"Ngizim men typically would have at least one Karekare wife, and Karekare seems to have been the preferred common language in such households, at least before Hausa became dominant. Ngizims—at least Ngizim men—all seemed to speak Karekare when I first went to Potiskum in 1969, whereas few Karekares spoke Ngizim. Children in such households would grow up with Ngizim as the dominant language, inasmuch as the head of the household was Ngizim, he probably had at least one Ngizim wife, and the household was probably in a predominantly Ngizim village or neighborhood. These children, especially those with Karekare mothers, would be competent speakers of Karekare as well. The result would be children speaking Karekare but code-switching with Ngizim, the dominant language of the household and the neighborhood, much like speakers of Yobe language code- switch with Hausa today."