| Tiv | |
| Nativename: | Tiv |
| States: | Nigeria |
| Region: | Benue State, Cross River State, Plateau State, Taraba State |
| Ethnicity: | Tiv |
| Speakers: | million |
| Date: | 2020 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam5: | Bantoid |
| Fam6: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam7: | Tivoid |
| Fam8: | Central Tivoida |
| Iso2: | tiv |
| Iso3: | tiv |
| Glotto: | tivv1240 |
| Glottorefname: | Tiv |
Tiv is a Tivoid language spoken in some states in North Central Nigeria, with some speakers in Cameroon. It had over 4.6 million speakers in 2020. 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.
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.
Tarkaa, Makurdi, Gwer East, Gwer west, Ukum, Logo, Konshisha, Gboko, Kwande, Vandeikya, Katsina Ala, Guma, Buruku, and Ushongo Local Government Areas.
Doma, Nasarawa, Lafia, Obi, Keana, and Awe Local Government Areas
Qua’an Pan and Shendam Local Government Areas
Bali, Donga, Ibi, Gassol, Takum, Gashaka, Kurmi and Wukari Local Government Areas
Yala, Bekwara, Obudu, and Obanliku Local Government Areas.
There are 1700 Tiv households with approximately 11,000 people at the south-western border of Cameroon, Manyu division, north east of Akwaya on the Nigerian border, and bordering the Iyom tribes of Cameroon. Their 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.
Tiv has no 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.
| Close | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /u/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Near-close | pronounced as /ɪː/ | pronounced as /ʊː/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /oː/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ɜː/ | pronounced as /ɔ/, pronounced as /ɔː/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /a/, pronounced as /aː/ | pronounced as /ɒ/ |
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | pal. | |||||||||
| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /p/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /kʷ/ | pronounced as /kʲ/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /b/ | pronounced as /d/ | pronounced as /ɡ/ | pronounced as /ɡʷ/ | pronounced as /ɡʲ/ | ||||||
| prenasal | pronounced as /ᵐb/ | pronounced as /ⁿd/ | |||||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /t͡s/ | pronounced as /t͡ʃ/ | pronounced as /k͡p/ | |||||||
| voiced | (pronounced as /d͡z/) | pronounced as /d͡ʒ/ | pronounced as /ɡ͡b/ | ||||||||
| prenasal | pronounced as /ⁿd͡z/ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /f/ | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /ʃ/ | (pronounced as /x/) | pronounced as /h/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /v/ | pronounced as /z/ | pronounced as /ɣ/ | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /m/ | (pronounced as /ɱ/) | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /ɲ/ | pronounced as /ŋ/ | ||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /r/ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /w/ | pronounced as /l/ | pronounced as /j/ | ||||||||
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.
The accents of Tiv are as follows:
Vocabulary, particularly plant and tool names, changes from one part of Tiv territory to the other.
The first reference to the Tiv language (dzwa Tiv) was made by Koelle (1854) from liberated slaves from Sierra Leone. Johnston (1919) classified it as a peculiar language among the Semi-Bantu languages, and Talbot (1926) concurred. 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.[3]
All material on Tiv seems to point to a recent expansion, perhaps in the early 15th century.[4]
Tiv has nine noun classes.