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| Kyoli | |
|---|---|
| Cori | |
| Kyoll | |
| Native to | Jaba LGA,Nigeria |
| Region | Kaduna State |
Native speakers | 7,000-8,000 (2020)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cry |
| Glottolog | cori1240 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| People | Kwoli |
|---|---|
| Language | Kyoli |
TheKyoli orCori (Chori) language is aPlateau language[2] spoken inSouthern Kaduna State,Nigeria.
It is spoken in the northeast ofNok inJaba Local Government Area (LGA),Kaduna State. The speakers prefer to spell the name of their language asKyoli, which is pronounced[kjoli] or[çjoli]. The ethnic group is referred to as kwoli.
There are about 7,000-8,000 Kyoli speakers living in the two village clusters of Hal-Kyoli and Bobang. Bobang is the cultural center of the Kyoli-speaking area. Bobang village cluster consists of the five hamlets of Bobang, Fadek, Akoli, Hagong, and Nyamten. Hal-Kyoli village is situated by itself. All of the Kwoli villages surround the foot of Egu-Kyoli Hill, which rises more than 240 meters above the villages.[1]
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Cori is known for having six distinct levels oftone, too many to transcribe using theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, which allows five. However, there are only three underlying tones: 1 (top), 4 (mid), and 6 (bottom), which are all that need to be written for literacy. Most cases of Tone 2 (high) are a result oftone sandhi, with 4 becoming 2 before 1. Tones 3 (mid-high) and 5 (low) can be analysed ascontour tones, with underlying/1͡6/ realised as[3] and/2͡6/ realised as[5].
In order to transcribe the surface tones without numerals (which are ambiguous), an extra diacritic is needed, as is common for four-level languages in Central America:
Kyoli numerals in different dialects:[1]
| No. | English | Bobang dialect | Hal-Kyoli dialect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | one | zìní | zìní |
| 2 | two | fɑ́lì | fɑ́lì |
| 3 | three | tɑ́r | tɑ́r |
| 4 | four | nɑ̀ŋ | nɑ̀ŋ |
| 5 | five | tû | to |
| 6 | six | fʷùín | fʷùín |
| 7 | seven | tofaːl | tofaːl |
| 8 | eight | nɑ̀naŋ | nɑ̀naŋ |
| 9 | nine | nbǒmkùp | nbǒmkùp |
| 10 | ten | sók | sɔ́k |