Northwest Gbaya
Native toCameroon, Central African Republic
Native speakers
(65,000 in Cameroon cited 1980)[1]
200,000 in CAR (1996), 2,000 in Congo (1993)
Dialects
  • Kàrà
  • Làì
  • (3rd variety)
Language codes
ISO 639-3gya
Glottolognort2775

Northwest Gbaya is a Gbaya language spoken across a broad expanse of Cameroon and the Central African Republic. The principal variety is Kara (Kàrà, Gbaya Kara), a name shared with several neighboring languages; Lay (Làì) is restricted to a small area north of Mbodomo, with a third between it and Toongo that is not named in Moñino (2010), but is influenced by the Gbaya languages to the south.

For male initiation rites, the Gbaya Kara use a language called La'bi.

Phonology

The following information is based on the 'Bodoe (Kàrà) and northern dialects:[2]

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-
velar		 Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ ŋ͡m
Plosive voiceless p t k k͡p ʔ
voiced b d ɡ ɡ͡b
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ ᵑᵐɡ͡b
implosive ɓ ɗ
Fricative voiceless f s h
voiced v z
Tap/Trill (ⱱ) r
Approximant l j w
  • The labio-dental flap /ⱱ/ appears only in ideophonic adverbs within word-initial or intervocalic position.[3]

Vowels

Oral vowels
Front Central Back
Close i iː u uː
Close-mid e eː o oː
Open-mid ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
Open a aː
  • /w/ can be heard as centralized [ẅ] when preceding front vowels /i, e, ɛ/.
Nasal vowels
Front Central Back
Close ĩ ĩː ũ ũː
Open-mid ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː
Open ã ãː
  • /w/ is heard as nasalized [w̃] when preceding nasal vowels.[3]

Writing system

Paulette Roulon-Doko uses a uses a phonetic transcription in her works on Northwest Gbaya. The nasal vowels are noted there with the tilde under the vowel letter ⟨a̰, ɛ̰, ḭ, ɔ̰, ṵ⟩.

Northwest Gbaya phonetic alphabet[4]
abɓdɗ eɛfggb hikkpl mmbnndng ngbɲŋnmp ɔprst uvʋwy zʔ

In Cameroon, an alphabet based on the General Alphabet of Cameroonian Languages is used, notably in the translation of the Bible into Gbaya published by the Alliance biblique du Cameroun. The nasal vowels are noted there with the cedilla under the vowel letter ⟨a̧, ɛ̧, i̧, ɔ̧, u̧⟩.

Northwest Gbaya alphabet (Cameroon)
abɓdɗ eɛfggb hikkpl mmbnndng ngbnyŋnmp ɔprst uvwyz ’

References

  1. ↑ Northwest Gbaya at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Roulon-Doko, Paulette (1997). Parlons Gbaya. Paris: L'Harmattan.
  3. 1 2 Moñino, Yves (1995). Gbaya du Nord (Kara, Yaayuwee). Le proto-Gbaya : essai de linguistique comparative historique sur vingt-et-une langes de'Afrique centrale: Paris : Peeters. p. 58.
  4. ↑ Roulon-Doko 2008, p. 9-10.

Works cited

  • Roulon-Doko, Paulette (2008). Dictionnaire gbaya-français. République centrafricaine, suivi d'un dictionnaire des noms propres et d'un index français-gbaya. Paris: Karthala. ISBN 978-2-84586-976-9.


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