Baca language

Baca
Nubaca
Native toCameroon
Native speakers
4,500 (2007)
Language codes
ISO 639-3baf
Glottolognuba1241
A.621
ELPNubaca

The Baca language, Nubaca, is a Bantu language of Cameroon spoken in the village of Bongo, in the Bokito subdivision.

Phonology

Consonants

The following table shows the consonants of Baca.

Baca consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop voiceless p t k
prenasalised ᵐb ⁿd ᵑg
Fricative voiceless f s h
prenasalised ɱf ⁿs
Approximant l j w

Vowels

Baca vowels
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i iː u uː
Near-close ɪ ɪː ʊ ʊː
Close-mid e o oː
Open-mid ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
Open a aː

Baca distinguishes length in all vowels except /e/. Baca also exhibits vowel harmony based on tongue root position, separating vowels into two categories, /i u e o/ [+ATR] and /ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ a/ [-ATR], and requires that vowels in the noun root agree in tongue root position. [-ATR] and [+ATR] vowels never occur in the same root, except /a/ which can appear in [+ATR] environments and is realized as [ɜ].

Tone

Baca has an underlying two tone system, high and low.

References

  1. ↑ Baca at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. 1 2 3 4 Boyd, V.L. (2015-11-05). The phonological systems of the Mbam languages of Cameroon with a focus on vowels and vowel harmony (PhD thesis). Archived from the original on 2025-02-26.
  4. ↑ Boone, Douglas W. (February 1992). "Baca (Bongo) survey report". Société Internationale de Linguistique.