Background

Karai-Karai (also spelled Karekare, Kerrikerri) is spoken in West Africa, most prominently in northeastern Nigeria. It is a West Chadic language spoken mainly in Yobe State, particularly to the north and west of Potiskum, with additional speakers in Bauchi, Gombe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Jigawa, and Kano states. Native speakers call it Bòo Karai-karai, and it is closely related to the Bole and Ngamo languages spoken in the same area. The Karai-Karai people themselves use the autonyms Bakarkarai (male) and Bakarkariya (female).

Karai-Karai is considered an endangered language.

Contributors

The data in this dictionary was collected by Musaddam Idriss Musa, an independent researcher and language activist.

Data Sources

Data was collected through fieldwork interviews, audio recordings, and community consultations. In addition, this dictionary draws on the Karekare-English-Hausa Dictionary (2nd edition, 2009), produced by the Yobe Languages Research Project (UCLA Department of Linguistics), available at: https://aflang.humanities.ucla.edu/language-materials/chadic-languages/yobe/dictionaries-yobe-languages/

Audience and Use

This dictionary is intended for the Karai-Karai community, students, researchers, linguists, and language activists.

Contact

For questions about this project, please contact: [email protected]