Nizaa language

Nizaa (Suga pronunciation: [ɲanì nɪ́zʌ́ː]), also known as Galim, Nyemnyem, and Suga, is an endangered Mambiloid language spoken in the Adamawa Region of northern Cameroon.^[2] Most of the language's approximately 10,000 speakers live in the village of Galim.^[3][4] Several other languages are spoken in the region, and most Nizaa speakers are bilingual in Fula, since it is essentially the lingua franca of northern Cameroon. Many also know Hausa or French.^[3][5]

Nizaa
Galim, Nyemnyem, Suga
Native to	Cameroon
Native speakers	(10,000 cited 1985)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Mambiloid Nizaa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sgi
Glottolog	suga1248

Map of ethnic groups in Adamawa Region

Name

Nizaa is alternatively referred to in the literature as Suga, Galim, or Nyemnyem. Nizaa is the endonym for the people group; Suga apparently comes from Pero súgò 'stranger'; Nyamnyam (or Nyemnyem) is a pejorative meaning 'cannibal' (derived from the Fula word nyaamdu 'to eat') and is considered somewhat pejorative; and Galim is the main town of the Nizaa.^[4][6]

Phonology and orthography

Vowels

When the orthography differs from the phonetic representation, it is shown in angle brackets. The Nizaa language has five phonemic short oral vowels, ten phonemic long oral vowels, and seven phonemic long nasal vowels.^[3][7]

	Short oral vowels		Long oral vowels				Long nasal vowels
	Front	Back	Front	Central	Back		Front	Central	Back
					unrounded	rounded			unrounded	rounded
Close	ɪ ~ ɯ ⟨i⟩	ʊ ~ ʏ ⟨u⟩	iː ⟨ii⟩	ɯː ⟨ʉʉ⟩		uː ⟨uu⟩	ĩː ⟨iiŋ⟩	ɯ̃ː ⟨ʉʉŋ⟩		ũː ⟨uuŋ⟩
Close-mid	e ~ ɤ ⟨e⟩	o ~ ø ⟨o⟩	eː ⟨ee⟩	ɤː ⟨əə⟩		oː ⟨oo⟩	ɛ̃ː ⟨ɛɛŋ⟩	ʌ̃ː ⟨ααŋ⟩		ɔ̃ː ⟨ɔɔŋ⟩
Open-mid			ɛ ⟨ɛɛ⟩	ʌ ⟨αα⟩		ɔ ⟨ɔɔ⟩
Open	a		aː ⟨aa⟩				ãː ⟨aaŋ⟩

Consonants

When the orthography differs from the phonetic representation, it is shown in angle brackets. Nizaa has 65 phonemic consonants, including five marginal phonemes.^[3][7]

		Labial		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Velar		Labial– velar	Glottal
		plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.		plain	lab.
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	pʷ ⟨pw⟩	t	tʷ ⟨tw⟩	tʃ ⟨c⟩	tʃʷ ⟨cw⟩	k	kʷ ⟨kw⟩	k͡p ⟨kp⟩	(ʔ)	(ʔʷ)
	voiced	b	bʷ ⟨bw⟩	d	dʷ ⟨dw⟩	dʒ ⟨j⟩	dʒʷ ⟨jw⟩	ɡ	ɡʷ ⟨gw⟩	ɡ͡b ⟨gb⟩
	prenasalized	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩	ᵐbʷ ⟨mbw⟩	ⁿd ⟨nd⟩	ⁿdʷ ⟨ndw⟩	ᶮdʒ ⟨nj⟩	ᶮdʒʷ ⟨njw⟩	ᵑg ⟨ŋg⟩	ᵑgʷ ⟨ŋgw⟩	͡ᵑᵐɡ͡b ⟨mgb⟩
	implosive	ɓ	ɓʷ ⟨ɓw⟩	ɗ	ɗʷ ⟨ɗw⟩
	prenasalized implosive	ᵐɓ ⟨mɓ⟩	ᵐɓʷ ⟨mɓw⟩	ⁿɗ ⟨nɗ⟩	ⁿɗʷ ⟨nɗw⟩
Nasal		m	mʷ ⟨mw⟩	n	nʷ ⟨nw⟩	ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ɲʷ ⟨nyw⟩
Approximant	voiced			l	lʷ ⟨lw⟩	j ⟨y⟩	ɥ ⟨yw⟩			w
	nasalized							ɰ̃ ⟨ŋ⟩		w̃ ⟨ŋw⟩
Fricative	voiceless	f	fʷ ⟨fw⟩	s	sʷ ⟨sw⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩	ʃʷ ⟨shw⟩	(x ⟨h⟩)			h
	voiced	v		z	zʷ ⟨zw⟩			(ɣ ⟨gh⟩)
	prenasalized	ᶬv ⟨mv⟩		ⁿz ⟨nz⟩
Tap or Flap		(ⱱ̟ ~ ⱱ ⟨vb⟩)		ɾ ⟨r⟩	ɾʷ ⟨rw⟩

The consonants in parentheses are marginal: the labial flap is only found in ideophones, and the voiced velar fricative is only found intervocalically in disyllabic morphemes, differentiating them from compounds. The two glottal stops are also so marginal as to not be written in the orthography. /x/ also is only different from /h/ in one lexical item and is not distinguished from /h/ in the orthography.^[3]

Most Nizaa are not literate, and the few who are often only can read and write Fula in the Ajami script. The Latin romanization of Nizaa also has not widely been adopted by the Nizaa people yet because of the low literacy of the Nizaa.^[8]

Tonology

Nizaa has three phonemic tones: high (H), mid (M), and low (L), as well as a number of two and three-tone tone contours. Verb roots can only use the high or low tones. Tones regularly participate in grammatical processes and are indicated in the orthography with a grave accent (low), nothing (mid), and an acute accent (high).^[3]

Syllable structure

Nizaa has three allowed syllable types: CV, CVV, and CVC, where VV represents a long vowel (oral or nasal). However, some particles only have a syllable structure of V including the copula á. Monosyllabic nouns can only have the syllable structures CVV and CVC, while monosyllabic verbs can have all allowed syllable structures (CV, CVV, CVC).^[3]

Nizaa only permits certain consonants to act as codas; these are /p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ, w, w̃, j, ɾ/. The consonants /d/ and /j/ are fairly marginal as codas, only being found in ideophones and loans.^[3]

Morphophonology

Various morphophonological processes lower vowels to /a/ in Nizaa. These processes are often found in verbal derivations and irregular noun plurals.^[3][7] Syllables also weaken in the imperfective aspect: when they end in /b, w̃, n, g/ or a nasal vowel, they become /w, m/, nasalize the vowel, or add a high tone and raise the vowel (i.e. /a/ to /ʌ́/), and a raise and lengthen the vowel respectively.^[3]

Grammar

Word order

Nizaa generally uses SVO word order, and is generally head-initial, although it has no preference for right-headed or left-headed nominals which occur in roughly equal amounts.^[9] The language primarily uses postpositions, though at least one preposition (the comitative) is attested, and a locative suffix is attested. The possessor always precedes the possessee in genitive constructions and most adjectives, demonstratives, and numerals also always precede the noun they modify. Relative clauses follow their head noun and usually carry no overt marking.^[3]

Nouns and pronouns

Definiteness on nouns is marked by adding a low tone. The marking for plurals depends on the animacy of the noun: when the noun is animate, the suffix -wu is added, and when the noun is inanimate, the suffix -ya is added. No case-marking exists in Nizaa, with the exception of the locative, though this may be an enclitic instead.^[3][7]

Pronouns have three forms: their isolated versions, the versions when combined with the copula á, and the versions in context. Logophoric and honorific forms also exist for some pronouns, and a vocative second-person plural pronoun exists as well. Pronouns also only have singular and plural forms.^[3]

Verbs

Nizaa preserves verbal morphology much more than most other languages of the Mambiloid family, and this has been used to reconstruct Proto-Mambiloid. These include four directionals: the illative, allative, "motion away from an object", and "down" a verbal plurality marker, as well as a completive. A stacking of up to three extensions is grammatical.^[3][10]

Nizaa also has various inflectional suffixes including an imperfective, perfective/stative, "perfect intransitive" (which prevents the mention of any further verb arguments without changing valency), and the "perfect transitive" (which is used when any further arguments are present in a sentence). Progressive, imperative, and participlizing suffixes also exist, as well as a "detransitivizer" clitic.^[3]

Up to four verbs may occur in one sentence in Nizaa, though it is uncertain whether these are serial verb constructions or just lexical compounds, which occur in many other West African languages.^[3]

Kinship

The Nizaa language does not distinguish mothers and maternal aunts and fathers and paternal uncles, calling them maaŋ and táá respectively. However, maternal uncles and paternal aunts have separate vocabulary terms to distinguish them from maternal aunts/mothers and paternal uncles/fathers. The Nizaa language does not distinguish maternal and paternal grandparents. Separate terms exist for older sisters and brothers, but there is no distinction of sex for younger siblings. The terms for older sister díí and older brother daà are also used as generic terms for polite address, while addressing someone as a younger sibling nā́m is seen as disrespectful. The terms for cousins are the same as the ones for siblings and also depend on the age of the cousin. A generic term for any in-law also exists.^[6]

Phrases

A sentence in Nizaa is shown below:^[3]

ŋu

3SG

wààwu

grandchild-PL

se

see

kekirā́,

know-TOT-DETRZ

ɓulαὰŋ

3PL-DEM.PROX

sewu

see-PST

mbân

place

kùù

grandfather

fɔ́ɔ̀

staff-DF

ɗag

fall

gewunâ,

go-past-PCPL

yɛ́ɛ́wúŋwā́

will-STAT-NEG

kùù

grandfather

kpááŋ

talk

nìwà

give-SUB

ŋu wààwu se kekirā́, ɓulαὰŋ sewu mbân kùù fɔ́ɔ̀ ɗag gewunâ, yɛ́ɛ́wúŋwā́ kùù kpááŋ nìwà

3SG grandchild-PL see know-TOT-DETRZ 3PL-DEM.PROX see-PST place grandfather staff-DF fall go-past-PCPL will-STAT-NEG grandfather talk give-SUB

"His grandchildren have seen and know, they saw the place grandpa's staff went and fell into, they do not want to tell him."