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South Plateau languages

language family

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 7, 2025
Entity authorityQ7568236 ↗
Source-derived summary

The South Plateau languages, also known as Jilic–Eggonic, are spoken in central Nigeria. Eggon has 150,000 speakers and Jili (Lijili, Mijili) perhaps 100,000.

Classification

Jilic (Koro) and Eggonic are clearly valid groups. Their connection was proposed in Blench (2006, 2008).

Two additional languages, Koro Nulu (a.k.a. Koro Ija) and Koro Zuba (collectively known as "Ija-Zuba") are ethnically Koro. However, they have very low lexical similarity with each other (~ 7%), and Koro Zuba at least appears to be a Nupoid language.

Names and locations

Below is a list of language names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).

References

Blench (2008) Prospecting proto-Plateau. Manuscript.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “South Plateau languages” as language family. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around South, Plateau and languages.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2006, 2008, 2019—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with South, Plateau and languages providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “South Plateau languages”, the useful work is to connect “language family” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 7, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7568236. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2006, 2008 and 2019.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “South Plateau languages”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow South Plateau languages primary sources, South Plateau languages archive and South research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “South Plateau languages”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “South Plateau languages” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.