Cipu
| Cicipu | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Nigeria ( Kebbi , Niger ) | |
| speaker | 20,000 (CAPRO 1995) | |
| Linguistic classification |
Niger-Congo |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 |
awc |
|
Cicipu is a platoid language from the Benue Congo language group , spoken by over 20,000 people in northwest Nigeria .
The Acipu ethnic group speaks this language as their mother tongue.
Like most Benue-Congo languages, the Cicipu has a complex system of nominal classes . It also has extremely complex phonology and grammatical tones , including vowel harmony and nasalization .
Cicipu speakers mostly switch to speaking the official language English as their mother tongue, as English enjoys a much higher political status than native Nigerian languages. Many, especially older people, also speak the lingua franca Hausa and other neighboring languages as a second language.
classification
Cicipu is part of the Kambari cluster of the West Kainji subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family .
The latest classification has classified the Cicipu as part of the Kamuku subgroup of the West Kainji languages. However, more detailed studies have found this unlikely.
Alternative names
The Cicipu is known in Nigeria as the West Acipa language . However, the name West-Acipa is no longer used outside the Ethnologue , and a request has been made to change the entry. In the Haussa language, the language is called Acipanci.
Geographical distribution
Cicipu is spoken by around 20,000 inhabitants in Nigeria, split between the local government areas Sakaba, Kebbi , and Kontagora , Niger .
Dialects
The Acipu recognize seven different varieties of Cicipu. The dialect names are as follows (with the corresponding Haussa names in brackets):
- Tirisino (Carian)
- Tidipo (Kadonho)
- Tizoriyo (Mazarko)
- Tidodimo (Kadedan)
- Tikula (Maburya)
- Ticuhun (Kakihum)
- Tikumbasi (Kumbaschi)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ McGill, Stuart. 2007. The Cicipu noun class system. Journal of West African Languages, 34 (2), 51-90.
- ↑ Williamson, Kay and Roger M. Blench. 2000. Niger-Congo in African languages: an introduction, 11-42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Dettweiler, Steve and Sonia Dettweiler. 2002. Sociolinguistic survey (level one) of the Kamuku language cluster [Originally written in 1992. ] (PDF; 4.1 MB).
- ↑ McGill, Stuart. 2007. The classification of Cicipu. Unpublished manuscript. ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 504 kB).
- ↑ The name of the Cicipu language ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ CAPRO Research Office. 1995. Kingdoms at was. Jos: CAPRO Media.
