Northwest Gbaya language

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.

Northwest Gbaya
Native to	Cameroon, Central African Republic
Native speakers	(65,000 in Cameroon cited 1980) 200,000 in CAR (1996), 2,000 in Congo (1993)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Savannas Gbaya Western Northwest Gbaya
Dialects	Kàrà Làì (3rd variety)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gya
Glottolog	nort2775

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:

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.

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.

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

a

b

ɓ

d

ɗ

e

ɛ

f

g

gb

h

i

k

kp

l

m

mb

n

nd

ng

ngb

ɲ

ŋ

nm

p

ɔ

p

r

s

t

u

v

ʋ

w

y

z

ʔ

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)

a

b

ɓ

d

ɗ

e

ɛ

f

g

gb

h

i

k

kp

l

m

mb

n

nd

ng

ngb

ny

ŋ

nm

p

ɔ

p

r

s

t

u

v

w

y

z

’

References

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.