Nizaa language

Nizaa is also referred to as Suga, Galim, and Nyemnyem (or Nyamnyam). Nizaa is the endonym for the people who speak the language, while Suga comes from Pero {{lang|pip|súgò}} 'stranger' or 'not Pero'.{{cite journal |last1=Blench |first1=Roger |author1-link=Roger Blench |date=1993 |title=An outline classification of the Mambiloid languages |url=https://journalofwestafricanlanguages.org/downloads?task=download.send&id=319&catid=66&m=0 |url-status=live |journal=Journal of West African Languages |language=en |publisher=West African Linguistic Society |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=105–118 [https://journalofwestafricanlanguages.org/downloads?task=download.send&id=319&catid=66&m=0#page=4 108–109] |issn=0022-5401 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241102105512/https://journalofwestafricanlanguages.org/downloads?task=download.send&id=319&catid=66&m=0 |archive-date=2024-11-02 |access-date=2025-05-15}} Nyamnyam (or Nyemnyem) is a pejorative term likely derived from the Fula word {{lang|ff|nyaamnyaamjo}} 'cannibal'{{Sfn|Theil Endresen|1991|p=171}} which is further derived from {{lang|ff|nyam-nyam}} 'to eat' despite there being no evidence of the Nizaa being cannibals,{{Cite journal |last=Leis |first=Philip |date=2011 |title=Past Passages: Initiation Rites on the Adamawa Plateau (Cameroon) |url=https://ethnology.pitt.edu/ojs/Ethnology/article/view/6098 |journal=Ethnology|language=en |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=169–188 [171] |issn=2160-3510}} while Galim is the main town of the Nizaa people.{{Cite thesis |last=Kjelsvik |first=Bjørghild |title=Emergent speech genres of teaching and learning interaction. Communities of practice in Cameroonian schools and villages |date=March 31, 2008 |degree=Linguistics PhD |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316926691 |pages=91–134 |institution=University of Oslo |department=Faculty of Humanities |via=ResearchGate}}

Nizaa is primarily spoken in and around the village of Galim, located in Faro-et-Déo in the Adamawa Region of northern Cameroon; the village has roughly 2,000 inhabitants.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=3}} The most recent census of speakers was carried out in 1985 and reported 10,000 people actively speaking the language. The {{lang|fr|Atlas Linguistique du Cameroun}} (ALCAM) estimated only 2,000 speakers however, so the actual amount of speakers is unknown.{{Cite thesis |last=Kjelsvik |first=Bjørghild |date=November 2002 |title=Verb chains in Nizaa |institution=University of Oslo |department=Department of Linguistics |degree=Cand. Philol. |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31521636 |via=ResearchGate}}{{cite book |title=Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) |date=2012 |publisher=CERDOTOLA |isbn=9789956796069 |editor-last=Binam Bikoi |editor-first=Charles |series=Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) |volume=1: Inventaire des langues |location=Yaoundé |language=fr |trans-title=Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon}} The language is classified as endangered.{{Cite web |title=Nizaa |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/sgi/ |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250226104534/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/sgi |archive-date=2025-02-26 |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=Ethnologue |language=en}}

The Nizaa people are primarily farmers who grow maize, though other crops such as yams, millet, sorghum, peanuts, and cassava are also grown.{{sfn|Theil Endresen|1992|pp=28–29}} Cattle herding and, to a lesser extent, hunting are also popular among the Nizaa. Most Nizaa practice Islam, though some do practice Christianity or traditional African religions.{{sfn|Theil Endresen|1992|pp=28–29}} The Nizaa are divided into various different clans, each with their own sacred animal which they do not eat or harm; traditionally, it was thought that these animals helped a clan go through some stressful situation in the mythological past.

Most Nizaa are not literate, and the few who are often only can read and write Fula in the Ajami script of Arabic.{{Cite book |last=Grimes |first=Barbara |title=Ethnologue Languages of the World |date=January 1, 1988 |publisher=Summer Institute of Linguistics Academic Pub |isbn=978-0883128251 |pages=72}}{{cite book |author1= |url=https://archive.org/details/ethnologuelangua0000unse_g7e1/page/72 |title=Ethnologue : languages of the world |publisher=SIL International |year=2005 |editor1-last=Gordon |editor1-first=Raymond G. Jr. |edition=Fifteenth |location=Dallas, TX |page=72 |isbn=978-1-55671-159-6 |access-date=2025-05-16}} The romanization of Nizaa also has not widely been adopted by the Nizaa people, because of low literacy among them.{{cite journal |last1=Theil Endresen |first1=Rolf |author1-link=:no:Rolf Theil |date=1992-06-30 |title=La phonologie de la langue nizaa (nizaà) |trans-title=The phonology of the Nizaa language |url=https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/57/51 |journal=Nordic Journal of African Studies |language=fr |publisher=Nordic Africa Research Network |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=28–52 |doi=10.53228/njas.v1i1.57 |access-date=2025-05-16 |quote=Il n'existe pas de description de la langue nizaa. Cet article-ci constitue la première analyse linguistique de cette langue.{{nbsp}}... Le peuple nizaa est composé de différents clans, comme nàw, ɓon, cααrì, maŋnì, mgbε̨ε̨, sugbàm, yǫw, zew, nàw yarà, nzaŋtàŋ, et nàw tiberà. Chaque clan a un animál sacré, qui dans le passé mythologique a aidé les membres du clan dans une situatión decrise, et que !e¡ membres du clan ne tuent pas et ne mangent pas. |trans-quote=No description of the Nizaa language exists. This article constitutes the first linguistic analysis of this language.{{nbsp}}... The Nizaa people are made up of different clans, such as Nàw, ɓon, Cααrì, Maŋnì, Mgbε̨ε̨, Sugbàm, Yǫw, Zew, Nàw Yarà, Nzaŋtàŋ, and Nàw Tiberà. Each clan has a sacred animal, which in the mythological past helped the clan members in a crisis situation, and which the clan members do not kill or eat. |quote-pages=28–29}} Several other languages are spoken in the region, and most Nizaa speakers are bilingual in Fula, since it is essentially the lingua franca of northern Cameroon. Many also know Hausa or French.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=3}}{{Cite thesis |last=Pepper |first=Steve |title=Nominal Compounding in Nizaa – A cognitive perspective |date=2010-09-30 |degree=Language Documentation and Description MA |url=https://www.academia.edu/4237937 |institution=School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) |via=Academia}}

File:Rolf Theil.jpg

The language was first studied extensively in the 1990s, by Norwegian linguist {{interlanguage link|Rolf Theil Endresen|no|Rolf Theil}} at the University of Oslo, in research that was supported financially by the Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture.{{sfn|Theil Endresen|1991|p=171}} Before this, no comprehensive documentation of Nizaa had been undertaken, though certain imprecise details of the language were known as early as 1932.{{sfn|Theil Endresen|1992|p=30}} Furthermore, because another language existed in Adamawa Region also called 'nyamnyam', linguists often confused the two languages, and the exact classification of Nizaa was in doubt before extensive documentation began in the 1990s.{{Sfn|Blench|1993|p=108}} Theil Endresen devised the romanization system of Nizaa and published the first analysis of the language;{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=1}} he also supervised later research on Nizaa by his student, Bjørghild Kjelsvik. Kjelsvik began her work in the Nizaa community via the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon, which documented local languages in addition to engaging in evangelical conversion work.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=1}}

When the orthography differs from the phonetic representation, it is shown in angle brackets. The Nizaa language has five phonemic short oral vowels, ten phonemic long oral vowels, and seven phonemic long nasal vowels.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=10-11}}{{Cite journal |last=Theil Endresen |first=Rolf |author-link=:no:Rolf Theil |date=1991-01-01 |title=Diachronic Aspects of the Phonology of Nizaa |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jall.1991.12.2.171/html |journal=Journal of African Languages and Linguistics |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=171–194 |doi=10.1515/jall.1991.12.2.171 |issn=1613-3811|url-access=subscription }} A possible eighth nasalized vowel also exists in older speakers of Nizaa.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=9 note 9}} In Endresen's original romanization, nasalized vowels were indicated by adding an ogonek, but Kjelsvik's revised romanization indicates such vowels by adding {{Angbr|ŋ}} after the vowel.

When the orthography differs from the phonetic representation, it is shown in angle brackets. Nizaa has complex phonemic inventory with 65 phonemic consonants, including five marginal phonemes, or phonemes that occur infrequently in the language.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=9-11}}

The consonants in parentheses are marginal: the labial flap is only found in ideophones, and the voiced velar fricative is only found intervocalically to distinguish disyllabic morphemes from compounds. The two glottal stops are also marginal and are not written in the orthography. {{IPA|/x/}} also is only distinguished from {{IPA|/h/}} in one word, and is not consequently, is represented the same as {{IPA|/h/}} in the orthography.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=10-11}}

Nizaa has three phonemic tone levels: high (H), mid (M), and low (L), as well as a number of two and three-tone tone contours, which are indicated in the orthography using a variety of diacritics.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=12-13}} Verb roots can only use the high or mid tones, unlike nouns, which may use any of the three levels.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=18}} Tones regularly participate in grammatical processes and are indicated in the orthography with a grave accent (low), nothing (mid), and an acute accent (high).{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=12-13}}

Nizaa has three allowed syllable types: CV, CVV, and CVC, where C represents a consonant, V a short vowel, and VV a long vowel (which may be nasalized or not). The syllable structure V (a single short vowel) exists only in the particle {{lang|sgi|a}}, which has various meanings based on the tone used;{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=9}} these include the copula {{lang|sgi|á}}, which takes a high tone.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=14}} Monosyllabic nouns can only have the syllable structures CVV and CVC, while monosyllabic verbs can have all allowed syllable structures (CV, CVV, CVC).{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=9}}

Nizaa only permits certain consonants to act as codas, meaning consonants that follow the vowel in a syllable; these are {{IPA|/p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ, w, w̃, j, ɾ/}}. The consonants /d/ and /j/ are fairly marginal as codas, only being found in ideophones and loanwords.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=10-11}}

Various morphophonological processes lower vowels to {{IPA|/a/}} in Nizaa. These processes are often found in verbal derivations and irregular noun plurals. Final syllables also weaken in the imperfective aspect: syllables ending in {{IPA|/b/}} instead end with {{IPA|/w/}}; syllables ending in {{IPA|/w̃/}} end with {{IPA|/m/}}; syllables ending in {{IPA|/n/}} nasalize the vowel; syllables ending in {{IPA|/g/}} end in a high tone and raise the vowel (i.e. {{IPA|/a/}} to {{IPA|/ʌ́/}}); syllables ending in nasal vowels raise and lengthen the vowel.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=11-12}}

Nizaa generally uses SVO word order, and is generally head-initial (the head or main element of a clause comes before its modifiers);{{Cite book |last=Pepper |first=Steve |chapter=Windmills, Nizaa and the Typology of Binominal Compounds |chapter-url=https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/55588/1/%2528Nizaa%2529%2BPepper2016.pdf |title=Word-Formation across Languages |date=9 November 2016 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-9962-8 |editor-last1=Körtvélyessy |editor-first1=Lívia |editor-last2=Štekauer |editor-first2=Pavol |pages=281–310 [283] |editor-last3=Valera |editor-first3=Salvador}} however, in noun phrases, the language does not strongly favor putting the main noun before or after its modifiers.{{Sfn|Pepper|2016|pp=281–282, 306}} The language primarily uses postpositions, though there is evidence of at least one preposition.{{Sfn|Pepper|2016|p=283}} The possessor always precedes the possessee in genitive constructions and most adjectives, demonstratives, and numerals also always precede the noun they modify. Relative clauses follow the noun they modify and usually carry no overt grammatical marking.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=13-16}} The following examples of Nizaa nominal constructions are given in Kjelsvik (2002):{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=16}}

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Associative construction:

{{interlinear|mbírā́m ndùùŋ|child sack|'the child's sack'

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Noun and adjective:

{{interlinear|nyánì nízαὰ|language Nizaa|'the Nizaa language'

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Noun and demonstrative:

{{interlinear|nìì làw|person DEM|'this/that person'

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Two nouns:

{{interlinear|sìì yîm|house medicine|'hospital'

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Relative clause:

{{interlinear|nìì nwààŋ njèwā̀ fà díwurḗ|person fight tires NEG come-PRF.DETR|'a person who does not tire of fighting, has come'

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Prepositional phrase (comitative):

{{interlinear|wú wā̀n|COM chief|'with the chief'

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Postpositional phrase:

{{interlinear|wûr ndiŋ|field in|'in the field'

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Locative:

{{interlinear|cún ɓirâ|tree head-LOC|'in the tree top'

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Definiteness on nouns is marked by adding a low tone. The marking for plurals depends on the animacy of the noun: when the noun is animate, ie. is a human or an animal, the suffix {{lang|sgi|-wu}} is added, and when the noun is inanimate, the suffix {{lang|sgi|-ya}} is added. No case-marking exists in Nizaa, with the exception of the locative, though this may be an enclitic instead.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=17}}

Pronouns have three forms: their isolated versions, the versions when combined with the copula {{lang|sgi|á}}, and their versions in context. Logophoric and honorific forms also exist for some pronouns, and a vocative second-person plural pronoun exists as well. Pronouns have singular and plural forms.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=18}}

Nizaa preserves verbal morphology in general (by having more verb forms) much more than most other languages of the Mambiloid family.{{Cite conference |last=Blench |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Blench |year=2018 |orig-date=19-23rd November 2018 |title=Verbal extensions in Bantoid languages and their relation to Bantu |url=https://www.academia.edu/37769371 |conference=Reconstructing Proto-Bantu Grammar |publisher=University of Ghent |pages=30 |via=Academia}}

Nizaa verb roots are monosyllabic, with a mid (M) or high (H) tone, but extra elements can be added to change the original meaning of the verb or for grammatical purposes.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=18}} For example, four directional suffixes, which serve to identify the path of motion verbs, were described by Kjelsvik (2002), which are the illative {{lang|sgi|-a}}, which indicates "motion into an enclosure"; the allative {{lang|sgi|-ri}}, indicating "motion towards a location, often the deictic centre of the sentence"; the distantive {{lang|sgi|-wa}}, indicating "motion away from a location, or from the deictic center"; and the sublative suffix {{lang|sgi|-sa}}, indicating "motion towards a lower location".{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=19–20}} In addition to these directional extensions, Kjelsvik also describes a "completive" suffix, indicating "totality",{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=20}} as well as several verb number indicators.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=19}}

The various inflectional suffixes in Nizaa include a "habitual/imperfective"; a "perfective/stative"; a perfect intransitive", which prevents the mention of any further verb arguments without changing valency; and a "perfect transitive", which is used when any further arguments are present in a sentence. Progressive, imperative, and participlizing suffixes also exist, as well as suffixes negating the original verb, and a "detransitivizer" suffix which acts as a clitic to remove the transitivity of verbs it is attached to.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=20-21}}

A stacking of up to three extensions to a single verb is grammatical in Nizaa.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=19}} Up to four verbs may occur in one sentence in Nizaa, though it is uncertain whether these are serial verb constructions or just lexical compounds, which occur in many other West African languages.{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|pp=22-23}} The following examples of Nizaa verb constructions are given in Kjelsvik (2002):{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=126, 130, 135}}

{{interlinear|ge kwɛɛ jʉʉŋ ŋu mάάŋ|go find return 3SG friend|'He went and found his friend again.'

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{{interlinear|à yí seghə́ə́ gè nyin ni càŋw|AUX LOG {mother-in-law} go speak give again|'... so that (it) will go to greet my mother-in-law.'

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{{interlinear|mbéw ɗàà kǔm bαά tαάŋ yɛɛ jíwcí ŋú cún yɛ̀ɛ̀ konā̀ ā̀ nǎm̀ di kwɛɛkìwí|monkey other while seek eat change roam-PRES 3SG tree fruit bush-LOC AUX hyena-DEF come find-TOT-PST|'A monkey who just then was roaming about seeking and eating his tree nuts in the

bush, came and found the hyena.'

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}}

The Nizaa language does not distinguish mothers and maternal aunts or fathers and paternal uncles from each other, calling them {{lang|sgi|maaŋ}} and {{lang|sgi|táá}} respectively. However, maternal uncles and paternal aunts have separate terms to distinguish them from maternal aunts/mothers and paternal uncles/fathers. The Nizaa language does not distinguish maternal and paternal grandparents either. Separate terms exist for older sisters and brothers, but there is no distinction of sex for younger siblings. The terms for older sister {{lang|sgi|díí}} and older brother {{lang|sgi|daà}} are also used as generic terms for polite address, while addressing someone as a younger sibling {{lang|sgi|nā́m}} is seen as disrespectful. The terms for cousins are the same as the ones for siblings and also depend on the age of the cousin. A generic term for in-laws, {{lang|sgi|jwììŋ}}, also exists.{{sfn|Kjelsvik|2008|pp=118–125}}

A sample sentence in Nizaa from Kjelsvik (2002) is shown below:{{Sfn|Kjelsvik|2002|p=23}}

{{Interlinear |lang2=sgi |indent=3 |abbreviations=DF:definite; PCPL:participle; PROX:proximal; SUB:subjunctive; TOT:completive;

|1={ŋu wààwu} se kekirā́, ɓulαὰŋ sewu mbân kùù fɔ́ɔ̀ ɗag gewunâ, yɛ́ɛ́wú-ŋwā́ kùù kpááŋ nìwà.

|2={3SG grandchild-PL} see know-TOT-PRF.DETR they.3PL-these.DEM.PROX see-PST place grandpa staff-DF fall go-PST-PCPL will-STAT-NEG grandpa talk give-SUB

|3='His grandchildren have seen and know, they saw the place grandpa's staff went and fell into, they do not want to tell him.'}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Northern Bantoid languages}}

Category:Endangered languages of Africa

Category:Languages of Cameroon

Category:Mambiloid languages