Hyam language


Hyam is a regionally important linguistic cluster of Plateau languages in Nigeria. Hyam of Nok is the prestige dialect. Writing the sociolinguistics of Hyam, Blench treats Sait, and Dzar as distinct varieties, and notes that Yat and Ankung may be viewed as separate languages, however, Hayab presents a differing opinion arguing that it is Ankung, a language called Iduya, that is not mutually intelligible to Hyam. Meanwhile, Hyam, which is spoken by the Ham people of Nigeria, popularly known as 'Jaba' in a recent study by Philip Hayab, a native of the area and a linguist who carried out in-depth research into the language, reveals that 'Jaba' has a Hausa etymology and is derogatory and should be discarded.

Distribution

Native Hyam speakers are found mainly in Jaba, Kachia and Kagarko. They are also found in Jema'a Local Government Areas of southern Kaduna State and in Keffi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State of Nigeria.

Dialects

James classified the Hyam dialects according to the following sub-groups he placed under the Ham or Northern Group of the Proto-Plateau Ethno-Linguistic Cluster:
According to Hayab, however, the Ham people, aside migratory past, a subject requiring keen study, could be said to speak the following:
Hayab added that other varieties may also include:
Further more, Hayab classified these dialects into four clusters, A-D, according to their levels of intelligibility.
Again note that Hyam is the language spoken by the Ham people.
Blench lists:
The Hyam Literacy Committee identifies the following 41/42 basic symbols in its orthography.

Vowels (Vawel)

Short Vowels
Long Vowels
aa ee ii oo uu

Numerals

Hayab pinpoints, stating that "available data in Hyam by Koelle and Meek reveals that the Ham contest in virtually a dissimilar way from what is obtained today." He added that it is apparent that the old counting system has been replaced with a Hausa styled one, and again states that "at present, the old style with ten now as ' shwak '. A case points is kop shows to be an incomplete number observing the evidence that ' mbwan shwak ' suggests that we were a number away from shwak." He then added that "this is because the word ' mbwan ' actually denotes bwat - short of or 'remaining'.
The above can be said to be true, considering the case of Tyap, a related language, where the present word for ten is swak, while the word "kop/kwop" is almost extinct, just as in Hyam, and only used for counting in thousands. The word "thousand" in Tyap is cyi kop/kwop, meaning, "a hundred - ten times" or "100 X 10".
These, according to Hayab are the numbers used at least 200 years ago for counting in Hyam.
HyamEnglish
0npiitzero/nothing
1zhinnione
2felitwo
3taatthree
4naangfour
5twoofive
6twanisix
7twarfoseven
8naarangeight
9mbwan-kopnine
10kopten
11mbwan-shwakeleven
12shwaktwelve/dozen/complete
24shwak i'feritwo dozens
36shwak i'tatthree dozens
48shwak i'nangfour dozens
60shwak i'twoofive dozens
72shwak i'twanisix dozens
84shwak i'twarfoseven dozens
96shwak i'naarangeight dozens
108shwak i'mbwan-kopnine dozens
144/infinitysok-sok-ghatwelve dozens/uncountable