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Kabba language

Kaba (Kabba), or Kabba of Goré, is a language of the Sara people in Central African Republic and Chad, with around 100,000 speakers.

There are several languages named Kaba, which is a local generic term approximately equivalent to Sara. Kaba of Gore is confusing classified as a Sara rather than as a Kaba language.

Kabba is a tonal language. There are three tones, High (H) Mid (M) and Low (L).

Phonology

Consonants

  • The glottal stop [ʔ] is only heard in word-initial position, before vowels.
  • /h/ occurs only in limited distribution.
  • Sounds /t, d, ⁿd/ are heard in complimentary distribution with affricate sounds [ts, dz, ⁿdz] when in word initial position before /i/.
  • /ɗ/ may have a retroflex [ɽ] or trill [r] allophone, when in intervocalic positions.
  • /ɾ/ may also be heard as a retroflex [ɽ] in free variation.
  • [ŋ] occurs as an allophone of /n/ when before a velar stop, or when at the end of root words or morphemes.

Vowels

  • /ə/ is heard as [ɨ] when in CVCV open syllables.

References