| Buwal | |
| Nativename: | Gadala |
| States: | Cameroon |
| Region: | Far North Province |
| Speakers: | 10,000 |
| Date: | 2004 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Chadic |
| Fam3: | Biu–Mandara |
| Fam4: | Daba (A.7) |
| Fam5: | North |
| Iso3: | bhs |
| Glotto: | buwa1243 |
| Glottorefname: | Buwal |
Buwal, also known as Ma Buwal, Bual, or Gadala, is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Cameroon in Far North Province in and around Gadala.
| Labial | Alveolar | Lateral alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labialized velar | Labial-velar | ||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Voiced plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Prenasalized plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Implosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Voiceless affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Voiced affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Prenasalized affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Voiceless fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Voiced fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Flap | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
The labiodental flap pronounced as //ⱱ// is marginal, only occurring in two native Buwal words. The labial-velar plosives are also marginal; in particular, pronounced as //kp// only occurs in one word, the ideophone kpaŋ.
Buwal has the vowels pronounced as //pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink///, which can occur in high, middle, or low tone. Each vowel has a variety of phonetic realizations. pronounced as //ə// can occur as pronounced as /[{{IPAlink|i}} {{IPAlink|u}} {{IPAlink|ɪ}} {{IPAlink|ʏ}} {{IPAlink|ʊ}}]/, and pronounced as //a// can occur as pronounced as /[{{IPAlink|e}} {{IPAlink|o}} {{IPAlink|ɛ}} {{IPAlink|œ}} {{IPAlink|ɐ}} {{IPAlink|ɔ}}]/. The schwa can be analyzed as a solely epenthetic vowel. These vowels occur as rounded allophones when adjacent to a labialized consonant, and as front vowels when the word is palatalized.
Palatalization in Buwal occurs across an entire word, and also affects the affricate consonants pronounced as //ts dz ⁿdz//, which surface as pronounced as /[{{IPAlink|tʃ}} {{IPAlink|dʒ}} {{IPAlink|ⁿdʒ}}]/ in a palatalized word. As a result, all of the vowels within a single word are either front or back, producing vowel harmony. An example of this contrast is between pronounced as /[mɐ̄ⁿdʊ́wɐ́n]/ 'rat' (underlyingly pronounced as //māⁿdwán//), which is non-palatalized, and pronounced as /[mɛ̀vɛ̄ɗvɛ̄ɗɛ̄ŋ]/ (underlyingly pronounced as //màvāɗvāɗāŋ//) 'turtle', which is palatalized. This process does not affect loanwords, e.g. pronounced as /[nɛ̀bɐ̄m]/ 'oil' (from Fulfulde nebbam) or pronounced as /[lɛ̀kʷól]/ 'school' (from French French: l'école). Some loanwords have been modified to accommodate Buwal phonology, e.g. pronounced as /[sɐ́j]/ 'tea', from Fulfulde sha'i.[1]