Gwari is a

kwa language The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The name was introduced 1895 by Gottlob Kra ...

spoken by the

Gbagyi Gbagyi or Gbari (plural - Agbagyi/Agbari) is the name and the language of Gbagyi/Gbari ethnic group who are predominantly found in Central Nigeria, with a population of about 1 million people. Members of the ethnic group speak two dialects. While ...

people, which make up over a million people in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. There are two principal varieties, Gbari (West Gwari) and Gbagyi (East Gwari), which have some difficulty in communication;

sociolinguistic Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of l ...

ally they are distinct languages.

Varieties

Gbagye is also known as Gwari-Matai or Gwarin Ngenge, which are recently adopted cover terms.Blench, Roger. 2013.
The Nupoid languages of west-central Nigeria: overview and comparative word list
'. There are two separate Gbagyi groups living in: *

Minna Minna is a city in Middle Belt Nigeria. It is the capital city of Niger State, one of Nigeria's 36 federal states. It consists of two major ethnic groups: the Gbagyi and the Nupe. History Archaeological evidence suggests settlement in the ...

and

Kuta Kuta is a tourist area, administratively an urban village (''kelurahan''), and the capital of Kuta District, Badung Regency, southern Bali, Indonesia. A former fishing village, it was one of the first towns on Bali to see substantial tourist de ...

(more prominent group) *around

Diko The Democratic Party ( el, Δημοκρατικό Κόμμα (ΔΗΚΟ), ''Dimokratikó Kómma'' (DIKO)) is a Greek-Cypriot nationalist, centrist political party in Cyprus founded in 1976 by Spyros Kyprianou. DIKO is variously described as cent ...

, northeast of Suleja Gbagye is the only Nupoid language that has the bilabial implosive /ɓ/. Gbagyi (also known as Gwari) is a cover term for all the Gbari-speaking peoples, and includes many varieties. Gbari-Yama is a cover term used for all southern Gbari dialects. There are two closely related dialects, which are: *Shigokpna *Zubakpna Gbedegi is an extinct language (possibly a Nupe dialect) spoken near Mokwa (Nadel 1941).

References

Nupoid languages {{VoltaNiger-lang-stub