Baka (also called ''Be-bayaga, Be-bayaka,'' and ''Bibaya de L’est'') is a dialect cluster of

Ubangian languages 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 are ...

spoken by the Baka

Pygmies In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...

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 ...

and

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

. The people are ethnically close to the Aka, the two together called the Mbenga (''Bambenga''), but the languages are not related, apart from some vocabulary dealing with the forest economy, which suggests the Aka may have shifted to

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

, probably 15000 people have shifted.

Classification

Some 30% of Baka vocabulary is not

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 ...

. Much of this concerns a specialised forest economy, such as words for edible plants, medicinal plants, and honey collecting, and has been posited as the remnant of an ancestral

Pygmy language The Congo Pygmies (African Pygmies) are those "forest people" who have, or recently had, a hunter-gatherer economy and a simple, non-hierarchical societal structure based on bands, are of short stature,Generally speaking; those who are not parti ...

which has otherwise vanished. However, apart from some words shared with the Aka, there is no evidence for a wider linguistic affiliation with any of the other Pygmy peoples.

Distribution

Baka is spoken much of the southeastern forest zone of Cameroon, in: *Eastern Region **

Kadey Kadey (also spelled Kadéï, Kadéi, Kadeï or Kadei) is a department of East Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 15,884 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 192,927. The capital of the department lies at Batouri. Su ...

department ( Ndélélé and Mbang communes) **

Haut-Nyong Haut-Nyong is a department of East Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 36,384 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 216,768. The capital of the department lies at Abong-Mbang. Subdivisions The department is divide ...

department ( Dimako, Doumé, Abong-Mbang,

Lomié Lomié is a town in the Lomié District in the Upper Nyong division of the East Province of Cameroon. An article in the ''Mail & Guardian Online'' describes it as having "no telephone connection to the outside world, and a single access road that ...

, and Ngoyla communes) **

Boumba-et-Ngoko Boumba-et-Ngoko is a department of East Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 30,389 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 116,702. The capital of the department lies at Yokadouma. Subdivisions The department is div ...

department (

Moloundou Moloundou is an ''arrondissement'' (district) in the Boumba-et-Ngoko Division of southeastern Cameroon's East Province. Mouloundou is close to Boumba Bek and Nki National Parks on the Dja River. It has a mayor and several decentralised admini ...

Yokadouma Yokadouma is a town and Catholic bishopric in eastern Cameroon, lying near the border with the Central African Republic. It was an early French administrative centre. During the colonial period, Yokadouma was the centre for a widespread but ill-f ...

, and Gari-Gombo communes) *Southern Region ** Dja-et-Lobo department ( Bengbis, Meyomessala, Sangmélima,

Djoum Djoum is a town in South Province, Cameroon, South Province, Cameroon. History The first inhabitants of modern-day Djoum were the Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon), Baka peoples. The rural municipality was formed in 1952. The town was later div ...

, Oveng, and Mintom communes) The Baka live together with other ethnic groups who are mainly located along the main roads. The Baka speak a language very close to that of the Ngbaka Ma'bo of the Central African Republic, which clearly indicates that the Baka of Cameroon had recently arrived from an area much further to the east. In Cameroon, they are referred to as Eastern Pygmies, as opposed to the Bagyali, Pygmy groups from

Océan Océan is a department of South Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 11,280 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 133,062. The capital of the department lies at Kribi. Subdivisions The department is divided adminis ...

Department who speak a Bantu language ( A80 subgroup). They number 25,000 in Cameroon. They are also found in Gabon (Phillips 1980) and in the Central African Republic.

Varieties

It is unclear if Gundi (Ngundi), Ganzi and Massa (Limassa), are mutually intelligible with Baka proper. Most Massa have shifted to Gundi, which is spoken by 9,000 people. The Ngombe tribe speaks Gundi. It may have been confused in the literature with the Ngombe population speaking the Bangandu language.

Phonology

Consonants

/d͡z/ can also be heard as post-alveolar ͡ʒ among different dialects.

Vowels

References

External links

Baka Pygmies
Culture and photos, with soundscapes of Baka camps in the rainforest
Baka Forest People
Information, videos, music and photos of the Baka from Moloundou region of Cameroon.
Baka: A Highly Endangered Language of Northern Cameroun
Baka information and word list *ELAR collection
A documentation of the remnant Baka-Gundi language Limassa
deposited by Benedikt Winkhart {{Authority control Ngbaka languages African Pygmies Languages of Cameroon Languages of Gabon