Tarok young people’s speech

Authors

  • Roger Blench University of Cambridge Author
  • Selbut R. Longtau Development Alternatives, Research & Training (DART) Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.28316

Keywords:

youth speech, Africa, Tarok, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper describes the distinctive lexical and grammatical inventory of young people in Tarok, a Plateau language of East-Central Nigeria. Typical features are manipulation of the existing lexicon through both shortening and syllable insertion, conservation of archaic pronunciation, idiosyncratic sound shifts, arbitrary pronoun substitution, tonal changes, neutralization of noun class plurals, and sound shift in particles.

Author Biographies

  • Roger Blench, University of Cambridge
    Roger Blench is a linguist and anthropologist specializing in the cultures of Central Nigeria, and a visiting fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, as well as Chief Research Officer, Kay Williamson Educational Foundation. Some of his recent publications include: (ed. with Stuart McGill) Current research in minority languages of Nigeria, vol. 1 (Köln: Rudiger Köppe, 2012); ‘Language and archaeology: State of the art’, inN. J. Enfield, P. Kockelman and J. Sidnell (eds) Cambridge handbook of linguistic anthropology 638–661 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014); The Bantoid languages (Oxford University Press, Linguistics Online, 2014)
  • Selbut R. Longtau, Development Alternatives, Research & Training (DART)
    Selbut R. Longtau is Tarok speaker as well as a cross-disciplinary writer, trainer and practitioner covering translation, linguistics and rural development. His recent publications include: ‘Their tongues still speak loud: A linguistic evaluation of the oral traditions of origin of some peoples of Plateau State’, in R. Blench and S. McGill (eds) Advances in minority language research in Nigeria, vol. 1 67–104 (Köln: Rudiger Köppe, 2012); ‘Minimum essentials for effective orthography designs in Nigeria’, JOLAN: Journal of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria 18 (2014):1–39; ‘Gender variation in Tarok morphology: Sources and cognition considerations’, UNIUYO Journal of Gender Studies 2 (2014): 58–68.

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Published

2016-06-04

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1-2 (2016): The Dynamics of Youth Language in Africa

Section

Articles

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

For information regarding our Open Access policy, click here.

How to Cite

Blench, R., & Longtau, S. R. (2016). Tarok young people’s speech. Sociolinguistic Studies, 10(1-2), 219–234. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.28316