Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 3, 2026

Sha language

Sha, also spelled Sya, is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Plateau State and Kaduna State, Nigeria. As of 2018, the language is used for face-to-face communication and lacks a standardized written form. It is spoken by approximately 1,000 people and is considered sustainable.

Last revised
Jun 3, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
171 w
Citations
6
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Sha
Native toNigeria
RegionPlateau State
Native speakers
(3,000 cited 1998)1
Language codes
ISO 639-3scw
Glottologshaa1247
ELPSha

Sha,2 also spelled Sya,3 is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Plateau State and Kaduna State, Nigeria.1 As of 2018, the language is used for face-to-face communication and lacks a standardized written form. It is spoken by approximately 1,000 people and is considered sustainable.4

The primary area where Sha is spoken is in Sha District, Bokkos LGA, Plateau State. Mundat, a closely related language also belonging to the Chadic A.4 branch, is spoken in Mundat village within the same district.5

Notes

Notes

  1. Sha at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. "639 Identifier Documentation: scw". iso639-3.sil.org. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  3. "Sya language resources | Joshua Project". Joshua Project. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  4. "Sha". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  5. Blench, Roger M. 2003. Why reconstructing comparative Ron is so problematic Archived 2023-03-20 at the Wayback Machine. In Wolff, Ekkehard (ed.), Topics in Chadic linguistics: papers from the 1st biennial international colloquium on the Chadic language family (Leipzig, July 5-8, 2001), 21-42. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.