Tarok language

Tarok (Tarok: iTárók), also known as Yergam^a or Appa^[1] is a language spoken by around 520,000^[3] people primarily in the southeast of Nigeria's Plateau State, where it serves as a local lingua franca.^{[citation needed]} Tarok is a member of the Plateau group of the Atlantic–Congo family.

Tarok
iTárók[1]
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Plateau State, Taraba State
Ethnicity	Tarok
Native speakers	520,000 (2020)[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Tarokoid Tarok–Pai Tarok
Language codes
ISO 639-3	yer
Glottolog	taro1263

Phonology

Vowels

Tarok has seven phonemic vowels, /i ɨ u ɛ ə ɔ a/. The IPA symbols are included in the table below along with the orthographic form in angular brackets.

Tarok Vowels^[4]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ⟨i⟩	ɨ ⟨ə⟩	u ⟨u⟩
Low-Mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	ə ⟨a̱⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩
Low		a ⟨a⟩

Consonants

Tarok has an inventory of twenty-seven phonemic consonants, shown in the table below. Allophones are provided in parentheses.

Tarok Consonants^[4][1]

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar	Glottal
Plosive / Affricate	voiceless	p		t	t͡ʃ		k	k͡p	ʔ
	voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ		g	g͡b
Implosive		ɓ		ɗ
Fricative	voiceless		f		ʃ				h
	voiced		v		ʒ		ɣ
Nasal		m		n		ɳ	ŋ	(ŋ͡m)*
Lateral				l
Vibrant				r
Semivowel						j		w

* The labiovelar nasal [ŋ͡m] occurs as an allophone of the syllabic nasal consonant before labiovelar plosives /k͡p/ and /g͡b/.^[1]

Names for other languages

As the local lingua franca, the Tarok feature prominently in the local ethnic composition of southeast Plateau State. Many Tarok clans can also trace their ancestries back to Chadic-speaking peoples, pointing to a long history of Chadic peoples assimilating into Tarok society. Some Tarok names for neighbouring languages according to Longtau (2004):^[5]

Language	Classification	Tarok name
Ngas	West Chadic A.3	Dúk
Boghom	West Chadic B.3	Burom
Duguri	Jarawan	Duguri
Goemai	West Chadic A.3	Lar
Jukun-Wase	Jukunoid	Jor
Kanam	West Chadic B.3 ?	(not known by Tarok)
Kantana	Jarawan	Kantana
Tel	West Chadic A.3	Dwal
Pe	Tarokoid	Pe
Tal	West Chadic A.3	Tal
Sur	Tarokoid	(not known by Tarok)
Yangkam	Tarokoid	Yangkam
Yiwom	West Chadic A.3	Zhan
Zaar	West Chadic B.3	Zhim

Orthography

Tarok alphabet

a	a̲	b	ɓ	c	d	ɗ	e	ǝ	f	gb
gh	i	j	k	kp	l	m	n	ny	ŋ	o
p	r	s	sh	t	u	v	w	y	z	zh

Notes

^ Variants of this name are Yergəm and Yergum.^[1]