Mantsi (also known as Ma’as or Mangas) is an endangered

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

language spoken in Mangas town in

Bauchi State Bauchi State (Fula: ''Leydi Bauchi'' 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤦𞤢𞤵𞤷𞥅𞤭) is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Kano and Jigawa to the north, Taraba and Plateau to the south, Gombe and Yobe to the ea ...

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 ...

. Blench (2020) reports that it is also called ''Mantsi''. According to Blench, the structure of Mantsi differs significantly from the other South Bauchi languages.Blench, Roger. 2020.
An introduction to Mantsi, a South Bauchi language of Central Nigeria
'. Word lists of Mantsi had previously been published in Kiyoshi Shimizu's (1978) South Bauchi survey, which first mentioned the existence of the language. An unpublished word list was also recorded by Ronald Cosper (n.d.).Cosper, Ronald n.d. Wordlist of South Bauchi (West Chadic) languages ; Boghom, Mangas, Buli, Dott, Geji, Jimi, Polci, Sayanci, Zul. ms.

Names

Mantsi speakers refer to their language as ''Pyik Mantsi'' ʲìk mántsì and to themselves as the ''Mantsi'' ántsìpeople. Although there are fewer than 1,000 speakers, the language is still being spoken by children.

Demographics

Mantsi is spoken in the single village of Mantsi (locally known as ''Maɗana'' ánànāor ''Ma’as'' àʔās in the southern part of

Bauchi Bauchi (earlier Yakoba) is a city in northeast Nigeria, the Administrative center of Bauchi State, of the Bauchi Local Government Area within that State, and of the traditional Bauchi Emirate. It is located on the northern edge of the Jos Plateau ...

LGA,

. The Kir yiirand

Laar Laar () is a community in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim in Lower Saxony. The community’s name comes from the Old Dutch for “glade in the woods”. Geography Location Laar lies northwest of Nordhorn on the German-Dutch border. It belong ...

peoples, who speak closely related but distinct languages, live just to the northeast of Mantsi village in the nearby villages of Kir and Laar, respectively.

Classification

Mantsi belongs to the Kir branch of the South Bauchi languages. It is most closely related to Kir and

, as shown by the lexical comparisons below. Mantsi also has some lexical innovations, which are:

Phonology

Mantsi has 3 level tones, as well as rising and falling contour tones.

Grammar

Number is not marked morphologically.

Lexicon

Plants and animals

Some Mantsi names of plants and animals:

Numerals

Mantsi numerals:

Notes

{{West Chadic languages West Chadic languages Languages of Nigeria Endangered languages