| Dikaka | |
|---|---|
| Cham | |
| Dijim-Bwilim | |
| Native to | Gombe State of Nigeria |
| Ethnicity | Dijim people |
| Native speakers | (25,000 cited 1998) |
| Language family | Niger–Congo? |
| Early forms | Dikaka
|
| Dialects |
|
| Writing system | Latin (Dijim alphabets) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cfa |
| Glottolog | diji1241 |
Dikaka or Cham, is one of the Savanna languages of Middle Belt, Nigeria. It is also known as Dijim–Bwilim, after its two dialects, Dijim and Bwilim. A tonal language, it has a whistled register. It is spoken in Gombe and southwestern parts of Adamawa State of Nigeria.
Dialects
The two dialects are Dijim and Bwilim.
- Dijim , spoken in and around Kindiyo (currently Cham town)
- Bwilim , spoken in and around Mɔna (Mwona, Mwana)
Another related dialect is spoken by former speakers of the Jalaa language in and around Loojaa settlement.
Orthography
It consists of 8 vowels and 17 consonants.
- The vowels are: a, e, i, o, u, ǝ, ɨ, ʊ
- The consonants are: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, y
References
- Dikaka at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Kleinewillinghöfer, Ulrich. 2014. The languages of the Tula – Waja Group. Adamawa Languages Project.
| Languages of Nigeria | |
|---|---|
| Official languages | |
| National languages | |
| Recognised languages | |
| Indigenous languages | |
| Sign languages | |
| Immigrant languages | |
| Scripts | |
| Adamawa languages | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waja–Kam | |||||||||||||
| Leko–Nimbari |
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| Bambukic |
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| Mbum–Day |
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| Others | |||||||||||||