Ngas language
Ngas | |
---|---|
Native to | Nigeria |
Region | Plateau State |
Native speakers | (400,000 cited 1998)[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | anc |
Glottolog | ngas1240 |
Ethnic territories (tan) of the Ngas-speaking people (Angas) in Nigeria |
Ngas, or Angas, is an
Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Plateau State, Nigeria. The language has two dialects: Hill Angas and Plain Angas.[1] Ngas language is one of the major languages in Plateau State, the 1952 census puts it as the largest ethnic group in Plateau State. Retired General Yakubu Gowon
is a prominent Nigerian who is of Ngas extraction.
Neighbouring languages
Speakers of
Plateau language, are surrounded by Ngas speakers, but Sur nevertheless continues to be a well-maintained language.[3]
The Ngas language has also undergone extensive influence from Tarok.[4]
Phonology
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː | |
Close-mid | eː | ə əː | oː |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
Open | a aː |
- Sounds /ɛ, ɔ/ are only heard as short equivalents of /eː, oː/, which are only heard as long.[5]
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | lab. | pal. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | pal. | |||
Nasal | m | mʷ | mʲ | n
|
nʷ | ɲ | ɲʷ | ŋ | ||||||
Stop/
Affricate |
voiceless | p | pʷ | pʲ | t
|
t͡ʃ | t͡ʃʷ | k | kʷ | ʔ | ||||
voiced | b | bʷ | bʲ | d
|
d͡ʒ | d͡ʒʷ | ɡ | ɡʷ | ||||||
vd. prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ⁿd͡ʒ | ᵑɡ | ||||||||||
vl. prenasal | ᵐp | ⁿt͡ʃ | ᵑk | |||||||||||
implosive | ɓ | ɓʷ | ɗ | ɠ | ɠʲʷ | ɠʲ | ||||||||
Fricative
|
voiceless | f | fʷ | fʲ | s | ʃ | ʃʷ | h | ||||||
voiced | v | vʷ | z | ʒ | ʒʷ | ɣ | ||||||||
vl. prenasal | ⁿʃ | |||||||||||||
vd. prenasal | ⁿʒ | ⁿʒʷ | ||||||||||||
Approximant
|
w | l
|
lʷ | j | ||||||||||
Trill | voiced | r
|
rʷ | |||||||||||
prenasal | ⁿr |
Writing system
a | b | ɓ | c | d | ɗ | dy | e | ǝ | f | g | h | ḥ | i | j | k | l |
m | n | ṇ | ny | o | p | r | s | sh | t | u | v | w | y | z | ẓ | ʼ |
Notes
- ^ a b Ngas at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Blench, Roger. 2017. Current research on the A3 West Chadic languages.
- ^ Blench, Roger. 2004. Tarok and related languages of east-central Nigeria.
- ^ Longtau, Selbut (25–26 March 2004). Some Historical Inferences from Lexical Borrowings and Traditions of Origins in the Tarokoid/Chadic Interface. International Symposium on Endangered Languages in Contact: Nigeria’s Plateau Languages. Hamburg: Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg.
- ^ Jungraithmayr, Herrmann; Holubová, Miroslava (2016). The Ngas Language (Shik Ngas): Fundamentals of Grammar, Texts, Dictionary. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
- ^ Hartell 1993.
Further reading
- Donald A. Burquest. 1971. A Preliminary Study of Angas Phonology. Zaria: Institute of Linguistics.
- Donald A. Burquest. 1973. A Grammar of Angas. University of California at Los Angeles, PhD dissertation.
External links
- Litafin Addua: The Book of Common Prayer in the Angas Language (1921) digitized by Richard Mammana