Izere language

Izere
Izere
Afusare
Izarek
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Kaduna State, Bauchi State, Plateau
Native speakers	500,000 (2006–2016)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Central ? Izeric Izere; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously:; izr – NE & NW Izere; cen – Cèn (Chen); gne – Ganàng (Gashish)
Glottolog	None; izer1242 Izeric, incl. Firan

Izere is a dialect continuum of Plateau languages in Nigeria. According to Blench (2008), it is four languages, though Ethnologue does not distinguish NW and NE Izere. The Cen and Ganang varieties are spoken by only 2000 each. Cen has added Berom noun-class prefixes and consonant alternation to an Izere base.

Dialects

Blench (2019) lists the following Izere dialects.^[2]

Fobur
Northeastern (Federe)
Southern (Foron)
Ichèn
Faishang
Ganang

Phonology

The Izere phonetic inventory includes 29 consonants and seven vowels and distinguishes three tone levels; two additional contour tones appear only rarely, in loanwords and due to onomatopoeia.^[3]

Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Izere are shown in the following table.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial–velar	Glottal
Stop	p b		t d		c ɟ	k ɡ	k͡p ɡ͡b
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ	ŋ͡m
Trill			(r)
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ				h
Affricate			ts
Approximant					j, ɥ		w
Lateral			l

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Izere are shown in the following table.

Vowel phonemes
	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ
Open	a

Tonemes

There are three level (L, M & H) and two contour tonemes (LM & HL) in Izere; the latter two are found only in loanwords and onomatopoeia.

References

^ NE & NW Izere at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Cèn (Chen) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Ganàng (Gashish) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
^ Blench, Roger; Kaze, Bitrus. Dictionary of the Izere language.

Blench (2008) Prospecting proto-Plateau. Manuscript.

External links

Roger Blench: Izere page

[e18-1] NE & NW Izere at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Cèn (Chen) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Ganàng (Gashish) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[BlenchAtlas4-2] Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.

[3] Blench, Roger; Kaze, Bitrus. Dictionary of the Izere language.

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