Jalaa (autonym: bàsàrə̀n dà jàlààbè̩ ), also known as Cèntûm , Centúúm or Cen Tuum , is an extinct language of northeastern Nigeria (Loojaa settlement in Balanga Local Government Area, Gombe State ), of uncertain origins, apparently a language isolate . The Jalabe (as descendants of speakers of the language are called) speak the Bwilim dialect of the Dikaka language . It is possible (but unconfirmed) that some remembered words have been retained for religious ceremonies, but in 1992 only a few elders remember words that their parents had used, and by 2010 there may not even remain any such rememberers.
7-470: The Jalabe are said to have come to Loojaa from an area a few miles south within the Muri Mountains , where they had shared a settlement with Tso and Kwa clans. (The name of this settlement, Cèntûm or Cùntûm, is used as a name for the language in some sources. Jalaa elders differ in whether they believe Jalaa or Centum/Cuntum was their original name for themselves.) Later, during the nineteenth century,
14-590: A motivation for certain cases of borrowing from Jalaa into Dikaka. The numerals 1-6 in Jalaa are: Above 5, the numerals are almost identical to Dikaka. The numerals 2 through 5 are almost identical with Tso, while "one" has no clear cognates. Jalaa morphology (at least in its present form) is almost identical to that of Cham . The main differences in the noun class system are two of the plural suffixes: Jalaa -ta versus Cham -te̩ and (for humans) Jalaa -bo , -ba versus Cham -b(e̩) . Noun morphology
21-871: A result has retained an economically and politically marginal status. About twenty different small ethnic groups live in the mountains, speaking languages from the Chadic , Adamawa , and Benue-Congo language groups. Ethnic groups living in and around the mountains as of 1992 include the Kushi , the Pero , the Piya , the Kwonci , the Kholok of Wídálá, the Nyam , the Tangale , the Bacama ,
28-474: Is similar to that of Cham, but with some differences. Some sample singular and plural noun sets in Jalaa and Cham: Muri Mountains The Muri Mountains are a mountain range in Northern Nigeria . They consist of two nearly parallel sandstone mountain chains running east to west along the boundaries of the federal states of Bauchi , Gombe , Taraba , and Adamawa . A river cuts through
35-678: The Dikaka arrived in the area, fleeing attacks from the larger Waja to the north; the Cham intermarried with the Jalabe, and the Jalabe began to adopt the Dikaka language. The phonology of Jalaa is as follows. The Jalaa lexicon is also strongly influenced by Dikaka (which it has in turn influenced); some similarities are also found with the nearby Tso . However, most of its vocabulary is extremely unusual. In Kleinewillinghöfer's words, "The major part of
42-459: The lexicon seems to differ entirely from all the surrounding languages, which themselves represent different language families." Both Dikaka and the Tso traditionally avoided using names of the dead. When those names were also words of the language, as often happened, this forced them to change the word, sometimes by replacing it with a word from a neighboring language. Kleinewillinghöfer regards this as
49-606: The north chain, forming a river basin between the two chains and gathering water before it cuts through the south chain and flows into the Benue River . Scattered hills are present within the basin, mostly formed volcanically. To the east they merge into the Longuda plateau, and to the west they merge into the Bauchi plateau. The area is not easily accessible due to the mountainous landscape and partial seasonal flooding, and as
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