Baka (also called ''Be-bayaga, Be-bayaka,'' and ''Bibaya de L’est'') is a
dialect cluster
A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...
of
Ubangian languages 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 po ...
of
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
and
Gabon
Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...
. Ethnically, the people are closely related to the
Aka, collectively known as the
Mbenga (''Bambenga''). However, the languages are not related, apart from some vocabulary dealing with the forest economy, which suggests the Aka may have shifted to
Bantu, with an estimated 15,000 people having done so.
Geographic distribution
Baka is spoken in much of the southeastern forest zone of Cameroon, in:
*Eastern Region
**
Kadey department (
Ndélélé and
Mbang communes)
**
Haut-Nyong department (
Dimako,
Doumé,
Abong-Mbang,
Lomié, and
Ngoyla communes)
**
Boumba-et-Ngoko department (
Moloundou,
Yokadouma, and
Gari-Gombo communes)
*Southern Region
**
Dja-et-Lobo department (
Bengbis,
Meyomessala,
Sangmélima,
Djoum,
Oveng, and
Mintom communes)
The Baka live together with other ethnic groups that are generally located along the main roads. The Baka speak a language very close to that of the
Ngbaka Ma'bo of the
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central African Republic–Chad border, the north, Sudan to Central African Republic–Sudan border, the northeast, South Sudan to Central ...
, 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 Department who speak a Bantu language (
A80 subgroup). The Baka number 25,000 in Cameroon. They are also found in Gabon (Phillips 1980) and in the Central African Republic.
Classification
Approximately 30% of Baka's vocabulary is not
Ubangian. Much of this concerns a specialized 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 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.
Varieties
It is unclear if Gundi (Ngundi), Ganzi, and Massa (Limassa), are
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...
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
Orthography
Baka does not have a standard orthography, and there are many different ways to write it. The following is a 2009 recommendation which is supported by the . It is based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages
The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages is an orthography, orthographic system created in the late 1970s for all Languages of Cameroon, Cameroonian languages.Tadadjeu, Maurice and Etienne Sadembouo. 1979Alphabet Générale des Langues Camerounai ...
.
Tones are indicated by diacritics: the acute for high tone (á é ɛ́ í ó ɔ́ ú), and the grave for low tone (à è ɛ̀ ì ò ɔ̀ ù), middle tone is not indicated)
Brisson uses a noticeably different orthography in his dictionaries. He noticeably uses the glottal stop
The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...
(ʔ) instead of the apostrophe.[Brisson, 2010]
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
Pygmy languages
Languages of Cameroon
Languages of Gabon