The Defaka language is an Ijoid branch of the Niger-Congo languages, spoken in Nigeria. It is an endangered language. Ethnically, the Defaka are distinct from the Nkoroo, but they have assimilated to Nkoroo culture to such a degree that their language seems to be the only sign of a distinct Defaka identity. Use of the Defaka language however is quickly receding in favour of the language of the Nkoroo.

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  • The Defaka language is an Ijoid branch of the Niger-Congo languages, spoken in Nigeria. It is an endangered language. Ethnically, the Defaka are distinct from the Nkoroo, but they have assimilated to Nkoroo culture to such a degree that their language seems to be the only sign of a distinct Defaka identity. Use of the Defaka language however is quickly receding in favour of the language of the Nkoroo. Nowadays, most Defaka speakers are elderly people, and even among these, Defaka is rarely spoken — the total number of Defaka speakers is at most 200 nowadays (SIL/Ethnologue 15th ed.). The decrease in use of Defaka is stronger in Nkoroo town than in the Iwoma area. All children grow up speaking Nkoroo as a first language. The next most used language among the Defaka is Igbo, owing to the political influence of the Opobo since the days of the Oil Rivers Trade. Igbo has been a language of instruction in many schools in the region and still functions as a regional trade language. The Defaka language is related to the Ijo languages, showing quite a lot of lexical similarities, some shared regular sound correspondences and some grammatical similarities with proto-Ijo. While some of the lexical similarities can be attributed to borrowing (as Defaka has been in close contact with Ijo for more than 300 years), especially the sound correspondences and the grammatical similarities point to a (somewhat distant) genetic relationship. For example, both languages have a Subject Object Verb basic word order, which is otherwise extremely rare in the Niger-Congo language family, being found only in the Mande and Dogon branches. a ebere ko̘ a okuna b̘ááma (the dog the fowl kill) The dog killed the fowl (Defaka) obiri b̘é o̘b̘ó̘kō̘ b̘é b̘ám̄ (dog the fowl the kill) The dog killed the fowl (I̘jo̘, Kalab̘ari̘ dialect) Also, Defaka has a sex-gender system distinguishing at least between masculine and feminine, once again a rarity among South Central Niger-Congo languages other than Ijoid and Defaka. These similarities have led to the inclusion of Defaka in the Ijoid branch of Niger-Congo. Within Ijoid, Defaka constitutes a branch distinct from the main group of Ijoid languages, Ijo.
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  • Niger-Congo
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  • nic
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  • Defaka
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  • Défàkà
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  • Rivers State, Bonny District
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  • 200 (Blench 2003)
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  • The Defaka language is an Ijoid branch of the Niger-Congo languages, spoken in Nigeria. It is an endangered language. Ethnically, the Defaka are distinct from the Nkoroo, but they have assimilated to Nkoroo culture to such a degree that their language seems to be the only sign of a distinct Defaka identity. Use of the Defaka language however is quickly receding in favour of the language of the Nkoroo.
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  • Defaka language
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  • Defaka
  • Défàkà
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