Degema
| Degema | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Nigeria ( Rivers State ) | |
| speaker | 10,000 (1999) | |
| Linguistic classification |
Niger-Congo
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 |
deg |
|
The Degema is a edoide language from the Delta region of Nigeria .
It is spoken by about 22,000 inhabitants in two autonomous communities on the island of Degema , if one were to judge the results of the 1991 census (including the population figures for the two Degema-speaking communities).
The two communities in which Degema is spoken are Usokun-Degema and Degema Town (Atala) in the Degema Local Government Area of the Rivers State of Nigeria . each of these communities speaks a variety of degema which is understandable with the other. These varieties are named after the names of the communities in which they are spoken: the Usokun variety spoken in Usokun-Degema and the Atala variety spoken in Degema Town. These varieties are very similar in their phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic properties.
However, no standard variety has yet developed between the two varieties of Degema. However, more recently, more literature and scientific publications appear in the Usokun variety than in the Atala variety.
The Degema language is sometimes incorrectly called "Atala" or "Udekaama". Atala is the alternative name for one of the Degema-speaking communities - Degema Town, while Udekaama is the name of a clan that includes Usokun-Degema and Degema Town. Accordingly, "Kala Degema" is also used as a false name for the Usokun Degema variety of Degema.
literature
- Degema Local Government Area. 1987. Operation link Delga . Port Harcourt: Harrison Publishing Company.
- Kari, Ethelbert E. 1995. The structure of the Degema verb . MA thesis, University of Port Harcourt.
- Kari, Ethelbert E. 1997. Degema . Munchen-Newcastle: Lincom Europe. ISBN 3-89586-214-2 .
- Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2003. Clitics in Degema: A meeting point of phonology, morphology, and syntax : Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). ISBN 4-87297-850-1 .
- Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2004. A reference grammar of Degema . Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag. 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- * Osaka: Research Institute for World Languages, Osaka University.
- Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2008b. Degema – English dictionary with English index . Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). ISBN 978-4-86337-018-0 .
- Peters, Abel S. 1981. Cases of language maintenance in the Kalabari speech community . BA thesis, University of Port Harcourt.