Wardhaugh and Fuller, 2015, p. 30f). Kari, E. E. (2007). Ethelbert Emmanuel Kari This paper provides an updated overview of the languages of Rivers State of Nigeria in respect of the number, linguistic classification and features of … In, the following pairs of consonants: [t] and [r] and [k] and, position in the words in which they occur. The Cross River or Delta–Cross languages are a branch of the Benue–Congo language family spoken in south-easternmost Nigeria, with some speakers in south-westernmost Cameroon.The branch was first formulated by Joseph Greenberg; it is one of the few of his branches of Niger–Congo that has withstood the test of time. So have a good read about this culture and tribes in rivers state making it one of the most colorful tribes in Nigeria. Nigerian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and Policy Reforms: Orbit Communication Ltd. and Emhai Press. The paper is organized into four sections. The paper highlights the fact that mother-tongue speakers of Central Delta languages also speak one or more other languages and that the daily exposure of Central Delta languages and their speakers to more powerful languages around them makes them endangered. Unlike, other Rivers State languages, Ijoid languages have a subject-object-verb (SOV), postpositions while other Rivers State languages have prepositions. It is made up of seven villages. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Ejagham and Efik are major languages of this state. Institute of African Studies. In section two, the paper provides some background. This lexical distinction ensures that, there is no confusion in terms of whether the reference of “We” includes or, used when the reference includes the hearer, while the form. Nigeria - Nigeria - Languages: The languages of Nigeria are classified into three broad linguistic groups: Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Afro-Asiatic. Common syntactic features observed in these languages include subject–object–verb basic word order and serial verb constructions. Connell, B. Cross River. (2016). In Degema and the Central Delta languages, of Abuan, Obulom and Ogbogolo, for instance, these extensions mainly occur as, necessarily changing the lexical class of such verbs into say nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. The presence of phonemically long vowels is characteristic of, Another very interesting phonological feature associated with the vowel, systems of Rivers State languages is the phenomenon of (advanced tongue, root) vowel harmony. For fair, representation and the interests of speakers of Rivers State languages, which are, not catered for by the state languages of the media, the state government should, consider the use of one or more indigenous languages of the state, in addition to, more indigenous people of the state to have access to information in their local. Not much is known about the history of this people. Cross River. Readers Project as a case history. Interestingly, some LGAs have two or more languages spoken therein. National Educational Research and Development Council. 392). Cross River State is full of different languages. Chapter 5 is represented for a case study about human resource management in government of Vietnam. Similarly, native speakers consider themselves and their speech form distinct from the, Kalabari people and their language (Kalab, speakers of a given speech form are sometimes factored into what is considered. It is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by Imo, Abia and Anambra States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State and to the West by Bayelsa and Delta states. Languages. Kalabari phonology and orthography. The agreement clitics or markers, exist to preserve the identity or grammatical properties of the subject noun or, ‘Heisbuildingahouse’(Jenewari,1977,p.1, In the Degema sentence in (17), the element, is a subject agreement clitic while in the Kalab, subject agreement clitics or markers and other types of clitics that mark the, grammatical categories of tense, aspect, mood and polarity have been well. Below are the tribes in Edo state. Rivers State is the sixth-largest geographic area in Nigeria according to 2006 census data. It is one of the states in Nigeria with tribes that have a lot in common with tribes from other states. (Proceedings of the Kaduna Language Symposium. A phylogenetic classification of the (Occasional publications 8). It recommends the enforcement and implementation of existing laws and policies so that the indigenous languages of the state are used at the levels stipulated by the National Policy on Education for the benefit of the citizens, state and country. With relevant data, the paper highlights and illustrates some of the interesting linguistic characteristics of the languages, which include advanced tongue root vowel harmony, noun classification via noun prefixes and noun classifiers, inclusive-exclusive distinction in personal pronouns, sex gender, verbal extensions, serial verb constructions and subject and/or object agreement marking. boast the highest number of languages in the 23 LGAs of the state. Whereas two languages (Baan-Ogoi, and Gokana) are found in Gokana LGA, as many as four languages are found. shared writing systems, attitudes of speakers or a combination of these factors. In O.-M. Ndimele (Ed.). Borno State. ABUA. In the Degema sentence in (17), for instance, enclitic, which marks perfect. Within the Niger-Congo phylum, whilethosethatbelongtoEastBenue-CongoareAbuan,Aureni,Baan-Ogoi,. In other words, there is a correlation between variations in, the pitch of the voice and the meanings of words, phrases and sentences, as in, the pair of Kana words (6a), taken from Williamson (1984, p. 41) and in the pair, The correlation between variations in the pitch of the voice and the meanings of, sentences is illustrated by the Degema statement/question pair of the sentences, pointing downwards between two high-toned syllables, Some of the interesting morphological features of Rivers State languages are, found in their nominal and verbal systems. Rivers is a multilingual and multicultural state, which is representative of the. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); “Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Interestingly, under the new leadership, the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Educational Research and Development Council, (NERDC), approved orthographies for 17 languages of the state. In J. Bendor-Samuel (Ed.). The Government of Rivers State of Nigeria (2006) recognises 24, indigenous languages of the state, excluding B, is 28, contra Government of Rivers State of Nigeria (2006, p. A11f). Most of the, data in this paper are sourced from existing materials on the languages and, are duly acknowledged. To appear in V. Vydrin (Ed. The research demonstrated a moving from the existing system to the professional system from internal weaknesses and external challenges of the human resource management in Government of Vietnam. Obolo respectively as their languages. Recommendations in respect of language use and implementation of policies, are discussed in section seven. Paper presented at the Unpublished manuscript, School of Humanities, University of Port, Aesimama, A. F. (1995). Ejagham and Efik are major languages of this state. Obulom is reported as having twenty-two phonemic, Echiehasfortyphonemicconsonants/m,n,, Among the many interesting features of the consonant systems of Rivers, State languages are consonant harmony and consonant alternation. The paper is divided into eight sections. (2016). Rivers state is home to a variety of ethnic clans, including Abua, Andoni, Ekpeye, Engenni, Etche, lbani, lkwerre, Kalabari, … The verb morphology of many Rivers State languages is characterized by, the presence of verbal extensions. The pronominal systems of these languages make a three-way number-person-case distinction with some of them formally distinguishing between inclusive and exclusive in their first-person plural forms.  ForadetaileddiscussionofnounclassiersinKana,seeIkoro(1994,1996). South African Journal of African Languages. The Etche people are farmers and also practice Christianity. In E .N. The people of Etche have more in common with the Igbo tribe than they do with other tribes in rivers state. Simons, G. F. and Fennig, C. D. The consonant systems of these languages range, This paper discusses multilingualism in Nigeria. Rivers State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria. The inland part of the state consists of tropical rainforest, and towards the coast, the typical Niger Delta environment features many mangrove swamps. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. (3a) and (3b) taken from Jenewari (1977, p. 68f) show: One interesting feature of Central Delta language as far as consonant, systems are concerned is the alternation between certain pairs of consonants. Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa. 69-89). It was created on 27 May, 1967. is located in the southern part of Nigeria and has a population of 5,198,716. million people (National Population Commission, 2006). Languages of Rivers State also have interesting syntactic features. The languages include E, Kana. Rivers State is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by Imo, Abia and Anambra States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State, and to the West by Bayelsa In addition, the paper highlights serial verb constructions, (which express notions such as comparative and benefactive) and a system of, subject and/or object agreement clitics/markers (which preserve the identity, or grammatical properties of the subject and/or object noun or pronoun even, Furthermore, the paper notes the distribution of Rivers State languages in, the 23 LGAs. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable, comments, which have greatly enriched this paper. It notes that the marking of inflectional categories of tense, aspect, mood and, Given the fact that the vocabulary of a language is constantly enriched to express new objects or concepts and actions or states of being, this article identifies and discusses the different strategies employed by Degema in the creation of words. Its capital is Calabar and its name is derived from the Cross River (Oyono), which passes through the state. Bahumono is one of the biggest tribes in Abi local government area. LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN RIVERS STATE. In addition to English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, and English Creole are widely spoken. Among the many semantic notions expressed by serial verbs in, ‘house’ is a subject clitic. It recommends the enforcement and implementation of, existing laws and policies so that the indigenous languages of the state are used, vowel harmony, noun classication, sex gender, mother-tongue education, course of writing this paper. The Kula people are found in Akuku Toru local government área of Rivers state. It is further shown that Kana nouns are not strictly classified on the basis of semantic classes since the function of the enumerated noun also determines the choice of a numeral classifier. between the nouns in (10) in respect of animacy and biological sex gender: female (feminine) and neuter/inanimate respectively. It is also often associated with the Islamic culture. From the late 1960s up to the late 1970s, orthographies, primers and other pedagogical materials were produced for. The aim of the present study is to describe the Kana numeral classifier system, a language in which nouns no longer show the singular-plural alternations, even though the parent language was almost certainly a noun class language. 8th World Congress of African Linguistics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, The state has an indigenously diverse population with major riverine and upland divisions. (1976). Ndoni, Ukwuani and Aboh are speech forms, Ndoni language cluster (see Figure 1, language No. Etche doubles as a tribe and a local government area in Rivers state. Its capital is the city of Bauchi. Kari and Ayuwo (2009), is the presence of serial verb constructions (SVCs). 8th World Congress of African Linguistics, Kyoto University, Kyoto. The kula people speak a language called kalabari. With relevant data, the paper highlights and illustrates some of the interesting, linguistic characteristics of the languages, which include advanced tongue root, exclusive distinction in personal pronouns, sex gender, verbal extensions, serial verb, constructions and subject and/or object agreement marking. The, languages, listed in alphabetical order, are Abuan, Ikwere, Kalaar, Kana, Krk, Kgb, Ndk, Ndn, Nkr, Obolo, Obulom,, Oual, Ogbah, Ogbogolo, Ogbronagum (ukuma) and T., locations of the languages are shown in Figure 1. long essay, University of Port Harcourt. © 2008-2021 ResearchGate GmbH. Its capital, Port Harcourt is the largest city and is economically significant as the centre of Nigeria's oil We show that contrary to the general tendencies in most known numeral classifier systems, in Kana there appears to be a kind of incorporation between the classifier and the noun. ), Cross River languages based on lexical evidence. There are 23 languages spoken as first languages in Rivers State. I will begin by discussing the phonological features of the languages. Its capital, Port Harcourt is the largest city and is economically significant as the centre of Nigeria's oil (2009). many languages of the state to encourage mother-tongue education. Access scientific knowledge from anywhere. In J. Bendor-Samuel (Ed.). Williamson, K. (1989b). Furthermore, the paper considers the distribution of Rivers State languages and notes that the languages are not evenly distributed across the LGAs, and that many indigenous people of the state are bilingual or multilingual in the languages of the state. In J. Bendor-Samuel (Ed. Finally, the paper notes that despite the enabling national and state policies and laws favouring mother-tongue education, Rivers State languages have not actively been used at the levels stipulated by the policies and laws. Section six focuses on language use in Rivers State. of Kay Williamson (pp. . Linguistic complexity in Rivers State: The position of ethno-linguistic and cultural diversity of the Nigerian nation (cf. According to census data released in 2006, the state has a population of 5,185,400, making it the sixth-most populous state in the country. Also noted is the fact that there need not be agreement in tense between verbs in series, contrary to what has often been claimed in the literature on serial verbs. The paper further establishes that in addition to root-controlled vowel harmony noted by Alerechi (2007, 2009), affix-controlled vowel harmony is also attested in Ikwere. 1989a, 1989b; Williamson and Blench, 2000). Central Delta languages are noted to be rich in nominal and verbal morphologies, showing evidence of prefixal noun classification and morphological marking of nominal and verbal categories. This paper builds on the premise that, from a linguistic perspective, Ikwere is a dialect of Igbo, a language spoken in the Southern part of Nigeria. Section 1 gives an overview of the linguistic situation in Nigeria; section 2 takes a look at the linguistic situation in Rivers State; section 3 examines multilingualism and language policy in Nigeria, while section 4 concludes the paper. In Rivers State languages, verbs may occur in series without being linked by, any overt connective morpheme. Bayelsa State: Bayelsa is located in southern Nigeria between Delta State and Rivers State. Emenanjo and O.-M. Ndimele. It also provides information on the geo-linguistic, demographic and sociolinguistic situation of these languages. Linguistic complexity in Rivers State: The position of language use in primary schools. Gardner, I., Gardner, A. and Abigo, M. (1974). The consonant systems of these languages range between 22 and 27, showing alternation between some pairs of consonants. languages. 2000). It notes that Central Delta languages have a 20-vowel system, which divides into two sets of 10 vowels distinguished by pharyngeal size. But this is a gross misconception and misrepresentation of what obtains in reality. Rivers State, also known simply as Rivers, is one of the 36 states of Nigeria. (Eds. According to census data released in 2006, the state has a population of 5,198,716, making it the sixth-most populous state in the country. This is a list of villages and settlements in Rivers State, Nigeria organised by local government area (LGA) and district/area (with postal codes also given). A phylogenetic classification of the Cross River languages based on lexical evidence. Tense-aspect markers occur after the verb or after an object pronoun that begins with a consonant. What I consider Rivers State languages in this paper are speech forms, that are mutually unintelligible, such as Degema and Kalab, have some degree of mutual intelligibility with other speech forms in other, parts of the country but which by virtue of their being geographically located in, (spoken in Delta State of Nigeria). It also highlights the, objectives of the paper. word structure), and syntactic (related to phrase, clause or sentence structure). A combination of career based system and position based system is the right strategy for Vietnam as well as developing countries. Apart, used in radio and television broadcasts are English and Nigerian Pidgin, which, is sometimes referred to as “Special English”, “Pidgin English” or “Broken, language of Nigeria, and the language of education at various levels. By postal code. For an informed, scholarly and updated discussion of the languages of Rivers State, Google search, download and read the article "The Languages of Rivers State of Nigeria: An Overview" written by Ethelbert Emmanuel Kari, published in 2019 in Marang: Journal of Language and Literature, Volume 31,pp.1-22. and Asari-Toru, Emohua, Ikwerre and Obio/Akpor, and Ogu/Bolo and Okrika. 2007), for instance, nouns are put in various semantic classes, such as animate, human, man-made objects, human relationships and plants, based on the, In Central Delta languages, such as Abuan (Gardner, 1980) and Od, personal pronouns is lexically marked. Senator From To Party Status John Azuta-Mbata: 1999 2007 PDP: Elected Adawari Pepple: 1999 At the 2006 census, the state had a population of 5,185,400. Ikwerre, Ibani, Opobo, Eleme, Okrika, Kalabari, Etche, Ogba, Ogoni, Needless to say that any inadequacies that, pluralsubject,1SG=rstpersonsingular,, son singular, 3SgMSCL = third person singular masculine subject clitic, 3SgSCL, FE = factative enclitic, fem. The paper identifies -kata and -li as markers of resultative and potential respectively. However, in the south-south, Cross River State alone has up to 37 languages with a network of dialects and language clusters (Ugot & Ogar, 2014) Language is … Bauchi State. State was carved out from Rivers State on 1 October, 1996. Examples, (12a) and (13a) illustrate basic word order in Kana (East Benue-Congo) and, do they mention or discuss any other syntactic features of Rivers State languages. This state occupies the mid-western region and is the 22nd biggest state in Nigeria.