| Tarok | |
|---|---|
| iTárók[1] | |
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Plateau State,Taraba State |
| Ethnicity | Tarok |
Native speakers | 520,000 (2020)[2] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yer |
| Glottolog | taro1263 |
Tarok (Tarok:iTárók), also known asYergama orAppa[1] is a language spoken by around 520,000[3] people primarily in the southeast of Nigeria'sPlateau State, where it serves as a local lingua franca.[citation needed] Tarok is a member of thePlateau group of theAtlantic–Congo family.
Tarok has seven phonemic vowels, /i ɨ u ɛ ə ɔ a/. The IPA symbols are included in the table below along with the orthographic form in angular brackets.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i⟨i⟩ | ɨ⟨ə⟩ | u⟨u⟩ |
| Low-Mid | ɛ⟨e⟩ | ə⟨a̱⟩ | ɔ⟨o⟩ |
| Low | a⟨a⟩ |
Tarok has an inventory of twenty-nine phonemic consonants, shown in the table below. Allophones are provided in parentheses.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive / Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | k͡p | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | g | g͡b | |||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |||
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | ɣ | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | (ŋ͡m)* | |||
| Lateral | l | |||||||
| Vibrant | r | |||||||
| Semivowel | j | w | ||||||
* The labiovelar nasal [ŋ͡m] occurs as an allophone of the syllabic nasal consonant before labiovelar plosives /k͡p/ and /g͡b/.[1]
As the locallingua franca, the Tarok feature prominently in the local ethnic composition of southeastPlateau State. Many Tarok clans can also trace their ancestries back toChadic-speaking peoples, pointing to a long history of Chadic peoples assimilating into Tarok society. Some Tarok names for neighbouring languages according to Longtau (2004):[5]
| Language | Classification | Tarok name |
|---|---|---|
| Ngas | West Chadic A.3 | Dúk |
| Boghom | West Chadic B.3 | Burom |
| Duguri | Jarawan | Duguri |
| Goemai | West Chadic A.3 | Lar |
| Jukun-Wase | Jukunoid | Jor |
| Kanam | West Chadic B.3 ? | (not known by Tarok) |
| Kantana | Jarawan | Kantana |
| Tel | West Chadic A.3 | Dwal |
| Pe | Tarokoid | Pe |
| Tal | West Chadic A.3 | Tal |
| Sur | Tarokoid | (not known by Tarok) |
| Yangkam | Tarokoid | Yangkam |
| Yiwom | West Chadic A.3 | Zhan |
| Zaar | West Chadic B.3 | Zhim |
| a | a̲ | b | ɓ | c | d | ɗ | e | ǝ | f | gb |
| gh | i | j | k | kp | l | m | n | ny | ŋ | o |
| p | r | s | sh | t | u | v | w | y | z | zh |
^ Variants of this name are Yergəm and Yergum.[1]
