Nizaa language

Nizaa
Galim, Nyamnyam, Suga
Nízɑɑ̀
Pronunciation[nɪ˦zʌː˧˨]
Native toCameroon
RegionAdamawa Region
Native speakers
(10,000 cited 1985)
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3sgi
Glottologsuga1248

Nizaa (Nizaa pronunciation: [nɪ˦zʌː˧˨], practical orthography: Nízɑɑ̀), also known as Galim, Nyamnyam, and Suga, is an endangered Mambiloid language spoken in the Adamawa Region of northern Cameroon. Most of the language's speakers live in and around the village of Galim in the department of Faro-et-Déo.

Nizaa has a complex sound system with 60 consonant phonemes, eleven tones, and a contrast between oral and nasal vowels. It is neither a head-initial nor head-final language (the head or main element of a clause does not prefer to come before or after its modifiers) and uses postpositions instead of prepositions (the adposition follows the noun it modifies).

Nizaa was first extensively documented in the 1980s by Norwegian linguists Rolf Theil Endresen and Bjørghild Kjelsvik. The language is endangered, but the exact number of active speakers is unknown since the last census of speakers took place in 1985.