Development of Nggwaba Orthography: Syllabic, Phonemic and Tones Patterns

Nggwaba has been described as an Afro-asiatic language. Further classification situates it in the Chadic group precisely Biu-Mandara. The language is spoken in Gombi and Hong Local Government Areas of Adamawa State, North-east, Nigeria. It has been noticed that the language has largely been under-documented and under-investigated. The estimated number of people who speak the language is less than 1000. This paper presents the orthography and a preliminary analysis of a few aspects of the phonology of the language for the early primary education level. It became necessary to study, develop and document the orthography of Nggwaba language in order to prevent it from going into extinction. The study adopted a mixed-method sampling technique, cross-sectional design as well as a descriptive analysis. The paper is divided into three main sections. While the first section deals with background of the study, the second section looks at the literature review. The third section focuses on the methodology through which the study was carried out, and the fourth section discusses the framework, and finally the fifth section focuses on the result of the study. This is the first description of the phonological features of Nggwaba language. The by-product of this study has added knowledge to literature especially the area of areal linguistics.