Hyam language

Hyam
Jabba
Native toNigeria
RegionKaduna State
Native speakers
300,000 (2014)[1]
Dialects
  • Hyam of Nok
  • Sait
  • Dzar
  • Yaat
  • Ankum
Language codes
ISO 639-3jab
Glottologhyam1245

Hyam is a regionally important linguistic cluster of Plateau languages in Nigeria. Hyam of Nok is the prestige dialect (Blench 2008). 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 (2016) 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 (John 2017).

  1. ^ Hyam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)