Baba language
The Baba language, Supapyak’, is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
| Baba | |
|---|---|
| Papiak | |
| Supapyak’ | |
| Region | Cameroon |
| Ethnicity | Papiak |
Native speakers | 25,000 (2005)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bbw |
| Glottolog | baba1264 |
Phonology
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.[2]
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | k͡p | ʔ | |
| voiced | ɡ͡b | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋ͡m | ||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | x | ||
| voiced | v | ɣ | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | |||||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ | |||||
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].[2]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open | a |
Vowels are also punctuated with contrastive high and low tones.[2]
References
- Baba at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Pepandze, Nashipu Julius (2008-06-01). "A generative account of consonant alternations in Baba 1". Studies in African Linguistics. 37 (1): 94–99. doi:10.32473/sal.v37i1.107300. ISSN 2154-428X.
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