Degema language
Dẹgẹma | |
---|---|
Native to | Nigeria |
Region | Rivers State |
Native speakers | (10,000 cited 1999)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | deg |
Glottolog | dege1246 |
Dẹgẹma is an
No standard variety has so far emerged between the two varieties of Dẹgẹma. However, there appear to be more scholarly and descriptive linguistic publications on the Usokun variety than on the Degema Town variety.[3][4]
The Dẹgẹma language is not also called "Atala" or "Udekaama", as stated in some publications. Atala is the alternative name for one of the Degema-speaking communities (Degema Town), and Udekaama is the name of a clan (which comprises Usokun-Degema and Degema Town). Similarly, "Dekema" is not an alternative name for the Degema language as contained in the entry for Degema in the Ethnologue.[citation needed]
Phonology
Dẹgẹma is the only Niger-Congo language to match the vowel inventory reconstructed for Proto-Ijoid. There are ten vowels, in two harmonic sets: /i e a o u/ and /ɪ ɛ ə ɔ ʊ/.[5]
Dẹgẹma has 24
Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Labial(ized) /velar/glottal | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive
|
p | b | t
|
d
|
dʒ | k | g | kp | gb | |
Nasal | m | n
|
ɲ | ŋ | ŋʷ | |||||
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||||||
Trill | r
|
|||||||||
Fricative
|
f | β | s | h | ||||||
Approximant
|
l
|
j | w |
Writing System
a | ạ | b | ḅ | d | ḍ | e | ẹ | f | g |
gb | i | ị | j | k | kp | l | m | n | nw |
ny | ñ | o | ọ | p | r | s | t | u | ụ |
ụu | v | w | y | z |
Degema history
Oral tradition asserts that the Degema people (originally part of the
The split at Ewu was in due to a disagreement over fish belonging to all the people living there. Some of those who contributed their own water to the cooking of fish did not get their share of the water after the cooking was done, not considering that water evaporates when heated. Those aggrieved decided to leave Ewu, and the name Udekaama became associated with the aggrieved group.
The Udekaama group went to the uninhabited Degema Island around the 15th
The settlement at Ipokuma was before the arrival of the Abonnema (about 1882) and the Kalabari tribe:
A fourth group who were already in their present locations by the time the first two groups came to their new settlements, and who to varying degrees, became associated and identified with Kalabari – Obonoma, Bukuma, Old Bakana, Dekema [sic], Angulama. Some of these have been fully integrated into the Kalabari Kingdom; others (Dekema [sic], Bukuma) still maintain their originality and have relatively tenuous culture-linguistic and conjugal relationship with Kalabari people.
— Degema Local Government 1987: 17[10]
At Ipokuma Ugu and Ekeze led Usokun-Degema and Degema Town, respectively, north to their present sites for fishing, hunting and farming. Neither of these two communities considers itself (or its leader) subordinate to the other; the two groups consider themselves independent.
The name Degema is a
Degema refers not only to the language spoken by the inhabitants of Usokun-Degema and Degema Town, it also refers to the people themselves, the land on which they live and their government (the administrative headquarters of the Degema Local Government Area).[12][13]
See also
References
- ^ Dẹgẹma at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ "Table 1 : Population and Landmass of Rivers State, 1991 -2006". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
- ISBN 4-87297-850-1.
- ISBN 978-4-86337-018-0.
- ^ Archangeli & Pulleyblank, 1994. Grounded phonology, p 181ff
- ISBN 978-3-89645-047-0.
- ^ Kari 2011.
- ^ Kari, Ethelbert E. 1995. The structure of the Degema verb. M.A. thesis, University of Port Harcourt.
- ISBN 3-89586-214-2.
- ^ Degema Local Government Area. 1987. Operation link Delga. Port Harcourt: Harrison Publishing Company.
- ^ Peters, Abel S. 1981. Cases of language maintenance in the Kalabari speech community. B.A. thesis, University of Port Harcourt.
- ISBN 3-89645-047-6.
- ^ Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2008a. Linguistic imperialism and the rise in linguistic consciousness: The Degema case. In Y. Takashina (ed.), Dynamics of Language – "Foreign Languages" as Named by Others, 25-35. Osaka: Research Institute for World Languages, Osaka University.
Works cited
- Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel (2011). "Degema orthography". In Tony Enyia (ed.). Orthographies of Nigerian Languages: Manual IX. Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). pp. 13–32.