A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Kyoli (Cori) [Cry] Language of Kaduna State, Nigeria

DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2020-012 A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Kyoli (Cori) [cry] Language of Kaduna State, Nigeria Ken Decker, John Muniru, Julius Dabet, Benard Abraham, Jonah Innocent A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Kyoli (Cori) [cry] Language of Kaduna State, Nigeria Ken Decker, John Muniru, Julius Dabet, Benard Abraham, Jonah Innocent SIL International® 2020 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2020-012, October 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 Kyoli-speaking communities in Jaba Local Government Area (LGA), Kaduna State, in central Nigeria. The Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. 2020a) classifies Kyoli [cry] as a Niger-Congo, Atlantic Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Plateau, Western, Northwestern, Hyamic language. During the survey, it was learned that the speakers of the language prefer to spell the name of their language <Kyoli>, which is pronounced as [kjoli] or [çjoli]. They refer to speakers of the language as Kwoli. We estimate that there may be about 7,000 to 8,000 speakers of Kyoli, which is most if not all the ethnic group. The goals of this research included gaining a better understanding of the role of Kyoli and other languages in the lives of the Kwoli people. Our data indicate that Kyoli is used at a sustainable level of orality, EGIDS 6a. Children still learn the language as their first language, and it is the predominant language in most domains in their communities. The Kwoli indicated positive attitudes towards the use and preservation of their language. The people do not report awareness of any dialectal variation in their language. However, wordlist comparisons revealed that there is some phonological variation between the speech of the two Kwoli villages, roughly measured as 93 percent apparent lexical similarity. It is not enough variation that we would expect there to be a problem in creating an orthography that could be used by the entire community. We did not collect enough linguistic data to identify a linguistically optimal variety as a reference variety. However, Bobang is considered the cultural center of the Kwoli community. There is some multilingualism with neighboring languages, primarily Hyam, as well as Hausa and English. Proficiency levels vary depending on the nature and amount of contact and education levels. However, the use of Hausa, and to some degree English, is occurring in an increasing number of domains. Without some language development initiative, it is quite possible that there could be a shift to a greater preference for the use of Hausa or English. This study of Kyoli is part of a larger initiative to provide sociolinguistic information to missions, 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 through group and individual interviews, participatory discussions, observations, and wordlist collection. Contents Languages Mentioned in this Report 1 Introduction 2 Purpose and research questions 3 Previous research 4 Research methods 4.1 Group interview 4.2 Select leader interviews 4.3 Observation 4.4 Analysis of qualitative data 4.5 Wordlist collection and analysis 5 Geographical, 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 Kwoli 5.5 Other social descriptions 5.5.1 Occupations 5.5.2 Education 5.5.3 Literacy 5.5.4 Religions 5.5.5 Intermarriage 6 Linguistic relationships 6.1 Classification 6.2 Phonetic inventory 6.3 Variation between Bobang and Hal-Kyoli 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 Kwoli 8.2 Means of acquiring languages in the repertoire of the Kwoli 8.3 Motivation for using languages in the repertoire of the Kwoli 8.4 Environmental support for the maintenance of Kyoli 8.5 Differentiation of languages in the repertoire of the Kwoli 8.6 EGIDS assessment for Kyoli 9 Summary 10 Recommendations Appendix A: Dialect Mapping Instructions and Group Sociolinguistics Questionnaire Appendix B: Church Leader Questionnaire Appendix C: School Teacher Questionnaire Appendix D: Sample Observation Schedule Appendix E: Wordlist Ap pendix F: GPS Points for Select Villages References iii Languages Mentioned in this Report Languages mentioned in this report, with ISO 639-3 codes • Adara [kad] • Arabic [arb] • Chori,1 alternate name for Kyoli [cry] • Cori,1 alternate name for Kyoli [cry] • Duya [ldb] • Dzar, reported to be a dialect of Hyam [jab] • Edo [bin] • English2 [eng] • Fulfulde [fuv] • Hausa3 [hau] • Hyam [jab] • Hyam of Nok, reported to be a dialect of Hyam [jab] • Igbo [ibo] • Jju [kaj] • Kalabari [ijn] • Koro Wachi [bqv] • Kurmin Dangana (currently no ISO 639-3 code) • Kwoli, people who speak Kyoli [cry] • Kwyeny, reported to be a dialect of Hyam [jab] • Kyoli1 [cry] • Nigerian Pidgin English2 [pcm] • Nok, an alternate name for Hyam of Nok, reported to be a dialect of Hyam [jab] • Sait, reported to be a dialect of Hyam [jab] • Shamang [xsh] • Shang (currently no ISO 639-3 code) • Yaat, reported to be a dialect of Hyam [jab] • Yoruba [yor] • Zhire [zhi] 1 Current language catalogues, such as the Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. 2020a), refer to the language as Cori; Chori is given as an alternate name. During this survey it was found that <Kyoli> is the preferred spelling of the name of their language, which will be used through this report. See section 5.1 for more on the name of the language. 2 In Nigeria, there is a recognized Nigerian English and a Nigerian Pidgin 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. iv 1 Introduction This report describes a sociolinguistic survey conducted among the Kyoli-speaking communities of the Jaba Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State in central Nigeria. Kyoli [cry] is a Hyamic language within the Benue-Congo, Plateau branch of the Niger-Congo language family (Eberhard et al. 2020a). During the survey it was learned that the speakers of the language prefer to spell the name of their language <Kyoli>, which is pronounced as [kjoli] or [çjoli]. They refer to speakers of the language as Kwoli. We estimate that there may be about 7,000 to 8,000 speakers of Kyoli, which is most if not all the ethnic group. The fieldwork was conducted on the 8th and 9th of May 2019 by John Muniru, Julius Dabet, Benard Abraham4, and Jonah Innocent5, members of the SIL Nigeria language survey team. Ken Decker served as a consultant on the survey and provided writing assistance on this report. The fieldwork was carried out in the villages of Bobang and Hal-Kyoli. This survey report includes linguistic, sociolinguistic, geographical, and demographic information which we use to profile the sociolinguistic environment6 of the Kwoli people. This profile is used to draw conclusions about the possibilities for language planning and development. Through this research, we learned that Kyoli is used actively as the predominant means of oral communication in most domains of community life. Kwoli parents are transmitting the language to their children, and the language is used by all age groups in most domains. It is even allowed to be used in some schools and is used for some purposes in the church. All generations are reportedly able to speak Hausa, and the children learn Hausa at home, at church, and in school. But how proficient some age groups are in Hausa is questionable. English also has a growing role in the schools and churches. While Hausa is the language of wider communication among the Kwoli and their neighbors, adults are also able to speak Hyam and Gyong. It appears that this proficiency has pragmatic uses for interacting with neighbors. But there is also cultural identification with the Hyam speakers, and the language is perceived as having prestige. The language vitality is assessed as EGIDS level 6a, sustainable orality. The people reported positive attitudes towards their language and expressed a desire for language development. Their primary interest in language development seems to be for preservation, to help the youth remember their language, and to be able to teach it to their children. We also gathered cultural, demographic, and geographical data on the environment of the Kwoli communities. For documentation and further analysis, wordlists were elicited and recorded, and geographical coordinates of Kwoli villages were tracked by a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. In this report, the purpose of the survey and the 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 geographical, social, and cultural factors that may influence language use. In section 6, we describe linguistic data that were collected, how they were analyzed, and we draw conclusions relevant to answering research questions about variation within varieties 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.

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