Jalaa, also called Centuum, is an extinct language of northeastern Nigeria's Loojaa settlement in Balanga Local Government Area, Gombe State. By the early 1990s only a few elders could recall words their parents had used, and the language is believed to have gone extinct by around 2010; its descendants, the Jalabe people, now speak the Bwilim dialect of Dikaka. Jalaa's origins are uncertain and it is generally treated as a language isolate, though Roger Blench has proposed a broader grouping called Jalaaic that might once have formed a larger indigenous language phylum in the Muri Mountains region.
Facts
RegionLoojaa settlement, Balanga Local Government Area, Gombe State, Nigeria 1 Speaker CountTreated as zero; the cited source describes the language as extinct, with no rememberers confirmed still living by around 2010. Proto-Language StatusLanguage isolate of uncertain origin; Roger Blench proposes it was once part of a larger indigenous language phylum of the Muri Mountains he calls Jalaaic. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Jalaa Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, sentence 1: location
an extinct language of northeastern Nigeria (Loojaa settlement in Balanga Local Government Area, Gombe State), of uncertain origins, apparently a language isolate.
Lead section, sentence 3: extinction timeline
in 1992 only a few elders remember words that their parents had used, and by 2010 there may not even remain any such rememberers.
History section: Jalaaic phylum proposal
Jalaa was presumably part of a larger phylum that Roger Blench refers to as Jalaaic, which was the original indigenous language phylum of the Muri Mountains.
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