Laka or Lau is a Central Sudanic language spoken in Nigeria. It is most closely related to Kabba Laka of Chad. The Hausa refer to the Laka people of Lau as . The language was only recently documented in the mid-2010s, and had been previously misclassified as a Mbum language along with Lau.
Distribution Laka speakers live in Laka ward of Lau LGA (Hausa: ; formerly 'Laka town'), Taraba State, eastern Nigeria.Idiatov, Dmitry, Mark Van de Velde, Tope Olagunju and Bitrus Andrew. 2017. Results of the first AdaGram survey in Adamawa and Taraba States, Nigeria. 47th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL) (Leiden, Netherlands). They live alongside the Win Lau (or Lau proper; formerly Lau Habe), who are Jukunoid speakers.
Lexical comparison The following table compares Laka (Lau) and Laka (Chad), both of which are Central Sudanic languages, with Lau proper, a Jukunoid language.
English Laka (Lau) Laka (Chad) Lau proper animal cow chicken man medicine
References