Maba language
Maba (Maban, Mabang, or Bura Mabang) is a Nilo-Saharan language of the Maban branch spoken in Chad and Sudan. It is divided into several dialects, and serves as a local trade language. Maba is closely related to the Masalit language.[2] Most speakers of Maba reside in Chad with 542,000 speakers as of 2019. In 2017 there were 25,000 speakers in Sudan where the language is known as Sulaihab.[1]
| Maba | |
|---|---|
| Mabang | |
| Native to | Chad[1] |
| Region | Ouaddaï, Wadi Fira |
| Ethnicity | Maba |
Native speakers | 570,000 (2019)[1] |
Nilo-Saharan?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Arabic script Latin alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mde |
| Glottolog | maba1277 |
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | |
| Open | a aː |
- /ɛ, ɛː/ and /ɔ, ɔː/ may be realized as more close [e, eː] and [o, oː], when found in open syllable positions.
- Vowels may also be marginally realized as nasal when in nasal environments.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | (p) | t | c | k | |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | ||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | (h) | |
| voiced | (z) | |||||
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||
- Stop sounds /b, t, k/ are heard as unreleased [p̚, t̚, k̚] when in word-final position.
- Sounds [p, h] are heard mostly as a result of loanwords. [z] is also mostly from Arabic loanwords, but also may occur in some native words as well.
- /t, d, ⁿd/ when preceding a tap /ɾ/, are then heard as retroflex [ʈ, ɖ, ᶯɖ].
- /ɾ/ may also be heard as a trill [r] in free variation.[3]
References
- Maba at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- "Masalit language". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
- Weiss, Doris (2009). Phonologie et morphosyntaxe du Maba. Université Lumière - Lyon II.
Further reading
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