| Mbandja | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic |
| Native speakers | (360,000 cited 2000) |
| Language family | Ubangian
|
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | zmz |
| Glottolog | mban1263 |
Mbandja (Banja, Mbanza) is the largest of the Banda languages. There are 350,000 speakers in DRC, 10,000 in the Republic of Congo, and an unknown number in CAR.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | (ŋ) | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | k͡p | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ɡ͡b | ||||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ⁿd͡ʒ | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡ͡b | ||||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | |||||
| voiced | β | v | z | ʒ | ɦ | ||||
| prenasal | ⁿz | ||||||||
| Rhotic | r | ||||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||||
- mainly occurs as a sound of /n/, when preceding a velar consonant.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Open | a |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ĩ | ũ | |
| Mid | ẽ | õ | |
| Open | ã |
References
- Mbandja at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Tingbo, Nyi-Zonga (1978). Étude grammaticale de la langue mbandza (dialecte de báláwo). Université Nationale du Zaïre: Lubumbashi.
| Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
|---|---|
| Official language | |
| National languages | |
| Indigenous languages (by province) | |
| Sign languages | |
| Ubangian languages | |
|---|---|
| Gbaya | |
| Zande | |
| Banda | |
| Sere | |
| Ngbaka | |
| Mba | |
| Ngbandi | |
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