Jagham is a member of the Ekoid branch of the Southern Bantoid language family. It is spoken by about 120,000 people in the southeast of Nigeria and in the southwest of Cameroon. In particular, Jagham speakers can be found in the Etung, Ikom, Obubram Akamkpa, Ogoja, Calabar South and Biase Local Government Regions of Cross River State in Nigeria, and in the Eyumojok, Upper Bayang and Mamfe subdivisions of the Manyu Department in the north of the South West Region of Cameroon.
Jagham is also known as Ekoi, which is also the name of the people who speak it. They call themselves and their language Ejagham. Dialects are divided into two groups: western dialects, including Bendeghe, Northern Etung, Southern Etung, Ekwe and Akamkpa-Ejagham, and eastern dialects, including Keaka and Obang. The main dialects spoken in Cameroon are Obang, Keaka and Ekwe. The other dialects are spoken in Nigeria.
The Ekoi are thought to have created the Nsibdi script, which according to their folklore, was taught to them by mermaids. The script dates back to about 400 AD, and consists of pictograms, logograms and syllabograms. A way to write Jagham with the Latin alphabet was developed by the American linguists John R. Watters and Kathie Watters in 1981. Other spelling systems are available.
Download an alphabet chart for Jagham (Excel)
Details of the Jagham alphabet provided by Wolfram Siegel (PDF)
Information about Jagham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagham_language
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejagham_(langue)
https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/ejag1239
https://www.proquest.com/
https://www.101lasttribes.com/tribes/ekoi.html
https://www.nwednyin.org/articles/the-ejagham-people-history-origins-and-identity-1
http://www.language-archives.org/language/etu
https://www.sil.org/resources/search/language/etu
Abon, Bafanji, Bebe, Bekwarra, Daka, Ipulo, Isu, Jagham, Jarawa, Kemezung, Kenyang, Ki, Koshin, Kung, Mambila, Mbe, Mbuʼ, Medumba, Metaʼ, Pinyin, Tiv, Yambeta
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page created: 23.02.26. Last modified: 25.02.26
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