Dialects of Rigwe

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Dialects of Rigwe

Daniel Gya, Sun, 2022-06-05 17:42
Regarding: 
Dialects
State
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ISO 639-3: 
iri

The Rigwe chiefdom in Bassa LGA, Plateau State, is divided almost equally by the Riywi River that runs east to west (Riywi is its Rigwe name, but it is also called River Gyel, because a tributary of it flows from Gyel, near Bukuru, Jos South). The Kwall District is in the south of the river, and Miango District is north. However, the dialect field in the Ethnologue has the two on the wrong sides. Therefore, "Northern Rigwe (Kwan), Southern Rigwe (Miango)" should be corrected to "Northern Rigwe (Miango), Southern Rigwe (Kwal)." While working on the phonology of Rigwe, I came across lexical variations among Rigwe that live in Kishisho, known in Rigwe as Ushwo [ùúʃʷɔ] in Kauru LGA, Kaduna State, besides the Miango/Kwal differences, which are relatively few, located on the Jos Plateau. There seems to be a third dialect besides the Miango and Kwal dialects, which can be called Western Rigwe (Kishisho or Ushwo) dialect.

I live in Miango and speak the Northern dialect, and I am still working on the Rigwe dictionary and grammar. 

Thanks.

Daniel Gya

Editorial Action

We will update the dialect names for Rigwe [iri] in Nigeria, for inclusion in the next edition of the Ethnologue.

Comments

Chuck Fennig, Wed, 2022-06-08 13:04

Dear Daniel,

Thank you for the good information on the dialects of Rigwe [iri] in Nigeria.

We will update the Ethnologue database accordingly.

Best wishes,

Chuck Fennig
Managing Editor, Ethnologue

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