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.
| Izere | |
|---|---|
| Afusare | |
| Izarek | |
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Kaduna State, Bauchi State, Plateau |
Native speakers | 500,000 (2006–2016)[1] |
Language family | Niger–Congo?
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:izr – NE & NW Izerecen – Cèn (Chen)gne – Ganàng (Gashish) |
| Glottolog | Noneizer1242 Izeric, incl. Firan |
Blench (2019) lists the following Izere dialects.[2]
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]
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 j | k ɡ | k͡p ɡ͡b | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋ͡m | |||
| Trill | (r) | |||||||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | h | ||||
| Affricate | ts | |||||||
| Approximant | y, ɥ | w | ||||||
| Lateral | l |
The vowel phonemes of Izere are shown in the following table.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | |
| Open | a | |
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.
Platoid languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jukunoid | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kainji |
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| Plateau |
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