Fading Delimitations: Language, Culture and Ethno-Linguistics of the Maha in Northeast Nigeria

尼日利亚中部地带拥有非洲最高的种族和语言多样性。仅在贡戈拉盆地，就有50多种语言在使用，其中许多属于西乍得语系的博乐-坦格勒语系。作为博乐-坦格勒语系最东边的成员，玛哈语因其毗邻在类型上迥然不同的中乍得语、尼日尔-刚果语和尼罗-撒哈拉地区语言而备受关注。初步研究表明，这种在贡戈拉河以东的典型避难区约有15.000人使用的语言研究严重不足，表现出类型学特征，使我们能够了解该地区不同语系语言之间的历史关系。此外，他们的语言思想--将多语种玛哈人拥有的文化概念概念化，以便将自己与邻近的讲语言的社区区分开来--似乎对理解如何实现“典型”、象征性的语言特征的保存至关重要。研究玛哈语及其民族语言环境是一项紧迫的任务，因为玛哈族人现在正在逐渐放弃他们的种族认同，同时语言也因大规模的豪萨化而过时。通过观察玛哈人与豪萨族、卡努里族、富拉尼族和周围其他主要民族的关系，我们分析了他们靠近敌对帝国边界的位置如何影响了他们的语言。特别是，我们确定了自殖民时代以来导致语言逐渐转变和族裔转变的因素。在这一主要同化豪萨文化的过程中，宗教起着至关重要的作用，因为该地区已成为伊斯兰教和基督教之间的边界地带。该项目是在德国-捷克双边研究项目的框架下申请的，该项目在GACR(Grantova Agentura Ceske RePubliky/捷克科学基金会)根据P 406/10/JO68注册。

The Middle Belt of Nigeria has the highest ethnic and linguistic diversity in Africa. In the Gongola Basin alone, more than 50 languages are spoken, many of them belonging to the Bole-Tangale group of the West Chadic language family. As the most eastern member of the Bole-Tangale group, Maha is of high interest as it borders the typologically very different Central Chadic, Niger-Congo and Nilo- Saharan languages. Preliminary studies indicate that this dramatically understudied language – spoken by about 15.000 people in a typical refuge area east of the Gongola River – exhibits typological properties which allow us to understand the historical relations between the languages of different families in the region. Moreover, their language ideology – conceptualizing the cultural concepts which the multilingual Maha possess in order to distinguish themselves from the neighbouring speaker communities – appears to be of utmost importance in order to understand how the preservation of “typical”, emblematic linguistic features has been achieved. The study of Maha language and its ethno-linguistic environment is an urgent task, since the Maha people are now gradually giving up their ethnic identity, alongside language obsolescence due to massive Hausaization. By looking at the Maha in their relation to the Hausa, Kanuri, Fulani and other dominant ethnic groups surrounding them, we analyze how their location close to the borders of rival empires has influenced their language. In particular, we identify factors which since colonial times have led to a gradual language shift and ethnic conversion. In this process of assimilation mainly to Hausa culture, religion plays a crucial role, since the area has become a borderland between Islam and Christianity.This project is applied for in the framework of a German-Czech bilateral research project, which isregistered under P 406/10/JO68 at the GACR (Grantova Agentura Ceske Republiky/Czech ScienceFoundation).