Tiv language

Tiv
Tiv
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Benue State, Cross River State, Plateau State, Taraba State
Ethnicity	Tiv
Native speakers	5.2 million (2024)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Tivoid Central Tivoida Tiv
Language codes
ISO 639-2	tiv
ISO 639-3	tiv
Glottolog	tivv1240

Tiv is a Tivoid language spoken in some states in North Central Nigeria, with some speakers in Cameroon. It had over 5.2 million speakers in 2024. The largest population of Tiv speakers are found in Benue state in Nigeria. The language is also widely spoken in some Nigerian states namely, Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa, Cross River, Adamawa, Kaduna, and Abuja. It is by far the largest of the Tivoid languages, a group of languages belonging to the Southern Bantoid languages.

History and classification

The first reference to the Tiv language (dzwa Tiv) was made by Sigismund Koelle (1854) from liberated slaves from Sierra Leone. Johnston Harry H (1919) classified it as a peculiar language among the Semi-Bantu languages, and Talbot P. Amaury (1926) concurred. Roy Clive Abraham (1933), who has made the most complete linguistic study of Tiv, classifies it as Bantu, stating that its vocabulary is more similar to the East African Nyanza group of Bantu languages than to Ekoi or other neighbouring languages. Malherbe (1933) agrees with Abraham that Tiv is essentially Bantu.

All material on Tiv seems to point to a recent expansion, perhaps in the early 15th century.

Geographic distribution

Tiv is widely spoken in the States of Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, Cross Rivers, Adamawa, Kaduna, and Abuja, Nigeria. Other parts of Nigeria also speak Tiv.

Nigeria

Benue State

Tarkaa, Makurdi, Gwer East, Gwer West, Ukum, Logo, Konshisha, Gboko, Kwande, Vandeikya, Katsina Ala, Guma, Buruku, and Ushongo Local Government Areas.

Nassarawa State

Doma, Nasarawa, Lafia, Obi, Keana, and Awe Local Government Areas

Plateau State

Tiv-speaking populations are found in Langtang South, Shendam, Qua’an-Pan and Wase area councils.

Taraba State

Bali, Donga, Ibi, Gassol, Takum, Gashaka, Kurmi and Wukari Local Government Areas.

Together with thousands of other Tivoid groups like the Batu, Abon, Bitare and Ambo in Sardauna Local government area.

Cross River State

Yala, Bekwarra, Obudu and Obanliku Local Government Areas.

Together with thousands of other tivoid groups like the Utanga, Ceve or Becheve, Evant, Eman etc.

Cameroon

There are 1900 Tiv households with approximately 20,000 people at the south-western border of Cameroon Manyu division, with Mamfe as its capital, which is 74km away from the south eastern Nigerian border. The paramount ruler is Zaki Abaajul, who has the Tiv and Ulitsi as his subjects. The Cameronian Tiv are well educated and live in Anglophone Cameroon as their ancestral land, while a few others live in the francophone region. They are mostly farmers but others work in the government.

Although some Nigerian tiv people are unaware of some of the Tiv peoples of the Cameroon because of the international border but, these groups always regard themselves as Tiv. Some of them have an additional dialect to the main Tiv language. These Tiv groups are; Bitare, Mesaka, Iyive, Ceve or Becheve, Evant, Eman, Ipulo, Caka etc. They together with the Tiv in Nigeria share the same culture, History, Religion, and Tradition. They are basically the same people.

Dialects

Tiv speakers can understand each other across their territory. Although, the Hyarev people speak some words totally different from others. However, accents (ham) exist.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	ɪː		ʊː
Mid	e		oː
Open-mid		ɜː	ɔ, ɔː
Open		a, aː	ɒ

• Vowel sounds are phonetically nasalized before nasal consonants.
• /a/ can be freely heard as [æ̃] or [ɑ̃] before a nasal consonant.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Palato- alveolar	Palatal	Velar			Glottal
							plain	lab.	pal.
Stop	voiceless	p		t			k	kʷ	kʲ
	voiced	b		d			ɡ	ɡʷ	ɡʲ
	prenasal	ᵐb		ⁿd
Affricate	voiceless			t͡s	t͡ʃ		k͡p
	voiced			(d͡z)	d͡ʒ		ɡ͡b
	prenasal			ⁿd͡z
Fricative	voiceless		f	s	ʃ		(x)			h
	voiced		v	z			ɣ
Nasal		m	(ɱ)	n		ɲ	ŋ
Trill				r
Approximant		w		l		j

• /ɣ/ is heard phonetically as [x], but is often voiced as [ɣ].
• [ɱ] is heard in free variation in word-final positions.
• [d͡z] occurs in other dialects.

Tone

Tiv has three main tones (five if rising and falling are counted as separate tones instead of composites of existing tones). They are most importantly used in inflection.

Accents

The accents of Tiv are as follows:

• Ityoisha, spoken in the southeast, noted for its exaggerated palatalisation of vowels;
• Shitile, spoken by most Tiv east of the Katsina Ala River, apparently slower sounding than the other Tiv accents and slurs vowels into their neighbouring consonant;
• Iharev, which gives an exaggerated roll to the phoneme [r]~[l]
• Kparev, spoken in the centre and south-centre;
  • Kunav, a sub-group of Kparev, noted for its preference for [d͡ʒ] sounds where other Kparev use [d͡z].

Vocabulary, particularly plant and tool names, changes from one part of Tiv territory to the other.

Morphology

Tiv has nine noun classes.

See also

• Tiv people
• Ate-u-tiv, a traditional Tiv hut used for reception and gathering

References

• R.C.Abraham, A Dictionary of the Tiv Language, Government of Nigeria 1940, republished by Gregg Press Ltd., Farnborough, Hants., England 1968. ISBN 0576116157

External links

• Tiv-English Dictionary
• PanAfrican L10n page on Tiv

Religious materials

• Video and audio files, New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures Released and other bible study material in Tiv Language by Jehovah's Witnesses
• The bible in the tiv language
• Gospel
• Jesus film in tiv