| Baba | |
| Also Known As: | Papiak |
| Nativename: | Supapyak’ |
| Region: | Cameroon |
| Ethnicity: | Papiak |
| Date: | 2005 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam5: | Bantoid |
| Fam6: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam7: | Grassfields |
| Fam8: | Eastern Grassfields |
| Fam9: | Mbam-Nkam |
| Fam10: | Nun |
| Iso3: | bbw |
| Glotto: | baba1264 |
| Glottorefname: | Baba |
The Baba language, Supapyak’, is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
Baba has a (C)V(C) syllable structure, with syllabic nasals. The only phonemes that can occur in the final position are /p, m, ŋ, ʔ, r/ and /x/. There are no vowel-initial roots but they can form morphemes.[1]
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Trill | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
Between nasals and vowels, voiceless stops become voiced; a noticeable exception is /ɡ͡b/, which is its own separate phoneme. There are also some additional phonological processes that create the allophones of [r~d͡z], [l~d], [j~d͡ʒ], and [ɣ~g~w].
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ |
Vowels are also punctuated with contrastive high and low tones.