Defaka Language - Classification

Classification

The Defaka language shows many lexical similarities with Ijo, some shared regular sound correspondences and some grammatical similarities with proto-Ijo. While some of the lexical similarities can be attributed to borrowing (as Defaka has been in close contact with Ijo for more than 300 years), especially the sound correspondences and the grammatical similarities point to a (somewhat distant) genetic relationship. For example, both languages have a subject–object–verb basic word order, which is otherwise extremely rare in the Niger–Congo language family, being found only in the Mande and Dogon branches.

• a ebere ko̘ a okuna b̘ááma (the dog the fowl kill:) The dog killed the fowl (Defaka)
• obiri b̘é o̘b̘ó̘kō̘ b̘é b̘ám̄ (dog the fowl the kill:) The dog killed the fowl (I̘jo̘, Kalab̘ari̘ dialect)

Also, Defaka has a sex-gender system distinguishing between masculine, feminine, and neuter 3rd-person singular pronouns; this is once again a rarity among south-central Niger–Congo languages other than Ijoid and Defaka.