Daka (Dakka, Dekka, rarely Deng or Tikk) is one of two languages spoken by the
Chamba people in
Nigeria, the other being
Chamba Leko
Chamba Leko is one of two languages spoken by the Chamba people, the other being Chamba Daka. It is a member of the Leko branch of Savanna languages, and is spoken across the northern Nigerian–Cameroonian border.
''Chamba'' is also spelled 'S ...
.
Varieties
Daka is a
dialect cluster
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
. The Chamba dialect is called Chamba Daka (or ''Samba, Tsamba, Tchamba, Sama, Jama Daka''; also Nakanyare) and constitutes 90% of speakers. Chamba Daka is also called ''Sámá Mūm''.
Other dialects are ''Dirim'' (Dirin, Dirrim), ''Lamja, Dengsa,'' and ''Tola''. Dirim and Lamja–Dengsa–Tola have separate
ISO coding, but ''Ethnologue'' notes that they are 'close to Samba Daka and may be a dialect' or 'may not be sufficiently distinct from Samba Daka to be a separate language', and actually lists Dirim as a dialect under Daka. Blench (2011) lists Dirim as coordinate with other Daka varieties: Nnakenyare, Mapeo, Jangani, Lamja, Dirim, suggesting that if Lamja and Dirim are considered separate languages, as in ''Ethnologue'', then Samba Daka itself needs to be broken up into three additional languages.
Blench lists the following varieties as Samba Daka dialects.
*Samba Jangani
*Samba Nnakenyare
*Samba of Mapeo
Classification
Greenberg
Greenberg is a surname common in North America, with anglicized spelling of the German Grünberg (''green mountain'') or the Jewish Ashkenazi Yiddish Grinberg, an artificial surname.Beider, Alexander (1993). ''A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from ...
placed Samba Daka within his
Adamawa proposal, as group G3, but Bennett (1983) demonstrated to general satisfaction that it is a
Benue–Congo language, though its placement within Benue–Congo is disputed. Blench (2011) considers it to be Bantoid. Boyd (ms), however, considers Daka an isolate branch within Niger–Congo (Blench 2008). Blench (2011) lists
Taram as a separate, though closely related, language.
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
* /ɾ/ may also occur as trilled
* /d͡z/ can have an allophone of
References
Further reading
*Blench (2008
''Prospecting proto-Plateau'' Manuscript.
* Blench, Roger, 2011
'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu' ''Bantu IV'', Humboldt University, Berlin.
External links
{{Languages of Nigeria
Adamawa languages
Northern Bantoid languages
Languages of Nigeria