Jagham language

Ekoi
Ejagham
Native to	Nigeria, Cameroon
Ethnicity	Ekoi people
Native speakers	120,000 (2000)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Ekoid–Mbe Ekoid Ekoi
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	etu
Glottolog	ejag1239

The Jagham language, Ejagham, also known as Ekoi, is an Ekoid (Niger–Congo) language of Nigeria and Cameroon.

Ekoi is dialectically diverse. Western varieties include Etung and Bendeghe; eastern Keaka and Obang.

The Ekoi are one of several peoples who use nsibidi ideographs, and may be the ones that created them.

Morphology

Ekoi has the following noun classes, listed here with their Bantu equivalents. Watters (1981) says there are fewer than in Bantu because of mergers (class 4 into 3, 7 into 6, etc.), though Blench notes that there is no reason to think that the common ancestral language had as many noun classes as proto-Bantu.

Noun class	Prefix	Concord
1	N-	w, ɲ
2	a-	b
3	N-	m
5	ɛ-	j
6	a-	m
8	bi-	b
9	N-	j, ɲ
14	ɔ-	b
19	i-	f

('N' stands for a homorganic nasal. 'j' is "y".)

External links

• Ejagham basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database