•Almost all
East Kainji languages are threatened, except perhaps Amo and Chawai, and many reported
to exist may well
now be extinct. The main source of endangerment is the spread of Hausa and the small size of
their communities.
East Kainji languages abut the Hausa-speaking area to the north and their speakers tend to be fluent in Hausa. Many languages are
threatened by the declining
competence of the younger generation.
•Although
there is now some energy to protect larger languages like Boze, Tunzu and Amo,
isolated lects encapsulated
among the Hausa such as Kuda-Chamo are virtually gone. Ziriya is completely dead,
Sheni has just six speakers
and Zora is clearly in decline.
•It is
unlikely the trend will be easily reversed for moribund languages, but larger speech communities
such as the Boze,
where there is an articulate older generation with an interest in language development, are a
more realistic proposition.
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