Ijoid is a proposed but undemonstrated group of languages linking the
Ijaw languages (Ịjọ) with the endangered
Defaka language
Defaka is an endangered and divergent Nigerian language of uncertain classification. It is spoken in the Opobo–Nkoro LGA of Rivers State, in the Defaka or Afakani ward of Nkọrọ town and Ịwọma Nkọrọ. The low number of Defaka speake ...
. The similarities, however, may be due to Ijaw influence on Defaka.
The Ijoid languages, or perhaps just Ijaw, are proposed to form a divergent branch of the hypothetical
Niger–Congo family and are noted for their
subject–object–verb basic word order, which is otherwise an unusual feature in Niger–Congo, shared only by such distant branches as
Mande and
Dogon
Dogon may refer to:
*Dogon people, an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa
*Dogon languages, a small, close-knit language family spoken by the Dogon people of Mali
*'' Dogon A.D.'', an album by saxophonist Juliu ...
. Like Mande and Dogon, Ijoid lacks even traces of the
noun class
In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some a ...
system considered characteristic of Niger–Congo, and so might have split early from that family. Linguists
Gerrit Dimmendaal
Gerrit Jan Dimmendaal (born 1955) is a Dutch linguist and Africanist. His research interests focused mainly on the Nilo-Saharan languages.Gerrit Dimmendaal, Colleen Ahland & Angelika Jakobi (2019) "Linguistic features and typologies in languages ...
and Tom Güldemann doubt its inclusion in Niger–Congo altogether and consider the Ijaw/Ijoid languages to be an independent family.
Comparative vocabulary
Sample basic vocabulary for Proto-
Ijaw,
Kalabari, and
Defaka:
Numerals
Comparison of numerals in individual languages:
Bibliography
*Jenewari, Charles E. W. (1989) 'Ijoid'. In Bendor-Samuel, John and Hartell, Rhonda L. (eds.), ''The Niger–Congo languages: A classification and description of Africa's largest language family'', 105-118. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
*Williamson, Kay. 1969. 'Igbo' and 'Ịjọ', chapters 7 and 8 in: Twelve Nigerian Languages, ed. by E. Dunstan. Longmans.
*Williamson, Kay. 1971. The Benue–Congo languages and Ịjọ. In: Current Trends in Linguistics, Vol. 7, series ed. by T. A. Sebeok, 245-306.
*Williamson, Kay. 1988. Linguistic evidence for the prehistory of the Niger Delta. In: The Prehistory of the Niger Delta, ed. by E.J. Alagoa and others. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
*Williamson, Kay. 1998. Defaka revisited. The multi-disciplinary approach to African history, edited by Nkparom C. Ejituwu, Chapter 9, 151-183. Port Harcourt: University of Port Harcourt Press.
*Williamson, Kay. 2004. The language situation in the Niger Delta. Chapter 2 in: The development of Ịzọn language, edited by Martha L. Akpana, 9-13.
*Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger–Congo', in Heine, Bernd and Nurse, Derek (eds) ''African Languages: An Introduction.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University press, pp. 11–42.
References
External links
Ijoid materials(Roger Blench)
{{Niger-Congo branches
Niger–Congo languages
Language families