Eloyi, or Afu (Afo), is a
Plateau language of uncertain classification. It is spoken by the
Eloyi people of
Agatu
Agatu is a Local Government Area of Benue State, North Central Nigeria. It was created in 1996. It used to be the Agatu district of the old Otukpo division. The headquarters of the local government is at Obagaji; it is one of nine local governme ...
LGA and Otukpo LGA of
Benue State and
Nassarawa State in
Nigeria.
Classification
Armstrong (1955, 1983) classified Eloyi as
Idomoid
The Idomoid languages are spoken primarily in Benue State of east-central Nigeria and surrounding regions. Idoma itself is an official language spoken by nearly four million people including the subgroups of Igede, Uffia, Otukpo, and Orokam.
L ...
, but that identification was based on a single word list and Armstrong later expressed doubts. All other preliminary accounts classify it as Plateau, and Blench (2008) leaves it as a separate branch of Plateau.
Blench (2007)
[Blench, Roger. 2007]
The Eloyi language of Central Nigeria and its affinities
considers Eloyi to be a divergent Plateau language that has undergone Idomoid influence, rather than vice versa.
References
*Blench (2008
''Prospecting proto-Plateau'' Manuscript.
External links
ComparaLex database with Eloyi word list
Plateau languages
Languages of Nigeria
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