Tyap

Tyap is a regionally important dialect cluster of Plateau languages in Nigeria's Middle Belt, named after its prestige dialect. It is also known by its Hausa exonym as Katab or Kataf. It is also known by the names of its dialectical varieties including Sholyio, Fantswam, Gworok, Takad, "Mabatado" (Tyap 'proper'), Tyeca̱rak and Tyuku (Tuku). In spite of being listed separately from the Tyap cluster, Jju's separation, according to Blench R.M. (2018), seems to be increasingly ethnic rather than a linguistic reality.

Distribution
Native Tyap speakers are primarily found in the local government areas of Jema'a, Kaura and Zangon Kataf, although pockets of speakers are also found in Kachia and Kauru in southern Kaduna state, and Riyom (especially Takad speakers ) in Plateau State of Nigeria. There are also large speaking communities in Kaduna South and Chikun Local Government Areas of the state. Skoggard (2014) presented the distribution of the Atyap (Katab) people in Nigeria to include: Niger, Nasarawa, Kaduna states and the FCT.

Classification and dialects
Meek (1931:2) suggested that the Katab (Atyap), Morwa (Asholyio), Ataka (Atakad) and Kagoro (Agworok) speak a common tongue and may be regarded as one; and later on, McKinney (1983:290) commented that the Kaje (Bajju) should likewise be included with the above, due to the linguistic and cultural similarities shared by them. Murdock (1959) classified Kagoro (Gworok) and other dialects comprising the current Tyap language group as "Plateau Nigerian", in his "Semi-Bantu" branch of "Bantoid subfamily" of "Negritic Stock". Tyap and Jju were placed by Greenberg (1963) under the "Plateau II" branch of the Benue-Congo language family. Later on, Gerhardt (1974) made a reconstruction of the branch, assigning it as "proto-Plateau". Again in 1989, Gerhardt placed Tyap and Jju under the South-Central subgroup, Central group, Plateau branch of Platoid, a division of the Benue-Congo languages. Achi (2005) stated that the Atyap speak a language in the Kwa group of the Benue-Congo language family. However, according to Bitiyong, Y. I., in Achi et al. (2019:44), the Kataf Group (an old classification) to which Tyap language belongs, is a member of the eastern Plateau. He went further to suggest that by utilizing a glotochronological time scale established for Yoruba and Edo languages and their neighbours, the separation of the Kataf Group into distinguishable dialects and dialect clusters would require thousands of years. Also mentioned was that, "Between Igala and Yoruba language, for example, at least 2,000 years were required to develop the distinction, while 6,000 years were needed for the differences observable in a comparison of Idoma and Yoruba language clusters" noting further that this indicates that "even within dialect clusters, a period of up to 2,000 years was needed to create clearly identifiable dialect separation and that it is thus a slow process of steady population growth and expansion and cultural differentiation over thousands of years." He thereafter summarized that the implication for Tyap is that it has taken thousands of years to separate, in the same general geographical location from its about six most closely related dialects and stated that as a sub-unit, they required probably more thousands of years earlier to separate from other members of the "Kataf group" like Gyong, Hyam, Duya and Ashe (Koro) who are little intelligible to them. The stability of language and other culture traits in this region of Nigeria has been recognized.

Dialects
Tyap has a number of dialects, including:

Phonology
The Tyap alphabet (Zwunzwuo A̱lyem Tyap ji) had 39 letters, as drafted by the Tyap Literacy Committee (TLC) during the early 1990s: However, a current development as of 2018, has the Tyap Basic Alphabetical Chart reduced to 24, as follows:

The letter "ch" would henceforth be represented by the symbol "c", without the "h". All others remain the same.

Vowels
The seven vowels of Tyap may either be short or long monophthongs sounds. The language has five (or six) diphthongs:.

Consonants
The language has over 80 monographic and digraph labialized and palatalized consonant sounds, classified into fortis and lenis modifications. The following table contains the main basic consonant sounds of Tyap:


 * 1) As you can see from above, there are two "A"s and "I"s. The second "A" and "I" are usually written with an underscore each i.e. as "A̱" and "I̱" respectively. The sound produced then becomes like the "a" in "about," and the "y" in "symbol" respectively.
 * 2) The 39th letter (z) is usually pronounced "dz", and written phonetically /d͡z/ i.e. it produces a diphonic sound. Tyap lacks the pure "z" sound, as found in English words such as "zebra" and "zero". Should a Tyap speaker pronounce those two English words, what you will hear shall be "dzebra" and "dzero."
 * 3) The 25th letter (ng) is same as the phonetic symbol /ŋ/, and is found in English words such as "singer" and "king", and in Tyap words such as "nggwon" (a child]) and "tung" (to meet). The 26th letter of the Tyap alphabet (i.e. ny) however is the same as the phonetic symbol /ɲ/, and is not found in English language.
 * 4) The digraphs: "cy, gb, gh, ghw, ghy, jhy, kh, kp, ng, ny, sh, shy and ts," are pronounced as though a unit of sound, not separately.
 * 5) The letters written without diacritics have pronunciations corresponding more or less exactly to their International Phonetic Alphabet equivalents with the exception of the labial-dental plosive consonants /k͡p/ (written "kp") and /g͡b/ (written "gb"); the alveolar-dental plosives /t͡s/ (written "ts") and /d͡z/ (written "z"); the Palato-alveolar fricatives /ʃ͡j/ (written "shy") and /ʒ͡j/ (written "jhy"); the plain, labialized and palatalized vector fricatives /x/ (written "kh"), /ɣ/ (written "gh"), /ɣw/ (written "ghw") and /ɣj/ (written "ghy"); and the palatalized affricate /t͡ʃ͡j/ (written "cy"), in which these consonants are not pronounced sequentially, but simultaneously.
 * 6) Tyap language has not yet been standardized. Each individual dialect operates its own language committee and orthography (e.g. (Jju, Gworok and Sholyia̱, while the Tyap proper also operate in isolation) and no single unifying dialect is yet in use across the language cluster.
 * 7) Other letters used by other Tyap dialects include (i) lvw, usually used in Gworok and Fantswam to replace Tyap Proper letter v hence, a word like van (to be tired) becomes lvwan. (ii) bv is used to replace Tyap Proper's b in Jju and some times in Gworok wherein a word like a̱bwu (a dog) in Tyap Proper becomes ka̱bvwu in Jju and ubvwu in Gworok. (iii) mnu is used in Gworok and Fantswam where a word starts with an "m" in Tyap proper as in mam (sun) which becomes mnuwam. (iv) tf used in Gworok, Fantswam and Takat and pf in Jju to replace Tyap Proper's "f" in words such as fwung (to rest), which becomes tfwung and pfwung respectively.
 * 8) The prefix "k-" is usually placed before a noun word beginning with "a̱-" in Tyap Proper in number of Tyap dialects, and letter "l" in other Tyap dialects usually transformed to the phoneme "r" in Jju. E.g. "A̱li" (house) in Tyap proper becomes "ka̱ryyi" in Jju and "Ka̱li" in Fantswam.
 * 9) Tyap words do not usually begin with any other vowel apart from "a" and "a̱", with the exception of 'southeastern' Tyap dialects such as Gworok, Takat and Tyuku where words beginning with "a̱-" or "ka̱-" in other Tyap dialects do change to "u-" as in "a̱yit" (bush in Tyap Proper), "ka̱yit" or "ka̱jit" in Jju, Fantswam, Sholyia̱ and Tyia̱cha̱rak, which becomes "uyit" in Gworok, Takat and Tyuku. However, in Sholyia̱, an "æ" or "e" phoneme is used instead of the "a̱" or "ka̱-" or "u-" in other Tyap dialects, as in "æli" (house).
 * 10) Where Tyap Proper uses long monophthong vowels or the diphthong "ea" in words, other dialects most notably, Jju, Fantswam, Gworok and Takat, (some times in all others), usually breaks the longevity by introducing an /r/ to replace the first vowel of the long monophonic sound and changing the last letter, usually "t" into a "k". E.g. "doot" (to arise) in Tyap Proper becomes "drok", and "nyeang" (marriage) in Tyap Proper becomes "nyrang", etc. in those other dialects.
 * 11) Finally, almost each Tyap dialect can be identified easily by its affinity to certain phonemes. For example, Gworok, Takat and Tyuku use much of "u" in word beginnings, Jju uses much of /r/ in place of /l/ as well as prefix "k-" in word beginnings. Fantswam falls between Jju, Gworok and Tyap Proper, but does not use "u" to begin words, instead like Jju, uses prefix "k-".

Syntax
Tyap has the SVO constituent order type as illustrated below in the first given example:

Shyimfwuo wan kyayak hu

Shyimfwuo cook.PST food DET

‘Shyimfwuo cooked the food.’

N na ngya bah

I will.MOD eat NEG

‘I will not eat.’

A̱li nung ka shyia̱ gbang

House my DET is far

‘My house is far.’

Affixes and concord
Tyap's noun-class affixes appear after its word stem. These affixes consist of prefixes, usually attached to the root of the word for pluralization. For example: a̱som (hare)—a̱yaasom (hares), bwak (hand)—mbwak (hands), a̱kwon (tree)—a̱ka̱kwon (trees), etc. Meanwhile, the CV suffixes—usually alternating, and following the noun, are usually rendered as separate words in the orthography. For example, a̱som wu (the hare), a̱yaasom ba (the hares), bwak hu (the hand)—mbwak na (the hands), a̱kwon ka (the tree)—a̱ka̱kwon na (the trees), etc. These constitute the nominal affixes and concord of Tyap.

Reduplication
Reduplication of nouns takes place for pluralization. Usually, the first root syllable gets duplicated. For example, tyan (place)—tityan (places), a̱nyung (tooth)—a̱nyunyung (teeth), a̱kwon (tree)—a̱ka̱kwon (trees), etc.

Comparison of dialects
Comparing the cognate percentages between Kaje (Jju), Katab ("Mabatado" Tyap) and Kagoro (Gworok) on the Swadesh wordlist consisting of 118 items of core basic vocabulary, Wurm (1971), in his remark stated that, the cognate percentages indicate that the three ethnic groups speak dialects of the same language. With a further comparison of their kinship terminologies, McKinney (1983:291), after comparing 174 entries between the above three found only eight to be non-cognate.

Below are comparisons made by Akau (2020) between the seven Tyap core dialects and Jju.

 Numbers

 * 0: gum/piit/sa̱khat
 * 1: a̱nyiung (also nyiung, jhyiung)
 * 2: a̱feang (also feang, sweang)
 * 3: a̱tat (also tat, tsat)
 * 4: a̱naai (also naai, nyaai)
 * 5: a̱fwuon (also fwuon, tswuon)
 * 6: a̱taa
 * 7: a̱natat
 * 8: a̱ni̱nai (or a̱ri̱nai)
 * 9: a̱kubunyiung

10 to 100
The numbers 11 to 19 are created by adding 1–9 to 10 with the middle ma̱ng (often shortened in pronunciation to ma̱ and the next a̱, e.g. in a̱fwuon, being silent) to the adjoining number, but usually each word is written in full: e.g. swak ma̱ng a̱fwuon (15).


 * 10: Swak
 * 11: Swak ma̱ng a̱nyiung
 * 12: Swak ma̱ng a̱feang
 * 13: Swak ma̱ng a̱tat
 * 14: Swak ma̱ng a̱naai
 * 15: Swak ma̱ng a̱fwuon
 * 16: Swak ma̱ng a̱taa
 * 17: Swak ma̱ng a̱natat
 * 18: Swak ma̱ng a̱ni̱nai
 * 19: Swak ma̱ng a̱kubunyiung

The numbers 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 are formed by replacing the prefix 2 to 5, affixed to the "swak" (ten) with n-, with the swak itself taking the prefix n- throughout:
 * 20: Nswak nfeang
 * 30: Nswak ntat
 * 40: Nswak nnaai
 * 50: Nswak nfwuon
 * 60: Nswak a̱taa
 * 70: Nswak a̱natat
 * 80: Nswak a̱ni̱nai (or nswak a̱ri̱nai)
 * 90: Nswak a̱kubunyiung

Other numbers are formed by adding 1–9, similar to the teens:
 * 91: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱nyiung
 * 92: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱feang
 * 93: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱tat
 * 94: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱naai
 * 95: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱fwuon
 * 96: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱taa
 * 97: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱natat
 * 98: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱ni̱nai
 * 99: Nswak a̱kubunyiung ma̱ng a̱kubunyiung

Hundreds
Note that what could be termed as the "ancient" counting system used for 1-5 is usually used from 100 until infinity. 1 becomes jhyiung, and no more a̱nyiung. Same thing the 2,3,4 and 5 placed immediately after cyi, the word for hundred.


 * 100: Cyi jhyiung
 * 200: Cyi sweang
 * 300: Cyi tsat
 * 400: Cyi nyaai
 * 500: Cyi tswuon
 * 600: Cyi a̱taa
 * 700: Cyi a̱natat
 * 800: Cyi a̱ni̱nai (or a̱ri̱nai)
 * 900: Cyi a̱kubunyiung
 * 479: Cyi nyaai ma̱ng nswak a̱natat ma̱ng a̱kubunyiung

Thousands
Hayab (2016:66-67) in his research on Hyam, a related language to Tyap found out that the original word for number 10 is "kop"/kwop, and that the present word used for ten was the de facto word used for twelve or a dozen is "shwak" (in Hyam) or swak (in Tyap). Due to the growing Hausa/English influence, undoubtedly before 1920 (because Thomas (1920:59) cited an example with Kagoro (Gworok) which, unlike its neighbours the Nungu, Ninzam, S. Mada and Mama, was not using as of then, the duodecimal system ), the counting system has taken the shape of the Hausa/English decimal style and the word "kop/kwop" became almost extinct, while the "swak" took its place and misplaced its original meaning, which is twelve, to now mean ten. With this in mind, when one considers the number "1,000" or cyi kwop jhyiung ("cyi kwop" is spelled one word), one can say that it literally means "hundred ten one" or "100 X 10 X 1".

Below are the modern Tyap Counting style in thousands:


 * 1,000: Cyikwop jhyiung
 * 2,000: Cyikwop sweang
 * 3,000: Cyikwop tsat
 * 4,000: Cyikwop nyaai
 * 5,000: Cyikwop tswuon
 * 6,000: Cyikwop a̱taa
 * 7,000: Cyikwop a̱natat
 * 8,000: Cyikwop a̱ni̱nai
 * 9,000: Cyikwop a̱kubunyiung
 * 2,018: Cyikwop sweang ma̱ng nswak ma̱ng a̱ni̱nai
 * 10,000: Cyikwop swak
 * 100,000: Cyikwop cyi jhyiung

Larger numbers

 * 1,000,000: Milyon or cyikwop cyikwop jhyiung or simply Cyikwop a̱ka̱feang jhyiung
 * 1,000,000,000: Bilyon or Cyikwop cyikwop cyikwop or simply Cyikwop a̱ka̱tat jhyiung
 * 1,000,000,000,000: Trilyon or cyikwop cyikwop cyikwop cyikwop or simply Cyikwop a̱ka̱naai jhyiung.

Concord
Tyap has three ways of writing units 1-5. This is because concord in Tyap is brought down to only lower numerals and a few adjectives. The 'direct-copy' or 'echo' type of agreement in which the numeral has the same prefix as the noun it is in agreement with, is being followed here. For example, a̱ka̱sa (houses)—a̱ka̱sa na (the houses)—a̱ka̱sa a̱feang (two houses)—a̱ka̱sa a̱feang na (the two houses), nkyang (things)—nkyang na (the things)—nkyang nfeang (two things)—nkyang nfeang na (the two things), and nywán (fowls)—nywán ji (the fowls)—nywán sweang (two fowls)—nywán sweang ji (the two fowls). For the second example, an "n-" prefix is added to the lower unit when used with a plural noun carrying the "hu" singular like kyang (thing).

Names for other languages
Some Tyap names for neighbouring and other languaɡes are as follows:

Related languages
A research list called the "Swadesh 100-word List" presented by Shimizu (1975:414) shows that Tyap (Katab) shares the following cognate percentages with fellow Plateau languages and Jukun beginning from the highest to the lowest: 72% with Izere (Izarek), 66% with Rigwe, 50% with Chara, 49% with Berom, 42% with Tarok, 41% with Pyem, 41% with Ninzam, 39% with Kuche, 39% with Eggon, 38% with Ibunu, 37% with Rindre and 34% with Jukun.

Endangered status
Research has shown that the Tyap language is classified as one of the endangered languages vulnerable towards extinction.

"Language is the key to the heart of a people. If we lose the key, we lose the people. A lost language is a lost tribe, a lost tribe is a lost culture, a lost culture is a lost civilization a lost civilization is invaluable knowledge lost. The whole vast archives of knowledge and experience in them will be consigned to oblivion."

A study by Ayuba (2014) showed that Tyap is endangered and that the Hausa language and the non-transmission of Tyap by the older generation of Atyap to the younger generation largely accounted for the endangerment of Tyap.

The study recommended, among other measures, that the Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA) should set up a committee to create awareness on the need for Atyap to rise up and save their language and another to work towards establishing vacation schools where older adults would provide pre-school child care where Tyap children could be immersed in the language.