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Eggon (also Egon, Ero, Mo Egon, Hill Mada, or Mada Eggon) is one of the Benue–Congo languages spoken in Nigeria. The Eggon language is spoken by a large number of people in Nassarawa State in Central Nigeria. It is a major language in Nasarawa State. These represent the modern Local Government Areas of Akwanga, Lafia and Nassarawa-Eggon. The main towns of the Eggon people are Nassarawa-Eggon, Kagbu, Washo, and Wana. They stretch as far south as Lafia and west of Akwanga as far as the railway line. They are bordered on the north by the Mada and to the south by the Migili and the Doma In much of the colonial literature, the Eggon were known as the 'Hill Mada' in contrast to the 'Plains Mada', the people known as Mada today. The Eggon lived in the Mada hills south of Akwanga in the pre-colonial period, but there is no connection between the groups that would justify these terms and they have now been discarded. The exact number of speakers is unknown but it is unlikely to be less than the estimate of 200,000 given by Sibomana (1985). Ames (1934) gave a figure of 41,276 for the 1920s, but this is likely to have been substantially underestimated. Welmers (1971) estimated 52,000 although this may have been only a projection from Ames. Very little has been written about Eggon society and Temple (1922) and Ames (1934) are the only sources that contain any descriptions of Eggon social organisation. ==Dialects== Eggon is conventionally divided into twenty-five mutually comprehensible dialects, some of which are; Eggon Wangibi, Ikka, Wana, Washo, Wakama, Ogne, Angbashu, Alushi, Alogani, Eva, Nabe, Lizzi, Ezzen, Arikpa, e.t.c. The only author to discuss dialects is Sibomana (1985) whose discussion focuses on Kagbu, which he states is the main dialect. He also cites data from the Nassarawa-Eggon dialect. The Benue–Congo Comparative Wordlist (1969, 1972) also gives data from two dialects. A twenty-sixth variety is Madan-tara, spoken by a group of Eggon east of Nassarawa-Eggon. It is said to be impossible to understand without special learning and is sufficiently different from other lects to be effectively a new language. Its precise relationship to the other varieties of Eggon is unknown. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eggon language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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