Adara language

Adara (also Eda[4] and Kadara), is a Plateau language of Nigeria. The name Adara is also used to refer to an ethnic group.

Adara
Eda
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Kaduna State; Niger State
Native speakers	300,000 (2011)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Central ? North Plateau ? Adara
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kad
Glottolog	kada1284[2]

Person	Àndara[3]
People	Àdara
Language	Èdrà

Person	Ànda[3]
People	Àda
Language	Èdà

Some estimates place the population of the Adara people at around 350,000. About 55% of the Adara are Christians while some also adhere to Islam.[5]

Distribution

Though Adara people are migrants in Kaduna State, (Kadara) is spoken mainly in Kachia and Kajuru Local Government Areas of Kaduna State and in Niger State in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria.

Conflict

 The Adara people were involved in almost all the ethno-religious conflict in Kaduna State. The Fulani rights group,  Voice of the Fulani  have     accused the Adara local vigilantes , popularly called Adara Militia  of killing and mutilating the bodies of over one thousand Fulani people between 2011 to 2020.

Dialects

Dialects of the Adara language include the Adara dialect, Eneje, Ada, Ekhwa, and Ajiya.[6]^:1

Blench (2019) lists Eda, Edra, and Enezhe as dialects.[3]

Phonology

Consonants

[4]^:3

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Alveo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Labial–velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t d		[c] j	k g	kp gb
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Tap			ɾ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ		[ɣ]		h
Affricate		[bv]
Approximant					y		w
Lateral			l

Vowels

[4]^:2

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

References

1. Adara at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kadara". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
4. Roger Blench (5 July 2009). "The Eda [= Kadara] language of Central Nigeria" (PDF).
5. Joshua project entry on the Adara
6. Hon, Luther; Ajaegbu, Grace; Magnusson, Carol; Nweke, Uche S.; Yoder, Zachariah (27 April 2012). "A Summary of a Sociolinguistic Survey of the Adara of Kaduna and Niger States, Nigeria" (PDF). SIL.

External links

• Listen to a sample of Adara from Global Recordings Network
• Eda wordlist (with English and Hausa)