Ngas language
| Ngas | |
|---|---|
| Angas | |
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Plateau State |
| Ethnicity | Angas people |
Native speakers | (400,000 cited 1998)[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | anc |
| Glottolog | ngas1240 |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
 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 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 ethnicity.
Neighbouring languages
[edit | edit source]Bəlnəŋ is 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
[edit | edit source]Vowels
[edit | edit source]| 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
[edit | edit source]| 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
[edit | edit source]| 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
[edit | edit source]- ^ 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.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Hartell 1993.
Further reading
[edit | edit source]- 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
[edit | edit source]- Litafin Addua: The Book of Common Prayer in the Angas Language (1921) digitized by Richard Mammana
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