Outlier stock and Northern Nigeria’s convergence zones

We undertake a two-step inquiry relative to Northern Nigeria’s convergence zones. Initially we compare West Benue Congo’s Edoid language Emai to linguistic features assigned these zones. This provides an affinity quotient for Emai relative to each zone: 75% for the Macro-Sudan Belt (MSB) and 55% for the Wider Lake Chad Region (WLCR). We then assess Emai sentential coordination and noun class prefixing. Coordination reveals cognates for adversative àmma ‘but’ and disjunctive ráà/láà ‘or,’ both found among Northern Nigeria’s majority languages and sourced from Arabic. Cognates occur not only in Northern Nigeria but also among the Emai, today a forest zone agricultural clan. In addition, remnant noun class prefixing in Emai privileges herding over farming. It thus favors a pastoral past. Combined, coordination and noun prefix data suggest a wave-like migration of Edoid peoples into the rainforest and the opportunity for extended interaction of the Emai with WLCR and MSB populations. We suggest therefore that investigation of contemporary outlier languages like Emai might further clarify areal influence and contact within Northern Nigeria.