Daka language

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title: "Daka language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["adamawa-languages", "northern-bantoid-languages", "languages-of-nigeria"] description: "Bantoid language spoken in Nigeria" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daka_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Bantoid language spoken in Nigeria ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Daka
region	northern Nigeria
ethnicity	Chamba people, others
speakers
date	1992–2000
ref	e18
familycolor	Niger-Congo
fam2	Atlantic–Congo
fam3	Volta-Congo
fam4	Benue–Congo
fam5	Bantoid
fam6	Northern Bantoid
fam7	Dakoid
fam8	Daka–Taram
dia1	Nnakenyare
dia2	Mapeo
dia3	Jangani
dia4	Lamja
dia5	Dirim
lc1	ccg
lc2	dir
lc3	ldh
glotto	tara1325
glottorefname	Taram–Dirim–Nnakenyare
::

|name=Daka |region=northern Nigeria |ethnicity=Chamba people, others |speakers= |date=1992–2000 |ref=e18 |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=Atlantic–Congo |fam3=Volta-Congo |fam4=Benue–Congo |fam5=Bantoid |fam6=Northern Bantoid |fam7=Dakoid |fam8=Daka–Taram |dia1=Nnakenyare |dia2=Mapeo |dia3=Jangani |dia4=Lamja |dia5=Dirim |lc1=ccg|ld1=Chamba Daka |lc2=dir|ld2=Dirim |lc3=ldh|ld3=Lamja–Dengsa–Tola |glotto=tara1325 |glottorefname=Taram–Dirim–Nnakenyare

Daka (Dakka, Dekka, rarely Deng or Tikk) is one of two languages spoken by the Chamba people in Nigeria, the other being Chamba Leko.

Varieties

Daka is a dialect cluster. The Chamba dialect is called Chamba Daka (or Samba, Tsamba, Tchamba, Sama, Jama Daka; also Nakanyare) and constitutes 90% of speakers. Chamba Daka is also called Sámá Mūm.

Other dialects are Dirim (Dirin, Dirrim), Lamja, Dengsa, and Tola. Dirim and Lamja–Dengsa–Tola have separate ISO coding, but Ethnologue notes that they are 'close to Samba Daka and may be a dialect' or 'may not be sufficiently distinct from Samba Daka to be a separate language', and actually lists Dirim as a dialect under Daka. Blench (2011) lists Dirim as coordinate with other Daka varieties: Nnakenyare, Mapeo, Jangani, Lamja, Dirim, suggesting that if Lamja and Dirim are considered separate languages, as in Ethnologue, then Samba Daka itself needs to be broken up into three additional languages.

Blench lists the following varieties as Samba Daka dialects.

• Samba Jangani
• Samba Nnakenyare
• Samba of Mapeo

Classification

Greenberg placed Samba Daka within his Adamawa proposal, as group G3, but Bennett (1983) demonstrated to general satisfaction that it is a Benue–Congo language, though its placement within Benue–Congo is disputed. Blench (2011) considers it to be Bantoid. Boyd (ms), however, considers Daka an isolate branch within Niger–Congo (Blench 2008). Blench (2011) lists Taram as a separate, though closely related, language.

Phonology

Vowels

::data[format=table]

Front	Central	Back	Close	Close-mid	Open-mid	Open
::

Consonants

::data[format=table]

Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	plain	labial	Nasal	Stop	voiceless	voiced	prenasal	Affricate	Fricative	voiceless	voiced	prenasal	Tap/Trill	Approximant	lateral	plain	nasalized
	()
	~
::

• may also occur as trilled .
• can have an allophone of .

References

References

1. [https://www.rblanguesdafrique.info/sama.html Chamba-Daka materials from Raymond Boyd]
2. Blench, Roger. (2019). "An Atlas of Nigerian Languages". Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
3. Boyd, Raymond. "The phonology and tonology of Chamba Daka (Sámá Mūm)". Laboratoire Ligérien de Linguistique: Université d’Orléans..

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::