Baka language

Not to be confused with Baka language (South Sudan) or Baca language.

Baka (also called Be-bayaga, Be-bayaka, and Bibaya de L’est) is a dialect cluster of Ubangian languages spoken by the Baka Pygmies of Cameroon and Gabon. Ethnically, the people are closely related to the Aka, collectively known as the Mbenga (Bambenga). However, the languages are not related, apart from some vocabulary dealing with the forest economy, which suggests the Aka may have shifted to Bantu, with an estimated 15,000 people having done so.

Baka
Native to	Cameroon, Gabon; minor groups separate in the Central African Republic
Ethnicity	Baka
Native speakers	(70,000 cited 1988–2010)[1]
Language family	Niger-Congo? Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Adamawa–Ubangian Ubangian Sere–Ngbaka–Mba Ngbaka–Mba Ngbaka Western Baka–Gundi Baka
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: bkc – Baka gdi – Gundi (Ngundi) gnz – Ganzi bme – Massa (Limassa)
Glottolog	baka1271
ELP	Baka (East Region, Cameroon) Ganzi Gundi

Geographic distribution

Baka is spoken in much of the southeastern forest zone of Cameroon, in:^[2]

• Eastern Region
  • Kadey department (Ndélélé and Mbang communes)
  • Haut-Nyong department (Dimako, Doumé, Abong-Mbang, Lomié, and Ngoyla communes)
  • Boumba-et-Ngoko department (Moloundou, Yokadouma, and Gari-Gombo communes)
• Southern Region
  • Dja-et-Lobo department (Bengbis, Meyomessala, Sangmélima, Djoum, Oveng, and Mintom communes)

The Baka live together with other ethnic groups that are generally located along the main roads. The Baka speak a language very close to that of the Ngbaka Ma'bo of the Central African Republic, which clearly indicates that the Baka of Cameroon had recently arrived from an area much further to the east. In Cameroon, they are referred to as Eastern Pygmies, as opposed to the Bagyali, Pygmy groups from Océan Department who speak a Bantu language (A80 subgroup). The Baka number 25,000 in Cameroon. They are also found in Gabon (Phillips 1980) and in the Central African Republic.^[2]

Classification

Approximately 30% of Baka's vocabulary is not Ubangian. Much of this concerns a specialized forest economy, such as words for edible plants, medicinal plants, and honey collecting, and has been posited as the remnant of an ancestral Pygmy language which has otherwise vanished.^[3] However, apart from some words shared with the Aka, there is no evidence for a wider linguistic affiliation with any of the other Pygmy peoples.^[4]

Varieties

It is unclear if Gundi (Ngundi), Ganzi, and Massa (Limassa), are mutually intelligible with Baka proper. Most Massa have shifted to Gundi, which is spoken by 9,000 people.^[1]

The Ngombe tribe speaks Gundi. It may have been confused in the literature with the Ngombe population speaking the Bangandu language.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar	Glottal
Plosive	plain	p	t		k	k͡p	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ	ɡ͡b
	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ	ᵑɡ͡b
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Fricative	plain	ɸ	s				h
	voiced	β
Affricate	voiced		d͡z ~ d͡ʒ
	prenasalized		ⁿd͡z ~ ⁿd͡ʒ
Lateral			l
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Semivowel				j		w

/d͡z/ can also be heard as post-alveolar [d͡ʒ], among different dialects.^[5]

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

^[6]

Orthography

Baka does not have a standard orthography, and there are many different ways to write it. The following is a 2009 recommendation which is supported by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation [fr]. It is based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages.

Baka alphabet (2009)[7]
A	B	Ɓ	D	Ɗ	E	Ɛ	G	GB	H	I	J	K	KP	L	M	MB	N	ND	NG	NGB	NJ	NY	O	Ɔ	P	S	T	U	W	Y	ʼ
a	b	ɓ	d	ɗ	e	ɛ	g	gb	h	i	j	k	kp	l	m	mb	n	nd	ng	ngb	nj	ny	o	ɔ	p	s	t	u	w	y	ʼ
Pronunciation
/a/	/b/	/ɓ/	/d/	/ɗ/	/e/	/ɛ/	/ɡ/	/ɡ͡b/	/h/	/i/	/d͡ʒ/	/k/	/k͡p/	/l/	/m/	/ᵐb/	/n/	/ⁿd/	/ŋ/	/ᵑɡ͡b/	/ⁿd͡ʒ/	/ɲ/	/o/	/ɔ/	/p/	/s/	/t/	/u/	/w/	/j/	/ʔ/

Tones are indicated by diacritics: the acute for high tone (á é ɛ́ í ó ɔ́ ú), and the grave for low tone (à è ɛ̀ ì ò ɔ̀ ù), middle tone is not indicated)

Brisson uses a noticeably different orthography in his dictionaries. He noticeably uses the glottal stop (ʔ) instead of the apostrophe.^[8]