Northwest Gbaya is a
Gbaya language
The Gbaya languages, also known as Gbaya–Manza–Ngbaka, are a family of perhaps a dozen languages spoken mainly in the western Central African Republic and across the border in Cameroon, with one language (Ngbaka) in the Democratic Republic o ...
spoken across a broad expanse of Cameroon and the Central African Republic. The principal variety is Kara (Kà rà , Gbaya Kara), a name shared with
several neighboring languages; Lay (Là ì) 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 (Kà rà ) and northern dialects:
Consonants
* The labio-dental flap /â±±/ appears only in ideophonic adverbs within word-initial or intervocalic position.
Vowels
* /w/ can be heard as centralized
º…when preceding front vowels /i, e, É›/.
* /w/ is heard as nasalized
̃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 .
In Cameroon, an alphabet based on the
General Alphabet of Cameroonian Languages The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Cameroonian languages. Consonant and vowel letters are not to contain diacritics, though is a temporary exception. The alphabet is not used suf ...
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 .
References
Gbaya languages
Languages of Cameroon
Languages of the Central African Republic
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