The six Northwest Kainji languages, formerly known as Lela, are spoken near
Kainji Lake
Kainji Lake, in North Central Nigeria, is a reservoir on the Niger River, formed by the Kainji Dam. It was formed in 1968 and is a part of Niger State and Kebbi State. Kainji Lake National Park (KNLP), situated around the lake, is Nigeria's oldes ...
on the
Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...
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 ...
. They are distinguishable from other Kainji languages by the reduction of their
noun-class
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 a ...
prefixes to single consonants.
[Roger Blench, 2010]
The Northwest Kainji languages
/ref>
Classification
Blench (2018)
Northwest Kainji classification by Blench (2018):[Blench, Roger M. 2018. Nominal affixing in the Kainji languages of northwestern and central Nigeria. In John R. Watters (ed.), ''East Benue-Congo: Nouns, pronouns, and verbs'', 59–106. Berlin: Language Science Press. ]
*? Damakawa The Damakawa are an ethnic group of about 500-1000 people in northwest Nigeria. They live in three villages near Maganda in Sakaba Local Government Area, Kebbi State. They used to speak the Damakawa language
Damakawa is a moribund Benue–Congo ...
*(node)
** cLela
** Hun-Saare
**Ma'in
The Minaean people were the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ma'in (Minaean: ''Maʿīn''; modern Arabic ''Maʿīn'') in modern-day Yemen, dating back to the 10th century BCE-150 BCE. It was located along the strip of desert called Ṣayhad by ...
, Wurə-Gwamhyə-Mba
The position of Damakawa The Damakawa are an ethnic group of about 500-1000 people in northwest Nigeria. They live in three villages near Maganda in Sakaba Local Government Area, Kebbi State. They used to speak the Damakawa language
Damakawa is a moribund Benue–Congo ...
is uncertain.
Blench (2010)
In Blench (2010), Lela (C'lela and Ribah) is divergent from the other languages, though poorly attested Damakawa has similarities.Damakawa The Damakawa are an ethnic group of about 500-1000 people in northwest Nigeria. They live in three villages near Maganda in Sakaba Local Government Area, Kebbi State. They used to speak the Damakawa language
Damakawa is a moribund Benue–Congo ...
*(node)
** Gwamhi-Wuri
** ut-Ma'in (Fakai), Hun-Saare (Duka)
References
Kainji languages
{{kainji-lang-stub