The Ubangian languages form a diverse
linkage
Linkage may refer to:
* ''Linkage'' (album), by J-pop singer Mami Kawada, released in 2010
*Linkage (graph theory), the maximum min-degree of any of its subgraphs
*Linkage (horse), an American Thoroughbred racehorse
* Linkage (hierarchical cluster ...
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 are also spoken in
Cameroon,
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
, the
DR 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 ...
, and
South Sudan.
External classification
Joseph Greenberg (1963) classified the then-little-known Ubangian languages as Niger–Congo and placed them within the
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 199 ...
as "Eastern Adamawa". They were soon removed to a separate branch of Niger–Congo, for example within Blench's
Savanna languages. However, this has become increasingly uncertain, and Dimmendaal (2008) states that, based on the lack of convincing evidence for a Niger–Congo classification ever being produced, Ubangian "probably constitutes an independent language family that cannot or can no longer be shown to be related to Niger–Congo (or any other family)." Blench (2012) includes Ubangian within Niger–Congo. Güldemann (2018) notes that although evidence for the inclusion of Ubangi within Niger-Congo is still weak, the same also applies to many other branches which are uncontested members of Niger-Congo.
Internal classification
Boyd and Moñino (2010) removed the
Gbaya and
Zande languages. The half dozen remaining branches are coherent, but their interrelationships are not straightforward. Williamson & Blench (2000) propose the following arrangement:
In addition there is the
Ngombe language
Ngombe, or ''Lingombe'', is a Bantu language spoken by about 150,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In general, native speakers live on either side of the Congo river, and its many tributaries; more specifically, Équateur Provi ...
, whose placement is uncertain due to a paucity of data.
Note: The ambiguous name ''Ngbaka'' is used for various languages in the area. Generally, singular
Ngbaka language
Ngbaka (''Ngbàkà'') is a Gbaya language spoken by just over a million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a regionally important language, used by the Gilima, Ngbundu, Mbandja and Mono peoples, and is taught in primary sc ...
refers to one of the main
Gbaya languages
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 ...
, whereas plural
Ngbaka languages
The dozen Ngbaka languages are a family of Ubangian languages spoken in the Central African Republic and neighboring areas. It includes Pygmy languages such as Baka and Gundi. The most populous Ngbaka languages are Mbaka in the western branch, ...
refers to a branch of Ubangian.
Güldemann (2018)
Güldemann (2018) recognises seven coherent "genealogical units" within Ubangian, but is agnostic about their positions within Niger–Congo.
*
Gbayaic
*
Zandic
*
Mbaic
*
Mundu-Baka
*
Ngbandic
*
Bandaic
*
Ndogoic
Comparative vocabulary
Sample basic vocabulary of Ubangian languages from Moñino (1988):
[Moñino, Yves. 1988. ''Lexique comparatif des langues oubanguiennes''. Paris: Geuthner.]
Numerals
Comparison of numerals in individual languages:
References
{{Authority control
Niger–Congo languages
Proposed language families
Unclassified languages of Africa