Ladder of Abstraction

Summary of Kambari Sociolinguistic Survey Marcus Hansley, Samuel Ayenajeh, John Muniru, Michael J. Rueck 4 October 2012 Summary A survey was done in the section of the Kambari language area between Kontagora, Birnin Yauri and Rijau in north-western Nigeria to determine which languages people use in that area, the vitality of the languages and what opportunities exist there for language development. The research was focused particularly on the Kambari languages spoken within this triangle. Sociolinguistic data was collected in seventeen different villages throughout the area using group interviews and wordlists. It appears that Tsuvaɗi is the primary Kambari language spoken in this area. There were some Agwara Kambari (Cishingini) villages in the western corner of the triangle, near Birnin Yauri. There were also Hausa, Dukawa, Dakarkari, and Fulani villages and speakers throughout the triangle. Agaɗi is not actually an identifiable language inside this triangle, but a relative term which means “highlander” or “northerner”. Those people we expected to be Agaɗi and speak Tsugaɗi told us that they are Avaɗi people who speak Tsuvaɗi. However, there is a real linguistic difference between two dialects of Tsuvaɗi with a rough dividing line between them along the Malendo River, which flows from east to west across the triangle. The Tsuvaɗi language appears to have high vitality, especially in interior villages away from paved roads. Contents Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Previous research and work done in Kambari languages ................................ 1 Language Identification ............................................................................... 2 Social Identity ............................................................................................. 4 Contact Patterns .......................................................................................... 6 Bilingual Proficiency/Language Use .............................................................. 7 Language Vitality ........................................................................................ 9 Language Acceptability .............................................................................. 11 Literature Acceptability ............................................................................. 13 Literacy ..................................................................................................... 13 Development needs .................................................................................... 14 Conclusions ............................................................................................... 15 Bibliography.............................................................................................. 17 ii Introduction The purpose of this survey was to conduct sociolinguistic research in the triangle area between Kontagora, Birnin Yauri and Rijau in north-western Nigeria (see Map 1). This area has previously been known as “the hidden triangle” according to missiologists Lois Fuller and Jim McDowell as not much was known about the groups living there or their languages (Stark & Stark 1993: 2). Roger Blench confirmed just prior to this survey, that the linguistic situation in this triangle was still largely a mystery. Map 1 is based on the most recent information in the Ethnologue, and is only meant to show the relative geographic locations of languages, and is not an exact representation of the actual extents of these languages. The Kambari Language Project (KLP) leadership asked the Language Development Facilitators to do a survey of this area with a view to expanding language development throughout the rest of the Kambari language cluster. The goals of the survey were to determine what languages people use in the area and the vitality of the languages and to discover what opportunities exist for developing the languages in the area, with a particular focus on the Kambari languages. It was also important to describe the development needs of the minority groups in the area to know how to best promote development of their languages. The data were gathered by Marcus Hansley, Samuel Ayenajeh, John Muniru, Michael J. Rueck, Benjamin Gimba, John Isaiah and Michael Bawa from March 3 to March 20 2011 with the support of His Royal Highness Sa’idu Namaska, the Emir of Kontagora (Maisudan), Alhaji Daudu Hussaini, the honourable District Head of Ibelu, Col. Y.D. Salka (Rtd), Mr. James N. Yusef, Acting KLP Coordinator, Mr. Danjuma Langashi, Controller NPC of Magama LGA, and the leadership of the Kambari Language Project. This survey would not have been possible without the help and cooperation of the chiefs, leaders, pastors and residents of the following villages that we visited: Alanga Kure, Angu, Azozo, Baduku, Bisalla, Cita, Filin Jirgi, Gajimari, Jigawa, Kwanzo Kwanzo, Malodi, Marando, Kongo Masanji, Masavo, Nkuku, Rafintaba, Raha, Tungan Mamman and Warari (see Map 2). Kambari speakers were the majority of the population of these villages with the exception of Azozo where Kambari people were a minority. We visited seventeen different villages and collected sociolinguistic data using group interviews, participatory methods, observations and wordlists. Our sampling strategy for getting complete coverage of the triangle was to collect 399-item wordlists and sociolinguistics questionnaires in at least two places of each identifiable variety of a Kambari language, and 50-item wordlists and shorter questionnaires in enough other places to get overlap in the data. The results of our research are presented below organized by topic together with our particular research questions pertinent to each topic. 1 Map 1: Languages spoken in the triangle area 1 Previous research and work done in Kambari languages The name Kambari is first mentioned and spelt as Kambali in Polyglotta Africana (Koelle 1854: 19). The name has other variants including Kamberi, Kamberri, Kamberawa and Cumbry (Gunn and Conant 1960: 21). The Kambari people are said to be found all over the old Kontagora province, now in Niger state. Today, this is a large area surrounding the Kainji Dam, in Agwara, Borgu, Magama, Mashegu, Kontagora, Mariga and Rijau local government areas (LGA) of Niger state and Ngaski, Yauri and Shanga LGA’s of Kebbi state. (CAPRO Research Office 1995: 112) The Kambari are believed to have originated from the “highlands between the south of Zaria and the north of Niger province”. It is also believed that they came from Katsina country (Temple 1919, 200). But the Kambari of Wara claim to come from Zakanna Hill around Busa, the Kambari of Salka believe they originated from where they are found presently, while the Kambari of Argida and Auna maintain that they originated from Katsina (Gunn and Conant 1960). David Crozier and Roger Blench (1992: 64) group the Kambari languages into two clusters: 1) Agaɗi (Tsɨgaɗi, Kakihum), Avaɗi (Tsɨvaɗi, Ibeto), Baangi, Ashingini (Cishingini, Salka), Yumu and 2) Agaushi (Cishingini, Auna), Akimba (Tsɨkimba, Auna, Wara), Nwanci (Tsɨwənci, Mawunci, Agwara). These languages are reportedly not mutually intelligible, particularly between clusters. John and Janie Stark describe the area inside the triangle formed by Kontagora, Yelwa (as the new Birnin Yauri is also known), and Rijau as “the hidden triangle”. The population in this triangle is Kambari, Duka, Hausa and Fulani. They state that “it is common in any given 5 km square that a mix of groups is represented. Ethnic group homogeneity is very rare, while a high degree of regular interaction with members of other groups is the norm” (Stark & Stark 1993: 2). Carl Hoffman produced three papers on Central Kambari based on the dialect found in Raba and Salka, which are located within three miles of each other. They describe the noun class system, include a 700-item wordlist, and discuss the vowel contraction and elision processes (Hoffmann 1963; 1965; 1972). David Lovelace did some work in Tsuvaɗi including putting together an 1800- item wordlist, which is the most comprehensive one to date (Lovelace 1990). Jan Camburn conducted sociolinguistic research and collected wordlists in the upper region of the triangle just south of Rijau in the late 1990s. She concluded that there were two different dialects of Tsuvaɗi: the Ozozolo on the west side of the road between Kontagora and Rijau speak one dialect, and the Azagaɗi on the east side of the road speak the other dialect (Camburn 1999: 7). We note that Crozier and Blench referred to the language found in Salka as Cishingini, however the KLP has used the spelling “Cishingini” for Western Kambari, also known as Agwara by Hausa speakers, and have named the Kambari language found in Salka “Tsishingini”. Since this survey was at the request of the KLP, and for the sake of continuing with the most recent work being done in the language, we will refer to the language spoken in Salka as Tsishingini, and that spoken in Agwara or Western Kambari as Cishingini for the remainder of this report. The KLP also refers to the Kambari language spoken in Auna as Tsikimba. Most recently, the KLP 1 has published primers and dictionaries in Tsishingini of Salka and Tsikimba of Auna. The New Testament has also recently been published in Tsikimba. Language Identification Which languages are spoken in the area? There are six languages spoken in the triangle area: Cishingini (Agwara Kambari) [ISO 639-3 identifier: asg], Tsuvaɗi [tvd], Dukawa (Hun-Saare) [dud]

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