Jalaa (autonym: ), also known as Cèntûm, Centúúm or Cen Tuum, is an extinct language of northeastern Nigeria (Loojaa settlement in Balanga Local Government Area, Gombe State), of uncertain origins, apparently a language isolate. The Jalabe (as descendants of speakers of the language are called) speak the Bwilim dialect of the Dikaka language. It is possible (but unconfirmed) that some remembered words have been retained for religious ceremonies, but in 1992 only a few elders remember words that their parents had used, and by 2010 there may not even remain any such rememberers.
{| class="wikitable"
!rowspan=2| Gloss
!colspan=2| Jalaa
!colspan=2| Cham
|-
! sg. !! pl.
! sg. !! pl.
|-
| mouth || || || ||
|-
| tree || || || ||
|-
| meat || || || ||
|-
| hole || || || ||
|-
| nose || || || ||
|-
| leg || || || ||
|-
| fish || || || ||
|-
| wife || || || ||
|-
| person || || || ||
|-
| crocodile || || || ||
|-
| knot || || || ||
|-
| dog || || || ||
|-
| stranger || || || ||
|}
Lexicon
The Jalaa lexicon is also strongly influenced by Dikaka (which it has in turn influenced); some similarities are also found with the nearby Tso. However, most of its vocabulary is extremely unusual. In Kleinewillinghöfer's words, "The major part of the lexicon seems to differ entirely from all the surrounding languages, which themselves represent different language families."
Both Dikaka and the Tso traditionally avoided using names of the dead. When those names were also words of the language, as often happened, this forced them to change the word, sometimes by replacing it with a word from a neighboring language. Kleinewillinghöfer regards this as a motivation for certain cases of borrowing from Jalaa into Dikaka.
Numerals
The numerals 1-6 in Jalaa are:
- ,
- ,
- ,
Above 5, the numerals are almost identical to Dikaka. The numerals 2 through 5 are almost identical with Tso, while "one" has no clear cognates.
See also
- Bung language
- Komta language