Ra Ra Rasputin

life in soft color.

[Mai & Global Consulting Partners @MaiandGCP]

This is actually a brilliant observation that deserves a proper answer. You are not wrong about what you are seeing. But what you are describing is exactly how languages disappear without anyone noticing.

Adamawa alone has over 40 documented languages. Bura, Vere, Chamba, Gaanda, Lala, Bacchama, Bata, Marghi and more and no they are not variations as you pointed out.

But most of them are slowly being swallowed by Hausa and Fulani because those are the languages of trade, mobility and survival.

So yes, your Borno security guard speaks Shuwa Arabic and your Sokoto okada man speaks Hausa and they understand each other perfectly. That does not mean only one language exists. It means one language won the economic argument. This is what linguists call language assimilation. The dominant language does not erase the others overnight. It just makes them less useful for daily survival until the younger generation stops learning them entirely.

Now here are the facts. Ethnologue, which is the world's most authoritative database on languages, currently documents 520 living indigenous languages in Nigeria alone. Not dialects. Languages. Nigeria has also already lost 12 indigenous languages or more to extinction. Gone forever.

The Middle Belt is where this becomes undeniable. Plateau State alone has over 50 distinct languages. Keyword "Dinstinct".

Benue has Tiv, Idoma, Igede and more. Taraba has communities that cannot understand their neighbours two villages away without a translator. Your Yoruba example actually proves the point perfectly. The fact that a Yoruba person can move across the Southwest and be understood is evidence of one dominant language absorbing regional variations over centuries. That process happened. It is still happening everywhere else in Nigeria right now.

Now I am willing to bet you have never heard of Hyam, Ngas, Mwaghavul, Berom, Amo, Buji, Sura, Anaguta, or Irigwe from Plateau State. Or Kilba, Huba, Bura-Pabir, and Chibok from Borno. Or Mumuye, Jenjo, Yukuben, and Wurkum from Taraba. Or Tur, Nyandang, Kugama and Taram further into the riverine communities nobody talks about. Or what about Igala, Ebira, Bassange, Bassa-Nge, Kakanda and Oworo from Kogi alone. I have not even touched Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo, or Nasarawa yet. You want to know exactly where each of these is spoken? You will have to tour Nigeria for that. And I promise you, this country will humble you in ways no map ever could. The 500 languages are not cap. Most of them are just quietly dying (Bura has an estimated 11,000 speakers with most young Bura people now not able to speak the language) while we debate whether they exist. And that is the real conversation Nigeria should be having.

[✮ راينر براون @dondawastaken]

What fascinates me about academic writing is that, no matter your major, Zhang et al. has probably already thought of it and written a paper on it.

[Del @TheCartelDel]

😭😭😭😭 This is getting ridiculous

[Del @TheCartelDel]

I am DYING of laughter. How can Michael Jackson be so famous that every celebrity has the exact same response to his call???? 😂😂😭😭

[Ra Ra Rasputin @MinisterCairo]

I love this scene sm

[IG: RealFamilyConcrete 🩸Crete Samuels @RealFamilyCrete]

Tina Turner in the back covering her ears 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[SHINE✨ @BrownScorpio__]

Nothing feels heavier than regretting your vulnerability when the "safe place" wasn't safe at all.

[Match of the Day @BBCMOTD]

It's been 114 years... 😳⬇️

Chelsea have lost five league games in a row without scoring for the first time since 1912 - the year the Titanic sank.

[Reagan Gomez @ReaganGomez]

He’s so good at this.

[Amber Dhar @AmberDhar]

@NizaarKinsella First kind of wingers in PL without the ability to take on defenders (Neto & Garnacho). They are like robots. Only there to pass. Even Tyrique George was better. But hey we needed that pure profit. What a bad team. Then next year more teenagers are joining.

[Nizaar Kinsella @NizaarKinsella]

Delap is 20 games without a goal in all competitions, Garnacho has not scored in the Premier League since October. Pedro Neto is without a goal in nine matches across all competitions, Cole Palmer has now gone seven games without scoring.

[NoteS. @NoteSphere]

Photographed by Shamaal.

[Joey @JoeyCheerio]

random drug test at work today and the chill guy tested positive for PCP

[barrel server @ ylfa’s bottleneck 🪓 @mouseabolition]

we’re about to see acting like it’s never been acted before oh my

[Ramin Nasibov @RaminNasibov]

I used Nero to burn CDs as a kid and only later got the joke: Nero burned Rome, and "Burning ROM" is such a perfect reference.

[Zorvique @Zorvique]

@PopBase Grandma just exposed how culture wars are elite distractions while workers want their tips untaxed

[lorah @lorahmoe]

Hopefully this isn’t controversial, but if I’m paying for a streaming service, there shouldn’t be ads period. Not on Disney+, Amazon, Hulu, none of it.
Ads belong on free versions of these platforms. If advertisers are already paying to run their ads, why am I also paying to watch them?

[Ra Ra Rasputin @MinisterCairo]

@grok where could eventually AI fall on a list of humanity's biggest upgrades?

[Ra Ra Rasputin @MinisterCairo]

Man as a species we really took a step backwards when we somehow decided using the em dash was proof of Chatgpt.

[Ichigo Niggasake @SomaKazima2]

Bitch who tf is Maurice