Gbanu (''Gbànù'', Banu, Gbanou) is a Gbaya language of the

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 ...

. The people do not consider themselves to be ethnically Gbaya.

Phonology

Gbanu has 14 vowels, oral and nasal . Syllables may be maximally CVN, where N is or . There are four tones on CV syllables, high, low, rising, and falling. Words have six tone patterns, those four plus dipping (falling–rising) and peaking (rising–falling).

Vowels

Tones

Consonants

Intervocallically, the only voicing distinction that is maintained is ; otherwise only voiceless oral stops and fricatives occur between vowels. Nasal consonants lightly nasalize surrounding vowels, and nasal vowels, including those triggered by nasal consonants, nasalize the glottalized consonants. The approximants do not occur with nasal vowels, and so may not be phonemic; may be posited as the underlying phonemes.

References

*Yves Moñino, 1995. "Phonologie de Gbanu". In ''Le Proto-Gbaya''. Peeters, Paris Gbaya languages Languages of the Central African Republic Languages of Cameroon {{gbaya-lang-stub