Longuda language

Nungura^[2]
Nungura
People	Nùngùrábà
Language	Nyà Núngúrá

Lunguda
Lunguda
Nyà Núngúrá
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Adamawa State, Gombe State
Ethnicity	Lunguda people
Native speakers	(40,000 cited 1973)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo ? Bambukic Lunguda; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lnu
Glottolog	long1389

Lunguda (Nʋngʋra) is a Niger–Congo language spoken in Nigeria. They settle western part of Gongola mainly in and around the hills of the volcanic Lunguda Plateau, Adamawa state. Joseph Greenberg counted it as a distinct branch, G10, within the Adamawa family. When Blench (2008) broke up Adamawa, Lunguda was made a branch of the Bambukic languages.^[3]

According to the Ethnologue, the current number of speakers is based on an SIL figure of 45,000 from 1973.^[1] But recent studies has shown 50,000 in the 2006 census.

Variants of the name Longuda include Languda, Longura, Nunguda, Nungura, Nunguraba.

Dialects

In the Adamawa Languages Project website, Kleinewillinghöfer (2014) lists five dialects in the Longuda dialect cluster.^[4]

Longuda/Lunguda of Guyuk and Wala Lunguda
Nʋngʋra(ma) of Cerii, Banjiram
Longura(ma) of Thaarʋ (Koola)
Nʋngʋra(ma) of Gwaanda (Nyuwar)
Nʋngʋra(ma) of Deele (Jessu)

Partly due to word taboo customs, there is considerable lexical diversity among Longuda dialects.^[5]

Geography

The Lunguda settle in the northeastern part of Nigeria, mostly in Guyuk, Adamawa state in Guyuk LGA, Balanga LGA of Gombe state and some parts of Borno.^{[citation needed]} They have approximately 504,000 according to 2006 population census.

Names and locations

Below is a list of language names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).^[2]

Language	Branch	Dialects	Alternate spellings	Own name for language	Endonym(s)	Speakers	Location(s)
Longuda	Longuda	Nya Guyuwa (Guyuk plains), Nya Ceriya (Banjiram=Cirimba/Chikila Cerembe 'rookie place'), Nya Tariya (Kola=Taraba), Nya Dele (Jessu=Delebe), Nya Gwanda (Nyuar=Gwandaba)	Lunguda, Nunguda, Nungura, Nunguraba	nyà núngúrá Guyuk, Nungurama Nyuar	Núngúráyábá Guyuk, Nùngùrábà Jessu, Lungúrábá Kola	13,700 (1952: Numan Division); 32,000 (1973 SIL)	Adamawa State, Guyuk LGA; Gombe State, Balanga LGA

The largest ward is Chikila ward.

References

^ ^a ^b Lunguda at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
^ "Longuda Group – Nʋngʋra Cluster | ADAMAWA LANGUAGE PROJECTS". www.blogs.uni-mainz.de. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
^ Kleinewillinghöfer, Ulrich. 2014. Longuda group. Adamawa Languages Project.
^ Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9. S2CID 133888593.