The Tarok people also called oTárók, their language iTárók and their property ìTàrók. They are found essentially in Langtang-North, Langtang-South, Wase, Mikang and Kanke Neighborhood Government Regions (LGAs) of Level State in Focal Nigeria. Their fundamental town of Langtang is situated around 186 kilometers south-east of Jos, the state capital. They are additionally found in huge numbers in Shendam, Kanam, Pankshin LGAs and some piece of Tafawa Balewa LGA of Bauchi express the Sur (Tapshin). Dissipated in Nasarawa and Taraba states are Tarok cultivating networks. The people have been portrayed somewhat in anthropological and ethnographical works by Fitzpatrick (1910), Roger Flinch, Lamle (1995), Famwang and Longtau (1997). The oTárók is a mixture of different peoples who currently structure a pretty much ‘homogeneous’ gathering. The constituents were of Pe, Ngas, Jukun, Boghom, Tel (Montol) and presumably Tal starting points, while others stay dark or obscure. The way of life at a miniature level depicts this admixture of peoples of the Tarok country. The concentration here is a portrayal of their language.
Language
Different names have been utilized for Tarok as Appa, Yergam and its variations of Yergum and Yergem. The name Tarok itself has been wrongly spelt by some as Taroh. The name Appa then again is utilized by the Jukun to allude to oTarok as a fellowship term. These new experiences are highlighting a decision that Tarok was a moniker given to the Tal/Ngas settlers. The name of the first gathering is lost and has been supplanted by the moniker. The term Pe-Tarok alludes to the people who initially talked the first type of the language called Tarok today the crisscross in any case. The starting points of the peoples might be a knotty theme, yet obviously Proto-Tarok is the parent of the language which is known as Tarok today (whatever may have been their unique name).
Tarok in a sea of Chadic languages
Longtau depicted Tarok as one of the Benue–Congo dialects which is totally lowered in an ocean of Chadic dialects. These dialects incorporate Ngas, Tel, Boghom, Hausa/Fulfulde and Yiwom. Its non-Chadic neighbors are Pe, Jukun-Wase and Yangkam. Tarok has spread extensively in the 20th century and it presently borders Wapan in the south-east. The Chadic dialects have a place with an alternate language family called Afroasiatic. Longtau clarified that Tarok had gotten comfortable their current dwelling place sometime before the eastern and toward the south developments of Boghom and Ngas individually.
Tarok History
Nankap Elias Lamle (2001) an anthropologist addressing at the College of Jos in Nigeria expressed that in the mid-20th century people from other ethnic gatherings, for example, Tal, Ngas, Jukun, Tel (Montol/Dwal) and Yiwom (Gerkawa) relocated and settled along with the underlying Timwat and Funyallang families. People from these ethnic gatherings came as transients work laborers. The Timwat and Funyallang people gave them land to get comfortable Tarokland after they have served the previous. Expansionism and Christianity came into Tarokland by 1904 (Lamle 1995). The underlying occupants couldn’t believe the preachers and colonialists as such didn’t urge their people to go along with them. with the presentation of innovation, the later travelers to Tarokland utilized their associations with the teachers and colonialists to obtain western schooling and join the military. Today these last transients oversee issues in Nigeria as such attempts to utilize their impact to change history (cf. Lamle 2005).
Besides, Lamle declared that the system of Tarok movement underpins the statement above and depends on the way that the Tarok language is important for the Benue–Congo language family. In any case, different peoples of the Chadic language family, for example, the Ngas, Boghom, Tel (Montol) and Yiwom, moved to the Benue–Congo family and are given full status as Tarok (Lamle 1998). Likewise, the Jukun, who communicate in dialects of the Benue–Congo family, joined the Tarok. What is known as the Tarok people are really a combination of numerous ethno-semantic gatherings (Lamle 2008).
Tarok Culture
The Tarok people have a familial clique which holds significant notoriety and significance, notwithstanding significant advances of Christianity into the zone. The precursors, orìm, are addressed by started guys and post-menopausal ladies. Faction exercises occur in hallowed forests outside practically all Tarok settlements. Orìm are generally heard, yet arise as concealed figures under certain conditions, particularly for the restraining of ‘difficult’ ladies and for making predictions. Orìm figures talk through voice disguisers in a language spotted with code words albeit outlined in ordinary Tarok punctuation and their expressions are deciphered by exposed figures.
Each Tarok settlement of any size has a sacrosanct forest external it, which is rationed as the spot of the orim or predecessors. The structure, ùrìm, is applied to a dead individual or a progenitor, while orìm alludes to the aggregate predecessors and the actual religion. Men over a particular age are permitted to enter the woods and draw in with the precursors. These possess the place where there is the dead and are hence in contact with every one of the individuals who have passed on, including youngsters and kids who were not admitted to the orìm. On specific evenings when the ‘orìm are out’, ladies and youngsters should remain in their homes. Orim can likewise be seen ‘dressed’, for example showing up as masquerades, when they draw in with ladies through a mediator. Shockingly, most Tarok are Christian and Langtang has some enormous places of worship, however the relationship of the orìm with power guarantees that these two frameworks keep on coinciding. Surely, it is said that the orìm take care to visit the places of the resigned commanders and other persuasive figures around evening time to solidify the connections between two altogether different kinds of force. Orìm society is reviewed, as in there are individuals who are not completely started thus can’t be allowed into the internal privileged insights of the general public. A portion of the orìm jargon is subsequently for inside covering, that is, there are code-words among the senior individuals to disguise the significance of what is being said from junior individuals.
The primary capacity of the orim from the outside perspective is to keep everything under control, both otherworldly and real, inside the general public yet additionally to get ready for fighting and other aggregate activity. By and by, keeping everything under control is by all accounts about training ladies, who are compelled to prepare food as a discipline for being sluggish or ‘obstinate’. This class of orìm is called orìm aga., in a real sense ‘disguise that gives inconvenience’ and its forte is to fine ladies. There is an uncommon season, aga. ‘difficult situation’, for allotting fines to guilty parties. The orìm are likewise in contact with the dead and it is accepted that the spirits of dead youngsters need to be taken care of; thus, they will demand unique suppers from the mother of such kids. Orìm likewise have a marriage-broking capacity; for instance, young ladies tell the orìm the name of the youngster they might want to wed, and they discover methods of passing on the message.
Source: Wikipedia
