Ngas language
West Chadic language of Nigeria
| Ngas | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Plateau State |
Native speakers | (400,000 cited 1998)[1] |
Language family | 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
Bəlnəŋ, an A3 West Chadic language closely related to Angas. It is spoken by about 500 people in the single village of Langung, which is surrounded by Tal villages in the east and Miship villages in the west.[2]
Speakers of Sur, a 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. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHartell1993 (help)
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
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