Mbaka language

Not to be confused with Ngbaka language.

Mbaka
Ngbaka Ma'bo
Native to	CAR, Republic of Congo
Ethnicity	M'Baka
Native speakers	(200,000 cited 1984–2000) [1]
Language family	Ubangian Sere–Mba Ngbaka Western Mbaka
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: nbm  – Ngbaka Ma’bo gix  – Gilima
Glottolog	bwak1244

The Mbaka or Bwaka language, Ngbaka Ma'bo (also called Gbaka, Ma'bo, Ngbwaka, Ngbaka Limba) is a major Ubangian language spoken by the Mbaka people of CAR and Congo.

It is not clear how distinct the Gilima variety is, or whether it should be considered a separate language. It does have its own ISO 639-3 code.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
					plain	lab.
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t		k	k͡p	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ	ɡ͡b
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ	ᵑᵐɡ͡b
	implosive	ɓ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s				h
	voiced	v	z
	prenasal		ⁿz
Approximant			l	j	w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i (ĩ)		u (ũ)
Close-mid	e ẽ		o õ
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a ã

^{[2] [3]}

References

1. Ngbaka Ma’bo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Gilima at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. van de Weijer, Jeroen (1994). Stem Consonant Cooccurrence Restrictions in Ngbaka. Linguistics in the Netherlands 11: Dutch Linguistics Association (Algemene Vereniging voor Taalwetenschap). pp. 256–266.
3. Thomas, Jacqueline M. C. (1963). Le parler Ngbaka de Bokanga: phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe. Paris, The Hague: Paris: Paillart.