Kabba language explained

See also: Kaba language and Kaba languages.

Kaba
Nativename:	Kabba of Gore
States:	Central African Republic, Chad
Ethnicity:	Sara people
Speakers:	72,000 Kaba in CAR cited 1996, and 11,000 in Chad
Date:	1971
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Nilo-Saharan
Fam2:	Central Sudanic
Fam3:	Bongo–Bagirmi
Fam4:	Sara languages
Fam5:	West
Iso3:	ksp
Glotto:	kaba1281
Glottorefname:	Kaba

Kaba (Kabba), or Kabba of Goré, is a language of the Sara people in Central African Republic and Chad, with around 100,000 speakers.

There are several languages named Kaba, which is a local generic term approximately equivalent to Sara. Kaba of Gore is confusing classified as a Sara rather than as a Kaba language.

Kabba is a tonal language. There are three tones, High (H) Mid (M) and Low (L).

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	(ŋ)
Plosive		p	t		k	(ʔ)
		b	d		g
		ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
		ɓ	ɗ
Affricate			(ts)	tʃ
			(dz)	dʒ
			(ⁿdz)	ⁿdʒ
Fricative			s			(h)
Tap			ɾ
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		j

• The glottal stop [ʔ] is only heard in word-initial position, before vowels.
• /h/ occurs only in limited distribution.
• Sounds /t, d, ⁿd/ are heard in complimentary distribution with affricate sounds [ts, dz, ⁿdz] when in word initial position before /i/.
• /ɗ/ may have a retroflex [ɽ] or trill [r] allophone, when in intervocalic positions.
• /ɾ/ may also be heard as a retroflex [ɽ] in free variation.
• [ŋ] occurs as an allophone of /n/ when before a velar stop, or when at the end of root words or morphemes.^[1]

Vowels

Oral vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː	(ɨ)	u uː
Close-mid	e eː	ə	o oː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː
Open		a aː

• /ə/ is heard as [ɨ] when in CVCV open syllables.

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ĩ		ũ
Mid	ɛ̃	ə̃	ɔ̃
Open		ã

References

• The Sara-Bagirmi Language Project -- Kaba

Notes and References

1. Book: Moser, Rosmarie . Kabba: A Nilo-Saharan Language of the Central African Republic . München: Lincom . 2004.