Firan language

Firan
Fəràn, Fɨràn
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Plateau State
Native speakers	5,000 (2019)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Central ? Izeric Firan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	fir
Glottolog	fira1238
ELP	Firan

Fɨràn[2]
Person	yes Fɨràn
People	yes Bèfɨràn
Language	Fɨràn

Firan or Fəràn (also Ibaas) is a Plateau language^[3] closely related to Izere. Most Firan speakers are multilingual in Firan, Hausa, English, Iten and sometimes Berom.^[4]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants of Firan [SIL]^[4]

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labialvelar	Glottal
Plosive	b p		d t			ɡ k	ɡ͡b k͡p
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Sibilant affricate			dz ts	d̠ʒ t̠ʃ
Sibilant fricative			z s	ʃ
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	v f			ç	ɣ		h
Approximant					j		w
Tap/flap			ɾ
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Consonants of Firan [Blench]^[5]

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labialvelar	Glottal
Plosive	b p		d t			ɡ k	ɡ͡b k͡p
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Sibilant affricate			ts	d̠ʒ t̠ʃ
Sibilant fricative			z~dz s	ʃ
Non-sibilant fricative		f						h
Approximant					j ɥ		w
Tap/flap			ɾ
Lateral approximant			l

/Cj/ and /Cw/ sequences are permitted but are uncommon

Vowels

Vowels of Firan [SIL]^[4]

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i		ɨ		u
Near-close		ɪ		ʊ
Close-mid	e				o
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ		ɜ/ə		ɔ
Open			a/ɑ

Vowels of Firan [Blench]^[5]

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i		ɨ		u
Close-mid	e				o
Open-mid	ɛ				ɔ
Open			a

Tones

There are 5 tones -- high, mid, low, rising and falling. The rising and falling tones are described as 'aris[ing] from sequences of level tones', but it is not clear what is meant by that, as there are no long vowels in the language.^[5]

References

1. Firan at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Firan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
4. "A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Firan [fir] Language of Plateau State, Nigeria". SIL International. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
5. Roger Blench, 2024, Introduction to a preliminary dictionary of the Fɨran language of Central Nigeria

Further reading

• A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Firan (fir) Language of Plateau State, Nigeria