The dozen Ngbaka languages are a family 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 in 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 ...
and neighboring areas. It includes
Pygmy
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 ...
languages such as
Baka and Gundi. The most populous Ngbaka languages are
Mbaka in the western branch, spoken by a quarter million people, and
Mayogo in the eastern branch, spoken by half that number.
Like the
Mba languages
The four Mba languages form a small family of Ubangian languages scattered across the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The languages are,
* Ma (A-Ma-Lo)
* Dongo
* Mba
* Ndunga
The most populous is Mba itself, with about 40,000 speake ...
, the Ngbaka languages are spoken across discontiguous areas scattered across various central African countries.
Languages
''
Glottolog'' 3.4, following Winkhart (2015),
[Winkhart, Benedikt. 2015. ''The reconstruction of Mundu-Baka''. Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin MA thesis.] gives the structure of the Baka-Mundu family as follows:
* Eastern
** Mayogo–Bangba:
Bangba,
Mayogo
**
Mündü
* Western
**
Baka (Baka–Ganzi, Gundi, Limassa, Ngombe)
**River Western
***
Mbaka / Bwaka (Ngbaka Ma'bo, Gilima)
***
Gbanzili (Gbanziri–Buraka)
***
Monzombo (Monzombo, Kpala–Yango)
The varieties listed for each may not be mutually intelligible.
References
External links
Ngbaka languages project at Ghent University
{{Niger-Congo branches
Ubangian languages