Introduction

The Nyankpa language is spoken by over 70,000 people living in Nigeria. Its ISO identification code is [yes]. Others may sometimes refer to this language as Nyenkpa, Yasgua, or Yeskwa.

The Nyankpa language community is located primarily in Jema’a LGA of Kaduna state and Karu LGA of Nassarawa state. The language is highly valued and is used at home, on farms, in the market and at village meetings.

The language is classified as Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Plateau, Western, Northwestern, Koro.

There are four main dialects, all of which are mutually intelligible: Ejung (Ejuŋ), spoken in and around Panda; Ejira, which is spoken in and around Tattara; Engbe, also called Iŋmgbe, spoken in Barde and the surrounding area; and Ogbom, local to Buzi and Gitata. Engbe (Iŋmgbe) is the most divergent of the dialects, having 74% lexical similarity with Ejung, 77% with Ejira and 72% with Ogbom.

The Nyankpa Language and Bible Translation Committee decided several years ago to use the Ejung dialect as the basis for the Nyankpa writing system, and the spellings in this dictionary are based on the Ejung pronunciations, except those marked as [Iŋmgbe]. These words marked as [Iŋmgbe] are included to help speakers of that more divergent dialect in their use of the dictionary, and in their efforts to read and write in Nyankpa.