Mpade language

Mpadə is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon and southwestern Chad. Dialects are Bodo, Biamo, Digam, Mpade (Makari), Shoe (Shewe), and Woulki.[2]

Mpadə
Native toCameroon, Chad
RegionFar North Province, Cameroon; west Chad
Native speakers
16,000 in Cameroon (2004)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3mpi
Glottologmpad1242  Mpade
ngal1301  Ngala

The language is sometimes known as Makari, after one of the towns where it is spoken. Ngala further west (as described by Barth) once spoke a dialect similar to Makari, but it was moribund by the 1920s, the people having shifted to Kanuri.

Distribution

In Cameroon, Mpade is spoken throughout the northern end of the Logone-et-Chari department (Far North Region), adjacent to Lake Chad and centered on Makari (the northern part of Makari arrondissement as well as in Fotokol and Hilé Alifa arrondissements, and the northern part of Goulfey arrondissement). It is also spoken in Chad and Nigeria, it has a total population of 12,000 speakers (SIL 2000).[3]

Phonology

Consonants

Mpade has the following consonants.[4]

Labial Coronal Palatal Velar Glottal
Plain Labialized
Stops and
affricates		 Voiceless pttʃkkʷ
Voiced bddʒɡɡʷ
Ejective tsʼtʃʼkʼkʷʼ
Implosive ɓɗ
Prenasalized mbndŋɡ
Fricatives Voiceless fsʃh
Voiced z
Nasals mn
Lateral l
Trill r
Semivowels jw

Vowels

Mpade has the following vowels.[4]

frontback
unrounded		back
rounded
High iɨu
Non-High eao

Notes
  1. Mpadə at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Frawley, William J., ed. (2003). "Mpade". International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. p. 238.
  3. Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
  4. Allison 2006.

References
  • Allison, Sean. 2006. Alphabet et orthographe de Kotoko de Makary (mpadɨ) (Makary Kotoko Orthography Statement) SIL manuscript, 31 pp. Available on-line
  • Allison, Sean. 2020. A Grammar of Makary Kotoko. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004422513.
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