg ɑsɡo aːs hàːskʲè
42 tuwo / fu-fu ʃɑt mun ʃàt
43 soup tɑk taq tòk
44 flower peltɪn pɛl kìpàl jìm
45 fruit lɑːtɪn latʌŋ ʒàptɨŋ
46 hair dipkɑ ʃoːbka ʃūːl káː
47 head kɑː kaː kāː
48 forehead pɪkɛn bɨkɯn p�̄k�̄n
49 ear kom qɔm kʷām
50 mouth pʷo po p�̄h�̄
51 tooth ɑʁɑs aɣas hōːs
52 tongue liːs liːs līːs
53 chin ɗʒɑʁɑm ʤaxam ʤòːm
54 beard piɛp mpiɛt pāp
55 nose ɡoŋ ɡɔŋ ɡòŋ
56 eye jɪt jɪt jīt
57 neck tɔk tɔq tʲàk
58 shoulder bɑp táŋɡōŋ ʃāːt
59 back dɑ͜uŋkoŋ danqoŋ kōŋ
60 knee firm̩ fɯrum fīrīm
61 leg kʷɑk qwa ʃēː
62 foot lɑːpʃiː qwa ʒàp ɡɨ ʃēː
63 thigh dɪɡɪt ɗɪɡɨt ʃìː
64 hand sɑ́ːr sar sàː
65 arm baːl baːl bàːl
66 finger ʒɑrɑpsɑr lasar ʒàp kiʃōː
67 skin kɑramʃim ʃɪ̄m ʃìm
68 bone ɛs ɛs �̀ːs 35
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 69 breast juɡr juɡr jēr
70 belly ɓut ɓut̚ bɨt
71 stomach dɑbɑk ɓut̚ bɨŋ
72 navel kum qum ùm
73 intestines jɪmut jɪmɓut̚ tūk
74 heart dɑlɑŋ pɨzoŋ dālāŋ
75 liver fɪlok flɔq fàlāk
76 body dɪŋʃiʃɪt ʃiʃɪk ʃìm sik
77 blood tɪɡm tɪɡʌm kim
78 saliva zɛl zeːl tìlīː
79 sweat peⁱbɑn wun wùn
80 tear drop jɪtmʷɑ jɪtmʷa jīt m�̀nà
81 cough sɑɣɑm sɪɡʌm s�̄hīm
82 pain lɑː ʃwal bìɡ�̀làː
83 corpse kum quːm ùm
84 grave kɪʃɛr tuɡun ɡ�̀ʃír
85 woman mɑt mat̚ ɡ�̀mat
86 man mɪs mís mis
87 [L1____] language dɨɡɨlɛmo liːs dʲèlùmén
88* [L1____] person ɡurum ɡuruːm ɡùrūm
89 person ɡurum ɡuruːm ɡùrum
90 father ndɑ nda ǹdāː
91 mother nɪɡn̩ na n�̄ːn
92 child lɑ la làː
93 old person nɑɡʲɑ naɡʲa nèɡʲaː ɡùrùm
94 chief loŋ miskaram loŋ
95 blacksmith suɡum ŋɡokolom ɡ�̀sūm
96 friend ʃɑːr ʃar ɡ�̀sʃāː
97 stranger umoz mɨzɛp ɡɨmʷos
98 God nɑːn naːn nāːn 36
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 99 name sɜm sɜm s�̄m
100 animal bikɜm lɔŋ b�̀ːk�̄r
101 dog ɑs as āːs
102 goat ʔɯ ʔɯ bìn
103 cow nɨŋ rondoŋ n�̄ŋ
104 sheep tɨm tɨm t�̄m
105 chicken koː ko kēː
106 guinea fowl ʃɑɣɑm ʃaʔam ʃōːm
107 bird jɛr jɛr jar
108 horn soɣom soɣom sōhōm
109 tail dɑŋ daŋ ɗāŋ
110 claw ʃiɡɪn ʃɪɡɜn ʃōːn
111 wing ʃɑp ʃaːp ʃāːt
112 feather dip ɗiːp díp
113 snake woː ŋwo wōː
114 tortoise dɑkur dakur ūr
115 agama lizard tɑmbul dɪɡɔs tíbél
116 crocodile kʊt qot kút
117* crocodile, 2nd
118* crocodile, 3rd
119 fish ʃɛrɛp ʃɛrɛp ʃārēp
120 toad nɨmʷɑt nɪmʷat nìm�̄hāt
121 rat kɪzɜm kɨzm̩ ɡ�́sim
122 bush pig toɣos toɣos toːs
123 red monkey pit pit̚ pìt
124 buffalo kɪbɜn kɨbɯn boːn
125 elephant niː niː nìː
126 hyena kumu qɜ̂mu tūmū
127 fly n̩ʃiː nʃiː nʃìː 37
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai louse (head 128 nʃɑm nmɪʃam nʃàm louse) 129 spider vɪlɪpnɑn vɪlɪpnaːn màt nāːn
130 mosquito mfɜt nfɜt nfèt
131 honeybee mʷɑnʃi nʃiːn nʃìː ɡɨnʷāŋɡūrūm
132 scorpion dɑɡɑr ɗaɣar dʲōːr
133 fire wuːs wus wus
134 smoke dʲɛl ɗiɛl dʲeːl
135 ashes ɑrɑŋ fwat ārāŋ
136 stick dɑm duɡol bāːl
137 stone pɑŋ paŋ bāŋ
138 mountain ʃɪm ɗɜɡɜl bān
139 up kɜˈtɪŋ qɜtɜŋ ɡūt�̄n
140 down jɪl ʃɪnsam jíl
141 sky kɜtɨŋnɑːn qɜtɨnaːn ɡɨtɨŋ loːn
142 earth, ground jɪl il kajíl
143 mud ɓɔk ɓɔːk bʲaːk
144 clay wɑn wan wān
145 sand ɛs eːs ēːs
146 dust wɜrwum ɓol npúŋ
147 iron kukʃɑʁɑl ʃɛɣal lāsòːl
148 money ʃɑʁɑl ʃɜʁal sòːl
149 wind koɣom qɔɣam īŋhāt
150 cloud lɪbɪn lɪbɪn lōːn
151 rain fɑn fwan fɨhāːn
152 rainy season pɑs pas pās
153 dry season luɡn luɡun lūːn
154 dew sɨɡr sɨɡr sɨːr
155 stream lot koŋ nkōŋ
156 river kom koŋ ʃip 38
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 157* bridge kɑdɛrɡu
158 water ɑm am hàŋɡɨdèː
159 lake ɡɑpdɑr amnɨɡɜn lōːt
160 moon tɑr tar taːr
161 star zɑr zar sīm
162 sun pʊːs puːs pɨːs
163 year jiː jiː jiː
164 morning bit ɓit bìt lūŋ
165 afternoon mpuːs arka ɡ�́p�̄ːs
166 evening kɑnsɨɡɨn kansɪdɪn kènsɨːn
167 night ɡoŋ lɨpaːr nɡoŋ
168 yesterday dɪɡɪn dɪɡɪn ɗɪɗɨrɜn dʲèndʲèn
169 tomorrow tɑdɑr ɗɪdaːr ɡ�̄dāːr
170 ax sɛp̚ sɛp sàp
171 hoe kʲɑŋ ʃan kʲáŋ
172 and kɜ kɯ ndì
173 bow bɑwo reː bou
174 arrow pɑs pas dɨːt
175 quiver bɑŋbɑu dɪloŋ báŋ bōu
176 spear kɔp qɔp kʷāp
177 canoe ʃiŋ.ɑm ʃiː ʃii haŋ ɡɨdeːt
178 war lɑkɗiɛl ɭaq sàl
179 work ʃit ʃiːt sīt
180 hunger neːn neːn neːn
181 one kɜme kɨme ɡ�̀mēː
182 two vɜl vɛl vèl
183 three kun kun kun
184 four fɛr feːr fíːr
185 five pɑːt̚ paːt pāːt
186 six pɨmɨ peːme p�̄mō 39
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 187 seven pɜvɜl poʁovel p�̄vēl
188 eight pɜkun poʁokun pūkūn
189 nine pɜfɑr poʁofar pūfaːr
190 ten sɑ̀ːr sar sār
191 twelve sɑrkɑvɛl sarpovɛl sár ʃīkāvel
192 fifteen sɑ̀rkɑ̀pɑ̀ːt sarpopal sār ʃikāpaːt
193 twenty jɑɡrum jaɣarom jāɡùrūm
194 hundred jɑɡrumpɑt ɗali jāɡùrúmpaːt
195 who? ɑ́wè awɛ āwúrùm
196 what? ɑme amɛ ābimù
197 when? ɑpenɑŋe apɛnaŋ ātátnàŋ
198 how? ɑnɑŋe anaŋ āndàŋ
199 where? ɑne ane án nàŋ
200 here sɜ̀ mb�̄s�̄ bāk
201 there púnsɜ̀ pʷāns�́ pēnáŋ
202 this m�̀sɜ̀ nd�̄s�̄ ɡɨno
203 that m�̀sɜ́ nd�̄s�́ː ɡ�́ndēnāŋ
204 white pʲɑ pʲa pʲāː
205 black tɜp tɨp̚ tép
206 red ɓɑŋ nat bāŋ
207 long kuːn kun sɨː
208 short kʊp kɯp̚ kɨp
209 old sòɛɡòɾ sɨɡr nàɡʲāː
210 new pòɛ pʷo ɡíp�̄ː
211 ripe nu nuŋ nùŋ
212 rotten wɑ̀m wam wam
213 hot ɓɑ̀ːn ɓaːn baːn
214 cold zùɡùm zuɡom zòːm
215 sharp ɓɑ́l aʁas hòːs
216 dull mùlɑ́m aʁas dūlùk 40
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 217 good dɔ̌ŋ rɛt dōŋ
218 narrow pɑ̀xɑ̀t paʁat pòt
219 straight tìɾ ndarí ʒār
220 heavy tìɡín tɨɡɜn ʃōːn
221 left kùl qʷul kūl
222 right sɛ̀ sɨ sēː
223 hard sùɡúl ɓal sūːl
224 soft lɛ̌n len lēːn
225 few lɑ̌nì le tòklók
226 wet ɓɑ̀ɾɑ̀ ɓɜrak bàrāk
227 dry fì fiː fīː
228 dirty ɾɑ̀p rap fōp
229 full ɡâm ɡam ɡām
230 all díp dukduk dip
231 I ɑn an he
232 you ɡòɛ ɡɨ ɡō
233 you (fem.) ilit jɪ jò
234 he ni ní nī
235 she ni ní jo
236 we mun mèn
237 you ɡu fun ɡʷèn
238 they mɔp mu m�̄hēp
239 knife ʃuk ʃok ʃik
240 my mɑn fɜn nō
241 your mɑk fək ɡō
242 his mumuk kɨmuk mūp
243 her kumuk kɨmuk jō
244 our fum fun mēn
245 your (pl.) kumwɔp fuk ɡwēn
246 their fumʷɔp ɡɨmu m�̄hēp 41
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 247* I ate asɨ ēn sō
248* you ate ɡɨsɨ ɡɨ sō
249* you (fem.) ate isɨ jī sō
250* he ate nisɨ ni sō
251* she ate nisɨ nī sō
252* we ate mūs�̄ m�̄ sō
253* you (pl.) ate ɡusɨ ɡū sō
254* they ate mús�̄ mɨhēp sō
255* he is eating nipɨsɨ tòŋ tōŋ sīsī
256* he will eat ansɨ ni tōŋ sō
257* he usually eats taŋnipɨsɨ ni de toŋ sī ji
258* he didn’t eat nipɨsɨma nī sī mōu
259* he wants to eat nipɨdɛmsɨ nī zēm dè ɡɨnsīsó
260 eat sɔ́k sɨ só
261 do ʃín ʃɪ̄n ʃìn
262 dance ɡjɑ́ tamtam màtɡʲá
263 play dɑɡʲɛl ʃap ʃìn ʃêl
264 smell tɑ̄kɑ̄s dɨ dūːɡòŋ
265 see nɑ̌ː na naː
266 blow fúp̚ fok fùk
267 whistle dìfīp dɪfiːb tīfiːt
268 sing man tam māŋɡʲaː
269 laugh swɑɾ ʃwar sʷār sʷār
270 say kūt̚ sat kùt kút
271 ask tɑ̀l tal tàl
272 beg bɔ̀ɣɔ́l ɗaŋ bōːl
273 hear kīlɘ̄n kɨlɜŋ kɨlɨŋ
274 bark ɡʊ̄k ɡok kūk
275 shout ɾʊ̄ɾʊ́ or wōːr
276 cry wɑ̌l wal wàl 42
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 277 fear loɡʊt luɡot lūːt
278 want dɛm ɗɛm zèm
279 think ɾɑ́ŋ leŋ rāːŋ
280 count kùn kun kùn
281 know mán man màn
282 teach tʃìɛ̄l kam bìʃèː
283 show nǐn nin nin
284 drink ʃōː ʃuː sʷāː
285 suck mʷɑk̚ ɗas m�̄hāk
286 vomit fʷǒt fuːt fūːt
287 spit bwɑ̌k ɓʷak tʷāk
288 sneeze wɑ̌s was wàs
289 bite ɑ̄t̚ at̚ àt
290 sweep kúm qum ùm
291 sit tɔ̀ŋ toŋ tōŋ
292 stand jɑ̄ɣɑ̄l jaɣal jōːl
293 fight ljɑk ɭaq lʲàkʃāl
294 lie down tɛ̄ɾ tɛːr tāːɡɨtóː
295 yawn ɑ̄ːp aːb ōːt ōːt
296 rest nɔ̄k̚ nɔk nʲàːk
297 sleep sɑ̀m saːm saːm
298 wash vɑ̀ŋ vʷaŋ vɨhaŋ
299 bathe sókúp suɣop sūk
300 steal wɑ́t̚ wat̚ bìbòŋ
301 give ʃǐn ʃɪ́n pōbì
302 hide pɑ́ˈɑ́p laɣam sōk
303 take mɑ̀ŋ maŋ māŋ
304 hold jɑ̀ː jaː hoːm
305 buy sɛ́ːt sɛːt sèːt
306 sell sɛ́ːt sɛːt sěːtnī 43
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 307 give birth lɑ̀ː lala lāːɡɨlaː
308 marry lɑ̄pmɑ̄t dɪq̚ lápmàt
309 die muˈːt muːt mūːt
310 kill tòɛ tɜ tùː
311 drop d̪ɛ̀n kan bʷèt
312 fall over pùtɑ̄ pɪtaː pēt táː
313 walk mwɑ̄n mʷān mɨhāːn
314 run soɛ nasɨsɨ sūː
315 fly kɑ̀ˈktín jaʁal kɨtɨn jōːl
316 jump across pɑ́ɾ napaːr baːr
317 swim ēt̚ ēːtám hàm heːt
318 come ʒǐ ʤi ɡɨdōk
319 enter ɾɘn rə rūː
320 exit put̚ put̚ pēt
321 go mʷɑ̄n mʷán mɨhán
322 follow kɨdɛɾ mʷandɛl mɨhān ɡɨdèm
323 send pɑˈɑɾ lɛp̚ pār
324 cut ɡɑ̄p̚ ɡap̚ ɡ�̀p
325 cut down ɡɑ̄p̚ ɡap̚ ɡ�̀p lʲâk
326 cut neck ɡɑp̚ tɔk̚ fɛt ɡ�̀p tʲák
327 break tɛ̄p tʰɛp̚ tàp
328 split kʲɑk̚ ɓak̚ kʲàk
329 scratch kɔˈɔn koɣon kōːn
330 cook ʃɛ̄t ʃɛt dàn
331 boil fʲɑl fʲal fʲāl
332 fry tùn tuŋ tūŋ
333 hunt kwɑ̀t qʷat ʃàŋ
334 hit ʃìt ʃɪt hét
335 tie bùɣɑ̀t ɓʷoɣat boːt
336 sew tɑ̂̀ ːn taːn taːn 44
# English Gloss Jakattoe Miship Goemai 337 forge sòɡúm qolom kʷālām
338 burn kūɾ ʃan kuːr
339 throw kɔ̄m fiː lʲàk
340 pour doɛk ɗɨk dʲēː
341 pour out kɔ̄n ɗɛkʃɪnput kʷān
342 fill doɛk ɡam ɡam
343 push tùɡùn bɛt tūːn
344 pull dɛ̀l dɜl dèl
345 squeeze miɣɑl ɗʷat dʷàt
346 dig ɔk ɔq hōk
347 plant wūm qɔp̚ wūm
348 harvest dǐp dip dip
Appendix F: Jakattoe Plurals
This is a list of the plural forms of Jakattoe nouns that were collected during the wordlist elicitation. They were not included in the comparisons or analysis. They are simply included to provide all of the data we collected.
1 broom jɪmpɛtmop̚ 28 seed ʃɛrɛmop̚ 2 mortar ʃiŋmᵚop 29 ground nut komkʷɑnmop̚ 3 pestle duɡl̩ɛsmop̚ 30 bambara nut qomzuɡutmop̚ 4 rope teŋmop̚ 31 guinea corn çʷumop̚ 5 basket kiʃɑkmop̚ 32 millet mɑrmop 6 clothing biɑtmop̚ millet 33* (another 7 road/path jɑrmop̚ kind) 8 pit ɗ͡ʒɑɣɑtmop̚ 34 yam ʃimːop
9 house/hut lɨmop̚ 35 bean ɛrɛmop 10 room pinmop̚ locust bean 36 mɛstmop̚ tree 11 door pɪlɜmop̚ 37 zobo leaf ɣormop̚ 12 chair/stool tɑɡɑmop̚ 38 okra toklɑmop̚ 13 salt 39 meat 14 tree 40 fat 15 leaf komtinmop 41 egg ɑsɡomop 16 bark koxɑptɪnmop 42 tuwo / fu-fu 17 branch sɑrtɪnmop 43 soup 18 root sejɪntɪnmop̚ 44 flower 19 medicine ɛnmop̚ 45 fruit 20 thorn lemop 46 hair 21 firewood ʃɪtmop̚ 47 head kɑːmop shea butter 22 dinmop̚ tree 48 forehead pɪkɛnmop̚
23 mahogany tenmop 49 ear komːop̚
24 farm (field) mɑrmop̚ 50 mouth
25 bush dɑɡɑʤʃitmop̚ 51 tooth
26 grass ʃitmop̚ 52 tongue 27 forest lɨɡɪtmop
45 46
53 chin 83 corpse
54 beard 84 grave kɪʃɛrmop̚
55 nose 85 woman ʃorop
56 eye 86 man dɑsmop [L1____] 57 neck 87 language 58 shoulder [L1____] 88* ɡurumːop person 59 back 89 person ɡurumːop 60 knee fɪrm̩ op̚ 90 father ndɑmop̚ 61 leg kʷɑkmop̚ 91 mother nɪɡn̩mop 62 foot lɑːpʃiːmop 92 child dʒ͡ɪpmop̚ 63 thigh dɪɡɪtmop̚ 93 old person nɑɡʲɑmop̚ 64 hand sɑːrmop̚ 94 chief loŋmop̚ 65 arm baːlmop̚ 95 blacksmith suɡumop̚ 66 finger ʒɑrɑpsɑrmop 96 friend ʃɑːrmop 67 skin kɑrɑmʃimːop̚ 97 stranger umozmop 68 bone ɛsmop̚ 98 God 69 breast juɡrmop̚ 99 name sɜmːop 70 belly ɓutmop 100 animal 71 stomach dɑbɑkmop̚ 101 dog 72 navel kumːop̚ 102 goat ʔɯmop 73 intestines jɪmutmop̚ 103 cow nɨŋmop̚ 74 heart dɑlɑŋmop̚ 104 sheep tɨmːop 75 liver fɪlokmop̚ 105 chicken koːmop 76 body 106 guinea fowl ʃaɣɑmːop 77 blood 107 bird jɛrmop 78 saliva 108 horn soɣom 79 sweat 109 tail dɑŋmop 80 tear drop 110 claw ʃiɡɪnmop 81 cough 111 wing ʃɑpmop 82 pain 112 feather dipmop 47
113 snake 126 hyena kumumop̚
114 tortoise dɑkurmop 127 fly n̩ʃiːmop louse (head 115 agama lizard tɑmblmop 128 louse) 116 crocodile kʊt 129 spider vɪlɪpnɑnmop crocodile, 117* 2nd 130 mosquito mfɜtmop crocodile, 118* 131 honeybee 3rd 119 fish ʃɛrɛpmop̚ 132 scorpion dɑɡɑrmop
120 toad nɨmʷɑt̚ 133 fire
121 rat kɪzɜmːop 134 smoke
122 bush pig toɣosmop̚ 135 ashes
123 red monkey pitmop̚ 136 stick dɑmːop
124 buffalo kɪbɜnmop 137 stone pɑŋmop
125 elephant niːmop̚
References
Adegbija, Efurisibina. 2007. Language policy and planning in Nigeria. In R. B. Kaplan and R. B. Baldauf, Jr. (eds.), Language Planning and Policy in Africa, Vol. 2: Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Tunisia. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Ames, Cecil G. 1934. Gazetteer of the Plateau Province, Nigeria. Jos: Jos Native Administration. Bergman, Ted G. 1989. Summarizing and Drawing Conclusions from the Numbers in a Language Survey. In Ted G. Bergman (ed.), Survey Reference Manual for Assessing Bible Translation Need. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics, pp. 8.1.5–8.1.6. Blair, Frank. 1990. Survey of a Shoestring: A Manual for Small-Scale Language Surveys. Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Blench, Roger. 2016a. Five unexpected West Chadic languages and the sorry tale of Jorto. Presentation given at CALL, Leiden, 28 September 2016. Blench, Roger. 2016b. Mwaghavual-English Dictionary. Electronic Manuscript. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/3764864/Mwaghavul_Dictionary, accessed 14 February 2020. Blench, Roger. 2017. Current research on the A3 West Chadic Languages. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/35507157/CURRENT_RESEARCH_ON_THE_A3_WEST_CHADIC_LANGUA GES, accessed 15 September 2019. Blench, Roger. 2019. Jakato, an undocumented language of Central Nigeria. Electronic Manuscript. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/40680338/Jakato_an_undocumented_language_ of_Central_Nigeria, accessed 6 June 2020. Boone, Douglas W. 2012. Indicators of centrality in language development endeavors. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Cahill, Michael and Keren Rice eds. 2014. Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. CAPRO. 2004. A Harvest of Peace. A Survey on the peoples of Plateau State. CAPRO Media Services: Jos. Cooper, Robert. L. 1989. Language Planning and Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Decker, Ken, Adedamola Aregbesola, Christina Riepe, Fittokka Gobak, John Sacson, and Samuel Eju. 2020a. A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Piapung [pcw] Language of Plateau State, Nigeria. SIL Electronic Survey Reports. Forthcoming. Decker, Ken, Yakubu Danladi, Julius Dabet, Benard Abraham, and Innocent Jonah. 2020b. A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Pye [pai] Language of Plateau State, Nigeria. SIL Electronic Survey Reports. Forthcoming. Dettweiler, Stephen and Sonia Dettweiler. 2002. Sociolinguistic survey of the Pongu people. SIL Electronic Survey Reports. Retrieved from https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/9113, accessed 7 January 2020. Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig, eds. 2020a. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 23rd ed. SIL International: Dallas. Online version at http://www.ethnologue.com. Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig. 2020b. Language status. In David M. Eberhard, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), Ethnologue: Languages of the world, 23rd ed. Dallas: SIL International. Online URL: https://www.ethnologue.com/about/language-status. Facebook. 2020. Conaecda. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/Conaecda-813719351986294/, accessed 28 April 2020.
48 49
Federal Ministry of Education. 1981. National policy on education, 2nd ed. Lagos: Federal Government Press. Federal Republic of Nigeria. 2013. National Policy on Education (Revised), 6th ed. Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria: NERDC Press. Gal, Susan. 1979. Language shift: Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria. New York: Academic Press. Google Earth 7.3.2.5776. 2019. Dokan Tofa 9.09°N, 9.32°E, elevation 22K ft. 3D map, viewed 12 February 2020.
Netting, Robert McC. 1968. Hill farmers of Nigeria: culture ecology of the Kofyar of the Jos Plateau. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Newman, Paul. 2010. Hausa and Chadic Languages. In Comrie, B. (ed.), The World’s Major Languages, 2nd ed. London: Routledge. (Original work published 2009) Sanders, Joy. [1977] 1986. On defining the center of a linguistic group. In Richard E. Loving and Gary F. Simons (eds.), Language variation and survey techniques (Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages 21). Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 263–294. Schuh, Russell G. and Yalwa, Lawan D. 1999. Hausa. In Handbook of International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. SIL International. 2020. The Language & Identity Journey. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/sil.org/thelanguageidentityjourney/the-journey, accessed 1 June 2020. Spolsky, Bernard. 2004. Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Spolsky, Bernard. 2009. Language management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wente-Lukas, Renate. 1985. Handbook of Ethnic Units in Nigeria. Studies on Cultural Studies, 74, 1–466. White, Art and David Colgan. 2012. WordSurv 7. Upland; Dallas: Taylor University; SIL International. Online URL: http://wordsurv.cse.taylor.edu/.