Degema language
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Dẹgẹma is an
Edoid language The Edoid languages are a few dozen languages spoken in Southern Nigeria, predominantly in the former Bendel State. The name ''Edoid'' derives from its most widely spoken member, Edo, the language of Benin City, which has 25 million native and se ...
spoken in two separate communities on Degema Island in the
Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitic ...
,
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 ...
, by about 120,000 people, according to 1991 census figures (including projection figures for the two Dẹgẹma-speaking communities). The two communities are Usokun-Degema and Degema Town in the Degema Local Government Area in
Rivers State Rivers State, also known as Rivers, is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed in 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include: Imo to the north, Abia and Akwa ...
. Each community speaks a mutually intelligible variety of Dẹgẹma, known by the names of the communities speaking them: the Usokun variety (spoken in Usokun-Degema) and the Degema Town variety (spoken in Degema Town). Both varieties are similar in their
phonological Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
, morphological, syntactic and semantic properties. No standard variety has so far emerged between the two varieties of Dẹgẹma. However, there appear to be more scholarly and descriptive linguistic publications on the Usokun variety than on the Degema Town variety. The Dẹgẹma language is not also called "Atala" or "Udekaama", as stated in some publications. Atala is the alternative name for one of the Degema-speaking communities (Degema Town), and Udekaama is the name of a clan (which comprises Usokun-Degema and Degema Town). Similarly, "Dekema" is not an alternative name for the Degema language as contained in the entry for Degema in the Ethnologue.


Phonology

Dẹgẹma is the only Niger-Congo language to match the vowel inventory reconstructed for Proto-Ijoid. There are ten vowels, in two harmonic sets: and . Dẹgẹma has 24
consonants In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
(including labialized velar-glottal sounds):


Writing System


Degema history

Oral tradition asserts that the Degema people (originally part of the Engenni people) migrated from
Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...
(in what is now the Edo State of Nigeria) to Ewu in present-day Engenni, in the
Ahoada Ahoada (Ahuda, Ehuda) is a city in Orashi Region of Rivers State, Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in ...
Local Government Area of Rivers State. According to Mark Roman (a native of Engenni and a staff member at the
University of Port Harcourt The University of Port Harcourt is located in Choba in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria. It was established in 1975 as University College, Port Harcourt and was given university status in 1977. The University of Port Harcourt was rank ...
), the people of present-day Degema settled at Ewu (near Akinima) when they left
Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...
with other groups who settled at Okilogua in Engenni (not in Akinima, as claimed). Roman asserts that Ewu is also in Okilogua. At Ewu, there was a split which took some of the inhabitants to Enuedua (Joinkrama) (forming the Enuedua group), some to Ediro (forming the Ediro group) and some to Ogua, forming the Ogua group. These groups make up the Engenni community. Roman also asserts that the Degema people belonged to the Ogua group. The split at Ewu was in due to a disagreement over fish belonging to all the people living there. Some of those who contributed their own water to the cooking of fish did not get their share of the water after the cooking was done, not considering that water evaporates when heated. Those aggrieved decided to leave Ewu, and the name ''Udekaama'' became associated with the aggrieved group. The Udekaama group went to the uninhabited Degema Island around the 15th century CE and settled at Ipokuma ("headland" or "cape" in Dẹgẹma), now known as Doctor’s Farm. The headland is the part of Degema Island adjacent to an uninhabited island on which
Abonnema Abonnema, originally known as Nyemoni (which means "covet your own" in the Kalabari dialect of the Ijaw language), is a large town in the Kalabari Kingdom that was founded in 1882. Its territory was discovered by an expedition of four independent c ...
(a Kalabari-speaking community in the Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State is situated. Udekaama is an
umbrella term In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other wor ...
for two groups: Usokun-Degema and Degema Town (Atala) (headed by Ugu and Ekeze, respectively, who led the two groups from Ewu to Ipokuma. Ekomburu (Obonoma) is one of the groups comprising the Udekaama clan. The settlement at Ipokuma was before the arrival of the Abonnema (about 1882) and the
Kalabari tribe The Kalabari are a sub-group of the Ijaw people living in the eastern Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Originally, they were known as the Awome. The name Kalabari was derived from their ancestor Perebo Kalabari who was a son of Mein Owei. Their ...
: At Ipokuma Ugu and Ekeze led Usokun-Degema and Degema Town, respectively, north to their present sites for fishing, hunting and farming. Neither of these two communities considers itself (or its leader) subordinate to the other; the two groups consider themselves independent. The name ''Degema'' is a bastardized form of ''Udekaama'' (the name by which colonists referred to the Udekaama people), which may have resulted from the Kalabari mispronunciation of ''Udekaama'' as ''Dekema'' (which, in turn, became ''Degema'' on contemporary documents. ''Udekaama'' may also be an unwelcome reminder of the rift between their forefathers at Ewu. ''Udekaama'' is still found in official documents, mainly due to the assertion of ethnic identity by the Degema people (who are surrounded by Kalabari-speaking communities). The people of Degema are linguistically and culturally distinct from their Kalabari neighbours (The Kalabari people speak Kalabari, an Eastern
ijaw Ijaw may refer to: *Ijaw people The Izon people or Izon Otu, otherwise known as the Ijaw people due to the historic mispronunciation of the name ''Izon'', are an ethnic group majorly found in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, with significant populatio ...
language spoken in the Akuku Toru and
Asari-Toru Asari-Toru is a Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria. General Information Asari-Toru Local Government Area was created out of the old Degema Local Government Area on May 16, 1989, under the Hon. Eziwoke Wokoma. The inhabitants are of a ...
Local Government Areas of Rivers State. Kalabari is also spoken in some parts of the Degema Local Government Area. Degema refers not only to the language spoken by the inhabitants of Usokun-Degema and Degema Town, it also refers to the people themselves, the land on which they live and their government (the administrative headquarters of the Degema Local Government Area).Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2008a. Linguistic imperialism and the rise in linguistic consciousness: The Degema case. In Y. Takashina (ed.), ''Dynamics of Language – "Foreign Languages" as Named by Others'', 25-35. Osaka: Research Institute for World Languages, Osaka University.


See also

* Defaka


References

{{Volta-Niger languages Edoid languages Indigenous languages of Rivers State