The forty or so Plateau languages are a tentative group of

Benue–Congo languages Benue–Congo (sometimes called East Benue–Congo) is a major branch of the Volta-Congo languages which covers most of Sub-Saharan Africa. Subdivisions Central Nigerian (or Platoid) contains the Plateau, Jukunoid and Kainji families, and Banto ...

spoken by 15 million people on the

Jos Plateau The Jos Plateau is a plateau located near the centre of Nigeria. The plateau has given its name to the Plateau State in which it is found and is named for the state's capital, Jos. The plateau is home to people of diverse cultures and languages ...

Southern Kaduna Southern Kaduna (formerly Southern Zaria) is an area inhabited by various non-Hausa peoples living south of Zaria Emirate of Kaduna State. It is located in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. Southern Kaduna consist of 12 local Government out of ...

Nasarawa State Nasarawa State is a state in the North Central region of Nigeria, bordered to the east by the states of Taraba and Plateau, to the north by Kaduna State, to the south by the states of Kogi and Benue, and to the west by the Federal Capital Terri ...

and in adjacent areas in central

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 ...

. Berom and

Eggon Eggon (also Egon, Ero, or Mo Egon), erroneously referred to as Mada - formerly a Plateau language spoken in central Nigeria. It is one of the major language in Nasarawa State. Classification The exact classification of the Eggon language has be ...

have the most speakers. Most Plateau languages are threatened and have around 2,000-10,000 speakers.Blench, Roger. 2007.
Language families of the Nigerian Middle Belt and the historical implications of their distribution
'. Presented to the Jos Linguistic Circle in Jos, Nigeria, July 25, 2007. Defining features of the Plateau family have only been published in manuscript form (Blench 2008). Many of the languages have highly elaborate phonology systems that make comparison with poor data difficult.

Branches and locations

Below is a list of major Plateau branches and their primary locations (centres of diversity) based on Blench (2019). The Plateau languages are highly typologically and lexically diverse. For instance,

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works ...

(2022) notes that Beromic is more internally diverse than all of West Chadic A3.Blench, Roger (2022).
Contact between West Chadic and Plateau languages: new evidence languages: new evidence
'. 11-12 November 2022, presentation given at Universität Wien.

Classification

Little work has been done on the Plateau languages, and the results to date are tentative.

Blench (2018)

Blench (2018:112) gives the following classification of the Plateau languages.Blench, Roger M. 2018. Nominal affixes and number marking in the Plateau languages of Central Nigeria. In John R. Watters (ed.), ''East Benue-Congo: Nouns, pronouns, and verbs'', 107–172. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Blench (2008)

The following classification is taken from Blench (2008). Most of the branches are discrete constituents, though Central is a residual grouping and there are doubts about some of the purported

Ninzic languages The dozen or so Ninzic languages are a branch of the Plateau family spoken in central Nigeria. Classification There is little data on the Ninzic languages, and it is not clear that all of the following languages are related. Blench (2008) lists ...

. Plateau languages as a whole share a number of isoglosses, as do all branches apart from Tarokoid. Glottolog adds the

Yukubenic languages The Yukubenic languages (or Oohum languages) are a branch of either the Jukunoid family or the Plateau family spoken in southeastern Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Nai ...

. Blench, however, places Yukubenic in the Jukunoid family, following Shimizu (1980).

Gerhardt (1983)

Classification of Plateau languages by Gerhardt (1983), based on Maddieson (1972):Maddieson, Ian. 1972. ''The Benue-Congo Languages of Nigeria''. Sheet 1 and 2: ''Plateau''. Mimeographed paper. Ibadan. ;Plateau 1a, 1b (

Kainji languages The Kainji languages are a group of about 60 related languages spoken in west-central Nigeria. They form part of the Central Nigerian (Platoid) branch of Benue–Congo. Demographics Four of the most widely spoken Kainji languages are Tsuvadi ( ...

) ;Plateau 2 *Yeskwa, Lungu, Koro *Kamanton, Kagoma, Jaba cluster, Nandu-Tari *Afuzare, Kaje, Iregwe *Kagoro, Ataka, Katab (including Kachicheri, Kafanchan), Marwa *Kadara, Kuturmi, Ikulu, Idong, Doka, Iku-Gora-Ankwa ;Plateau 3 *Migili (?, L. G.) *Birom (including Aboro, Afango) *Aten ;Plateau 4 *Ayu *Kwanka-Boi-Bijim-Shall-Zwall *Ninzam, Mada, Gwantu, Numana-Nunku, Nindem, Kaningkon, Kanufi *Rukuba ;Plateau 5 *Yashi *Eggon, Nungu, Ake, Jidda-Abu ;Plateau 6 *Pyam *Horom ;Plateau 7 *Tarok (= Yergam) *Bashar *Pai ;Plateau 8 *Mabo-Barkul ;Plateau 9 *Eloyi ;Plateau 10 *Turkwam, Arum-Chesu Note: ''Plateau 1'' languages, consisting of Plateau 1a and 1b, are now classified separately as

Language list

List of Plateau languages given by Blench (2018): ;Northwest *

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* Edra *Acro *Obiro *Kulu *Ẹjẹgha (Idon) *Doka *Ẹhwa (Iku-Gora-Ankwe) ;Beromic * Berom *Cara *Iten *Shall-Zwall ;West-Central (area) *Izeric **Izere of Fobur **Icèn, Ganàng, Fəràn *Rigwe *Southern Zaria (now Southern Kaduna) *Tyapic ** Jju **

Tyap Tyap is a regionally important dialect cluster of Plateau languages in Nigeria's Middle Belt, named after its prestige dialect. It is also known by its ''Hausa exonym'' as Katab or Kataf.McKinney, N. P. (April 1990), p. 255. It is also ...

**Gworok **Takad (Attakar) **Tyecarak (Kacicere) **Sholyio **Fantswam (Kafancan) **Tyuku *Koro **Ashe **Tinɔr (Waci-Myamya) **Idũ, Gwara **Nyankpa-Barde *Hyamic **Shamang **Cori ** Hyam **Zhire **Shang *Gyongic **Gyong (Kagoma) **Nɡhan (Kamanton) ;Ninzic *Ninzo *Ce *Bu-Niŋkada *Mada *Numana-Nunku-Gwantu-Numbu *Ningye-Ninka *Anib *Ninkyob *Nindem *Nungu *Ayu ;Ndunic *Ndun (Tari) ;Alumic *Toro, Alumu-Təsu *Hasha *Sambe ;Southern *Eggonic **Eggon **Ake *Jilic **Jili **Jijili ;Southeastern (?) *Fyem *Horom *Bo-Rukul ;Tarokoid *Tarok *Pe (Pai) *Kwang-Ya-Bijim-Legeri *Yaŋkam (Bashar) *Sur (Tapshin) ;Eloyi Nisam is a presumed Plateau language once spoken in Nince Village, Kaduna State, but its place within the Plateau branch cannot be ascertained due to the lack of linguistic data. In 2005, there was only one speaker of Nisam.Blench, Roger M. 2012
Akpondu, Nigbo, Bəbər and Nisam: moribund or extinct languages of central Nigeria Babur

Morphology

Proto-Plateau nominal prefixes: * *ni- (corresponding to Bantu noun class 9 *n- for animals and inanimate objects) * *V- for person, *bV- for people * *N- prefixes, homorganic with the following consonant * *nV- ~ *mV- (both singular and plural), which mark liquids, mass nouns, and abstract nouns Only some of the languages have nominal classes, as the

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

have, where in others these have eroded. In many Plateau languages, many CV- prefixes have become fossilised, replaced by V- prefixes, or disappeared altogether. The large numbers of consonants in many languages is due to the erosion of

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. In Plateau languages, adjectives and possessive forms generally follow the noun.

Reconstructions

Some Proto-Plateau quasi-reconstructions proposed by

(2008) are:

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:

Footnotes

References

*Blench (2008
''Prospecting proto-Plateau''
Manuscript.

External links

from Roger Blench
ComparaLex
database with Plateau word lists {{DEFAULTSORT:Plateau Languages