Language

The Tiv language

Tiv (Tiv or zwa Tiv) is spoken by several million people, most of them in Benue State and the neighbouring states of central Nigeria, with smaller communities in Cameroon and in cities across Nigeria. It is the language of daily life, worship, music and broadcasting throughout Tivland, and for many people in the diaspora it is the strongest living link to home.

Where Tiv fits among the world's languages

Tiv belongs to the Tivoid group of the Bantoid languages, within the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. That places it among the distant relatives of the Bantu languages of central and southern Africa. Most of the other Tivoid languages are small and spoken along the Nigeria–Cameroon border, and Tiv is by far the largest of them.

Sounds and tone

Tiv is a tonal language: the pitch of a syllable can change a word's meaning, so two words spelled alike may be quite different words when spoken. It also uses sounds that English speakers find new, including the paired consonants gb and kp, which are pronounced as a single sound, and the clusters mb, nd and ng. Learners who listen closely to native speakers, and pay attention to tone from the start, progress fastest.

Writing Tiv

Tiv has no older indigenous script. It is written in the Latin alphabet, with a spelling system developed during the twentieth century through the work of missionaries, teachers and Tiv writers. The written language was spread by schools, church publications and the Tiv Bible. Spelling still varies between writers, and the dictionary on this site notes common variant spellings where they exist. The alphabet page lists each letter, the vowels and the letter combinations with examples.

How to use this section

The dictionary gives English meanings, and for many entries examples of use and notes. The grammar pages explain how nouns, pronouns, verbs and questions work. The lessons take beginners step by step through greetings, numbers and everyday phrases, and the translation tool helps with words and short phrases. Proverbs and names, which are some of the richest uses of the language, have their own collections under Literature and Culture.

Every entry here can be improved. If you are a fluent speaker and notice a wrong meaning, a missing word or a spelling your community uses differently, please send a correction through the contribution form below.