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Tiv is a member of the Bantoid subgroup of Benue-Congo. (Webbook)
Ethnologue lists the classification as: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Tivoid
It is spoken in the eastern part of Nigeria, particularly in Benue State. (Webbook)
According to Ethnologue:
No thorough dialect survey has been carried out to our knowledge. Tiv is generally considered to represent one language with minor dialectal differences. (Webbook)
Tiv is a prominent local language. It is also used in initial primary education (Grimes 1996). (Webbook)
Used as a language of wider communication. ... Taught in primary schools (Ethnologue)
Tiv orthography is being revised and reviewed by a government commission. Presently, tone markings exist in Tiv only where words would be ambiguous. (Webbook) [needs update!]
It is Latin-based and apparently includes diacritic characters. [verify]]
"The pattern for a Tiv orthography and spelling-system was set up by [W.A.] Malherbe, a South African missionary, in his ''Tiv-English Dictionary with Grammar Notes..." This had some inconsistencies and errors. Two other missionaries, R.G. Armstrong and G. Terpstra made refinements. (Jockers 1991)
A sample text is shown on the "Language Museum" site: http://www.language-museum.com/t/tiv.htm (this is a section of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - verify! if this is correct orthography)
Some text (Book of Genesis) is provided on the Rosetta Project site: http://www.rosettaproject.org/archive/tiv/view?searchterm=Tiv
Unicode fonts with extended Latin ranges are probably necessary.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/tiv.htm
No localisation efforts known of.
Tiv Internet Project http://www.tivnation.com/
Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html (page on "Tiv," http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Tiv_root.html )
Jockers, Heinz (1991) "The Alphabetization of Tiv: A Case Study." In N. Cyffer et al, Language Standardization in Africa. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. Pp. 145-156.
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Tiv," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tiv
SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp
U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php
Wikipedia, "Tiv language," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiv_language
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