Kyoli language

The Kyoli or Cori (Chori) language is a Plateau language spoken in Southern Kaduna State, Nigeria.

Kyoli
Cori
Native to	Jaba LGA, Nigeria
Region	Kaduna State
Native speakers	7,000-8,000 (2020)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Central ? Hyamic ? Kyoli
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cry
Glottolog	cori1240

People	Kwoli
Language	Kyoli

Overview

It is spoken in the northeast of Nok in Jaba Local Government Area (LGA), Kaduna State. The speakers prefer to spell the name of their language as Kyoli, which is pronounced [kjoli] or [çjoli]. The ethnic group is referred to as Kwoli.

There are about 7,000-8,000 Kyoli speakers living in the two village clusters of Hal-Kyoli and Bobang. Bobang is the cultural center of the Kyoli-speaking area. Bobang village cluster consists of the five hamlets of Bobang, Fadek, Akoli, Hagong, and Nyamten. Hal-Kyoli village is situated by itself. All of the Kwoli villages surround the foot of Egu-Kyoli Hill, which rises more than 240 meters above the villages.

Tone

Cori is known for having six distinct levels of tone, too many to transcribe using the International Phonetic Alphabet, which allows five. However, there are only three underlying tones: 1 (top), 4 (mid), and 6 (bottom), which are all that need to be written for literacy. Most cases of Tone 2 (high) are a result of tone sandhi, with 4 becoming 2 before 1. Tones 3 (mid-high) and 5 (low) can be analysed as contour tones, with underlying /1͡6/ realised as [3] and /2͡6/ realised as [5].

In order to transcribe the surface tones without numerals (which are ambiguous), an extra diacritic is needed, as is common for four-level languages in Central America:

1 [ő] (top)

2 [ó] (high)

3 [o̍] (mid-high)

4 [ō] (mid)

5 [ò] (low)

6 [ȍ] (bottom)

Numerals

Kyoli numerals in different dialects:

No.	English	Bobang dialect	Hal-Kyoli dialect
1	one	zìní	zìní
2	two	fɑ́lì	fɑ́lì
3	three	tɑ́r	tɑ́r
4	four	nɑ̀ŋ	nɑ̀ŋ
5	five	tû	to
6	six	fʷùín	fʷùín
7	seven	tofaːl	tofaːl
8	eight	nɑ̀naŋ	nɑ̀naŋ
9	nine	nbǒmkùp	nbǒmkùp
10	ten	sók	sɔ́k

Further reading

• A Sociolinguistic Profile of the Kyoli (Cori) [cry] Language of Kaduna State, Nigeria
• Dihoff, Ivan (1976). Aspects of the tonal structure of Chori. Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin.