Mwaghavul

Mwaghavul is a West Chadic language spoken in the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State in central Nigeria, mainly in the towns of Mangu and Panyam. In 2016 there were about 150,000 speakers of Mwaghavul, which is also known as Maghavul or Sura.

A way of writing Mwaghavul was developed by missionaries in the early 20th century in order to translate parts of the Bible. The missionaries used spelling conventions based on Yoruba, which they had previsouly been working on. A new orthography for Mwaghavul was developed in the early 21st century.

Mwaghavul alphabet and pronunciation

Notes

Long vowels are indicated by doubling (aa, ee, etc)
A high tone is indicated with an acute accent (á), and a low with a grave accent (à). The mid tone is not marked
In the middle of words p = [b], t = [d] and k = [g]
Consonants are labialized when followed by w, e.g. mw = [mʷ], and palatalized when followed by y, e.g. gy = [ɡʲ]

Download an alphabet chart for Mwaghavul (Excel)

Sample videos in Mwaghavul

Links

Information about Mwaghavul
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mwaghavul_language
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mwaghavul_(langue)
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/sur
https://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Afroasiatic/Chadic/West/Mwaghavul/Mwaghavul Dictionary 2014.pdf

Chadic languages

Bade, Barein, Bole, Dangaléat, Gawar, Goemai, Hausa, Hdi, Karai-karai, Kera, Lele, Marba, Migaama, Miya, Moloko, Musey, Mwaghavul, Ngizim, Polci, Sokoro, Somrai, Tangale, Tumak

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page last modified: 23.04.21

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