| Mbaka | |
| Nativename: | Ngbaka Ma'bo |
| States: | CAR, Republic of Congo |
| Ethnicity: | M'Baka |
| Date: | 1984–2000 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Sere–Mba |
| Fam3: | Ngbaka |
| Fam4: | Western |
| Lc1: | nbm |
| Ld1: | Ngbaka Ma’bo |
| Lc2: | gix |
| Ld2: | Gilima |
| Glotto: | bwak1244 |
| Glottorefname: | Bwaka |
The Mbaka or Bwaka language, Ngbaka Ma'bo (also called Gbaka, Ma'bo, Ngbwaka, Ngbaka Limba) is a major Ubangian language spoken by the Mbaka people of CAR and Congo.
It's not clear how distinct the Gilima variety is, or whether it should be considered a separate language. It does have its own ISO 639-3 code.
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | k | k͡p | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡ͡b | ||||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᵑᵐɡ͡b | ||||
| implosive | ɓ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | ||||
| voiced | v | z | ||||||
| prenasal | ⁿz | |||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i (ĩ) | u (ũ) | ||
| Close-mid | e ẽ | o õ | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Open | a ã |