Tiv is a Tivoid language spoken in some states in

North Central Nigeria The North Central (often hyphenated to the North-Central) is the one of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria representing the majority of the country's Middle Belt. It comprises six states – Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and P ...

, with some speakers in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...

. It had over 5 million speakers in 2020. The largest population of Tiv speakers are found in

Benue state Benue State is one of the North Central states in Nigeria with a population of about 4,253,641 in 2006 census. The state was created in 1976 among the 7 states created at that time.The state derives its name from the Benue River which is t ...

in Nigeria. The language is also widely spoken in the Nigerian states of

Plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

Taraba Taraba can refer to: * Taraba State * Taraba River The Taraba River is a river in Taraba State, Nigeria, a tributary of the Benue River. It joins the Benue on a floodplain 10 km wide and 50 km across. The major towns along the River Tar ...

, Nasarawa and Cross River. It is by far the largest of the

Tivoid languages The Tivoid languages are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in parts of Nigeria and Cameroon. The subfamily takes its name after Tiv, the most spoken language in the group. The majority are threatened with extinction. The larges ...

, a group of languages belonging to the

Southern Bantoid languages Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid) is a branch of the Bantoid language family. It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon (though the affiliation of some branc ...

Geographic distribution

Tiv is widely spoken in the States of Benue, Nasarawa,

Cross Rivers A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...

, Adamawa,

Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the gateway to northern Nige ...

, and

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plan ...

. Other parts of Nigeria also speak Tiv.

Benue state

Tarkaa, Makurdi, Gwer East, Gwer west, Ukum, Logo, Konshisha, Gboko, Kwande, Vandeikya, Katsina Ala, Guma, Buruku, and Ushongo Local Government Areas.

Nassarawa state

Doma, Nasarawa, Lafia, Obi, Keana, and Awe Local Government Areas

Plateau state

Qua’an Pan and Shendam Local Government Areas

Taraba state

Bali, Donga, Ibi, Gassol, Takum, Gashaka, Kurmi and Wukari Local Government Areas

Cross River state

Yala, Bekwara, Obudu, and Obanliku Local Government Areas.

Cameroon

There are 1700 Tiv households with approximately 11,000 people at the south-western border of Cameroon, Manyu division, north east of Akwaya on the Nigerian border, and bordering the Iyom tribes of Cameroon. Their paramount ruler is Zaki Abaajul, who has the Tiv and Ulitsi as his subjects. The Cameronian Tiv are well educated and live in anglophone Cameroon as their ancestral land, while a few others live in the francophone region. They are mostly farmers but others work in the government.

Dialects

Tiv has no dialects. Tiv speakers can understand each other across their territory. However, accents (''ham'') exist.

Phonology

Vowels

* Vowel sounds are phonetically nasalized before nasal consonants. * can be freely heard as or before a nasal consonant.

Consonants

* is heard phonetically as , but is often voiced as . * is heard in free variation in word-final positions. * occurs in other dialects.

Tone

Tiv has three main tones (five if rising and falling are counted as separate tones instead of composites of existing tones). They are most importantly used in inflection.

Accents

The accents of Tiv are as follows: * Ityoisha, spoken in the southeast, noted for its exaggerated palatalisation of vowels; * Shitile, spoken by most Tiv east of the Katsina Ala River, apparently slower sounding than the other Tiv accents and slurs vowels into their neighbouring consonant; * Iharev, which gives an exaggerated roll to the phoneme ~ * Kparev, spoken in the centre and south-centre; ** Kunav, a sub-accent of Kparev, noted for its preference for sounds where other Kparev use . Vocabulary, particularly plant and tool names, changes from one part of Tiv territory to the other.

History and classification

The first reference to the Tiv language (''dzwa Tiv'') was made by Koelle (1854) from liberated slaves from

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

. Johnston (1919) classified it as a peculiar language among the Semi-Bantu languages, and Talbot (1926) concurred. Abraham (1933), who has made the most complete linguistic study of Tiv, classifies it as Bantu languages, Bantu, stating that its vocabulary is more similar to the East African Nyanza group of Bantu languages than to Ekoi or other neighbouring languages. Malherbe (1933) agrees with Abraham that Tiv is essentially Bantu. All material on Tiv seems to point to a recent expansion, perhaps in the early 15th century.

Morphology

Tiv has nine

noun classes 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 ...

References

*R.C.Abraham, A Dictionary of the Tiv Language, Government of Nigeria 1940, republished by Gregg Press Ltd., Farnborough, Hants., England 1968.

External links

Tiv-English DictionaryPanAfrican L10n page on Tiv

Religious materials

Video and audio files, New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures Released and other bible study material in Tiv Language
by Jehovah's Witnesses
The bible in the tiv language

Gospel

{{Authority control Languages of Nigeria Tivoid languages Tiv people