| Baca | |
|---|---|
| Nubaca | |
| Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | 4,500 (2007)1 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | baf |
| Glottolog | nuba1241 |
A.6212 | |
| ELP | Nubaca |
The Baca language, Nubaca, is a Bantu language of Cameroon spoken in the village of Bongo,3 in the Bokito subdivision.4
Phonology
Consonants
The following table shows the consonants of Baca.3
| 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
| 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].3
Tone
Baca has an underlying two tone system, high and low.3
References
References
- Baca at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- 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.
- Boone, Dogulas W. (February 1992). "Baca (Bongo) survey report". Société Internationale de Linguistique.