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 The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

and across the border in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, with one language (Ngbaka) in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, with a few small languages in the Republic of the Congo. Many of the languages go by the ethnic name '' Gbaya,'' though the largest, with over a million speakers, is called Ngbaka, a name shared with the Ngbaka languages of the

Ubangian The Ubangian languages form a diverse linkage of some seventy languages centered on the Central African Republic. They are the predominant languages of the CAR, spoken by 2–3 million people, and include the national language, Sango. They ar ...

family.

History

Moñino (1995:22) proposes that the Proto-Gbaya homeland was located in an area around

Carnot, Central African Republic Carnot is a city located in the south west of the Central African Republic (CAR), in the prefecture of Mambéré-Kadéï. It has a population of 54,551 (2012 census), making it the fourth largest city in CAR by population, and the second largest ...

Classification

The Gbaya languages are traditionally classified as part of the

family. Moñino (2010), followed by Blench (2012), propose that they may instead be most closely related to the Central Gur languages, or perhaps constitute an independent branch of Niger–Congo, but that they do not form a group with Ubangian. Connections with Bantu are mostly limited to cultural vocabulary, and several Central Sudanic words suggest that the proto-Gbaya were hunter-gatherers who acquired agriculture from the

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.Moñino (2010)
The position of Gbaya-Manza-Ngbaka group among the Niger-Congo languages
Proto-Gbaya vocabulary shared with

Adamawa languages The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80–90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in central Africa, in Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Chad, spoken altogether by only one and a half million people (as of 19 ...

includes millet farming vocabulary, as well as terms for the

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

guineafowl Guineafowl (; sometimes called "pet speckled hens" or "original fowl") are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched ...

, ''

Parkia biglobosa ''Parkia biglobosa'', known in English as the African locust bean, is a perennial deciduous tree in the family Fabaceae. It is found in a wide range of environments in Africa and is primarily grown for its pods that contain both a sweet pulp and ...

'', ''

Khaya senegalensis ''Khaya senegalensis'' is a species of tree in the Meliaceae family that is native to Africa. Common names include African mahogany, dry zone mahogany, Gambia mahogany, khaya wood, Senegal mahogany, ''cailcedrat'', ''acajou'', ''djalla'', and '' ...

'', and ''

Ceiba pentandra ''Ceiba pentandra'' is a tropical tree of the order Malvales and the family Malvaceae (previously emplaced in the family Bombacaceae), native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, northern South America, and (as the variety ''C. pentandr ...

'', which are indicative of a

language continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

native to a savanna environment.Kleinewillinghöfer, Ulrich (2018). The northern fringe of the Jos Plateau, a prehistorical contact zone of Benue-Plateau and Adamawa-Gur languages: The evidence of the cultural vocabulary. Kramer & Kießling (eds.) ''Current approaches to Adamawa and Fur languages'', Cologne 20l8, 193-225.

Languages

Moñino (2010) reconstructed proto-Gbaya and proposes the following family tree: Several of these varieties may be mutually intelligible, such as Ngbaka, Ngbaka Manza, and Manza. There are one or two other small Gbaya languages scattered in Congo and along the Cameroon border, such as Bonjo.

References

External links

Proto-Gbaya Swadesh list
(Moñino 1995) {{Authority control Languages of the Central African Republic Languages of Cameroon Niger–Congo languages

History

Classification

Languages

See also

References

External links