Nizaa
Nizaa is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken in Cameroon. Glottolog rates it threatened.
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Nizaa (Nizaa pronunciation: [nɪ˦zʌː˧˨], practical orthography: Nízɑɑ̀), also known as Galim, Nyamnyam, and Suga, is an endangered Mambiloid language spoken in the Adamawa Region of northern Cameroon, by the Nizaa people. Most of the language's speakers live in and around the village of Galim in the department of Faro-et-Déo.
Nizaa has a complex sound system with 60 consonant phonemes, eleven tones, and a contrast between oral and nasal vowels. It is neither a head-initial nor head-final language (the head or main element of a clause does not prefer to come before or after its modifiers) and uses postpositions instead of prepositions (the adposition follows the noun it modifies).
Nizaa was first extensively documented in the 1980s by Norwegian linguists Rolf Theil Endresen and Bjørghild Kjelsvik. The language is endangered, but the exact number of active speakers is unknown since the last census of speakers took place in 1985.
From Wikipedia · Nizaa language · CC BY-SA 4.0
Words in Nizaa
| Meaning | Word | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| person | ni* | |
| name | yE* | |
| eye | yir* | |
| ear | twa* | |
| nose | 5ur* | |
| tooth | 5i* | |
| tongue | lemni* | |
| hand | bwa* | |
| blood | Tam* | |
| bone | kvow* | |
| skin | Tur* | |
| knee | lo* | |
| breast | maN* | |
| water | nim | |
| fire | ra* | |
| sun | l3* | |
| star | ywE* | |
| stone | poN* | |
| mountain | dwi* | |
| tree | TuN* | |
| leaf | kew* | |
| night | tur* | |
| dog | bow* | |
| fish | Ngin* | |
| louse | TE* | |
| one | mum* | |
| two | bara* | |
| drink | suN* | |
| see | se* | |
| hear | wa* |
* in the simplified ASJP transcription
Most similar languages
Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.
Nearby languages
Elsewhere
Glottolog · suga1248 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · sgi