Ngbaka Minagende language explained

Ngbaka
Also Known As:	Ngbaka Minagende
Nativename:	Ngbaka Gbaya
States:	Democratic Republic of Congo
Speakers:	million
Date:	2000
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Niger-Congo
Fam2:	Atlantic–Congo
Fam3:	Savannas
Fam4:	Gbaya
Fam5:	Eastern
Fam6:	Gbanu–Ngbaka
Iso3:	nga
Glotto:	ngba1285
Glottorefname:	Ngbaka Minagende

Ngbaka (Ngbàkà) is a Gbaya language spoken by just over a million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a regionally important language, used by the Gilima, Ngbundu, Mbandja and Mono peoples, and is taught in primary schools; 10% are literate in Ngbaka.

Ngbaka is a common local ethnic name; the language may be distinguished from other languages called "Ngbaka" as Ngbaka Gbaya or Ngbaka Minagende.

There are no significant dialectal differences within Ngbaka, and it may be mutually intelligible with members of the Manza dialect cluster.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋ͡m
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k		ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Implosive	voiced	ɓ	ɗ			ɠ͡ɓ
	voiceless					ɠ̊͡ɓ̥
	prenasal					ᵑᵐɠ͡ɓ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s				h
	voiced	v	z
	prenasal		ⁿz
Trill			(r)
Tap		ⱱ	ɺ
Approximant			l	j		w

• The trill /r/ mainly occurs in ideophones, in both initial and final position. When it occurs in loanwords, it is often pronounced as a lateral [l].
• The glottal stop /ʔ/ mostly occurs before word-initial vowels.
• Sounds /ŋ͡m, ʔ, h, w/, do not appear in intervocalic position.
• /ŋ/ does not appear in word-initial position
• The fricative /f/ can be pronounced in the western dialects as a voiceless stop [p].
• The voiceless stop /k/ can be pronounced as a voiced stop [ɡ] in the western dialects.^[1]

Vowels

	Oral vowels			Nasal vowels
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː	ĩ		ũ
Close-mid	e eː		o oː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː	ɛ̃		ɔ̃
Open		a aː			ã

Writing system

Alphabet ngbaka

Uppercase
				ʼD					Gb					L					O					V		Z
Lowercase
a	b	ʼb	d	ʼd	e	ɛ	f	g	gb	h	i	k	kp	l	m	n	ng	ngg	o	ɔ	s	t	u	v	w	z

Nasalisation is indicated with a tilde on the vowel : .

The tones of the syllables are shown with diacritics to prevent ambiguity :

• the high tone is indicated with the acute accent :  ;
• the low tone is indicated with the grave accent  :  ;
• the following tones are not usually indicated in the spelling but may be indicated in some linguistic works :
  • the medium tone with the vertical line above :  ;
  • the falling tone with the circumflex accent :  ;
  • the rising tone with the caron/hacek : .

External links

• Ngbaka at Ghent University

Notes and References

1. Book: Henrix, Marcel. Description grammaticale de la langue ngbaka: phonologie, tonologie et morphosyntaxe. van den Eynde. Karel. Meeuwis. Michael. München: Lincom Europa. 2007.