A DICTIONARY OF MADA, A PLATEAU LANGUAGE ... - Roger Blench

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Abbreviations Amer. American (for Americanisms) arch. archaic dial. dialect et. etymology euph. euphemism fig. figurative hum. humorous id. idiom id. ideophone ins. insulting lit. literally NE Nigerian English Ng. Ningo dialect Sh. Shugbu dialect Apart from the abbreviations, symbols are used to indicate particular features; see Appendix for further detail iii
Mada dictionary: Front matter INTRODUCTION 1. The Mada people and their language 1.1 Location and Name The Mada people live primarily in the region between Anjida and Akwanga on and around the road leading from Fadan Karshi to Akwanga in Nasarawa State, Central Nigeria. Their numbers are hard to estimate but probably now exceeds 100,000. Earlier literature refers to the Mada as ‘Yidda’ (e.g. Temple 1922:260) but no such term is used today. In colonial times a distinction was made between ‘Hill Mada’ and ‘Plains Mada’. The ‘hill Mada’ were however, part of Eggon and as such unrelated to the Mada proper. These terms have now been dropped and today’s Mada now refers to the ‘Plains Mada’ of earlier sources. The Mada have tribal marks on their faces – 3 straight lines on the upper jaw on both sides, one on the forehead and one on the upper cheek close to the left eye. Women have tiny marks of straight lines drawn close to the mouth (lower cheek) on both sides. These days the marks are not seen on young ones any longer because it is considered cruel to have the marks especially due to the instruments used to draw the marks. These days also, most Mada women have all kinds of marks that are alien to the Mada culture due to influences of other cultures. In the olden days, women used to pierce one nostril and their ears for earrings. During the Nigerian civil war which broke out in 1967, almost all the children born at the time were given marks so as not to mistake them to be Igbos, especially someone who was light skin. Also, those young adults who were not previously given the marks, were given during the war. 1.2 Classification Mada was classified as part of the Plateau language group by Greenberg (1963) and Williamson (1971), Hansford et al. (1976), Gerhardt (1989) and Crozier and <strong>Blench</strong> (1992) have all followed this view. Mada was put together with Ninzam, Ayu, Che, Ninkyop and some other languages as part of Plateau IV. More recently, this group has been christened ‘Ninzic’ in the light of the numerous languages with a –nin- element in their ethnonym (<strong>Blench</strong> 2000). Greenberg’s (1963:9) original list was Rukuba (Kuche), Ninzo (Ninzam), Ayu, Mada, Kaninkwom. The current list of Ninzic languages is as follows; Ninzo Ce [=Rukuba] Mada Bu-NiNkada Numana-Nunku-Gwantu-Numbu Ningye Kanufi Ninkyop-Nindem Doubtfully Vaghat-Ya-Bijim-Legeri Ayu? Data on many of these languages is too weak to be confident of their place within the group. However, on Ninzo and Ce relatively extensive data means that we can be sure these are the closest relatives of Mada. i
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A DICTIONARY OF MADA, A PLATEAU LANGUAGE ... - Roger Blench

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