Kare language (Adamawa)

"Kareng language" redirects here and is not to be confused with Karang language or Kali language.

Kare (Kãrɛ̃, Kareng; autonym nzáà kã́rĩ́, where nzáà = 'mouth') is a southern Mbum language of the Central African Republic, spoken by the Kare people in the mountains of the northeasterly Ouham-Pendé prefecture around Bocaranga. It is spoken by around 97,000 people in the country, and another few thousand speakers in Cameroon. The language's presence on the southeastern edge of the Mbum family is thought to reflect early 19th-century migrations from the Adamawa Plateau, fleeing Fulani raids.^[3]

Kare
nzáà kã́rĩ́[1]
Native to	Central African Republic, Cameroon
Native speakers	(97,000 cited 1996–2000)[2] 62,000 Kare, 35,000 Tale in CAR (1996)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Mbum–Day Mbum Central Mbum Karang Kare
Dialects	Kare (Kari, Kali) ? Tale
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kbn
Glottolog	kare1338

Ethnologue 17 reports that Kare is intelligible with Mbum proper. However, languages more closely related to either are not reported to be intelligible. Ethnologue lists Tale (Tali) as a dialect, but Blench (2004) leaves it unclassified within the Mbum languages. Ethnologue also lists Kali as a synonym; Blench lists a Kali language in a different branch of the Mbum languages.

Phonology

Kare has the following consonantal phonemes:^[4]

Consonant phonemes

	Bilabial		Labiodental		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Labio- velar		Glottal
Implosive		ɓ				ɗ
Stop	p	b			t	d			k	ɡ	kp	ɡb
Prenasalized stop		ᵐb				ⁿd				ᵑg		ᵑɡb
Fricative			f	v	s	z							h
Prenasalized fricative						ⁿz
Approximant						l				j		w
Flap				ⱱ		r

It has the following vowel phonemes:^[5]

	Oral vowels		Nasal vowels
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	i	u	ĩ	ũ
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ	ɛ̃	ɔ̃
Open	a		ã

There is a phonological contrast between high and low tone (e.g. sá 'say' vs. sà 'laugh'), and a rarer phonetic mid tone whose phonological status is not established. Only monosyllabic words may bear rising or falling tone.^[6]

Grammar

The basic word order of Kare is subject–verb–object:

e.g.

kɛ́

3SG

hòrò

eat

húrù

manioc

kɛ́ hòrò húrù

3SG eat manioc

'he ate manioc'.^[7]

Negation is handled with the sentence-final particle yá 'not';^[8] when negated, the locative copula yè 'be (in a place)' is replaced by tí, and the equative copula ɓá 'be (equivalent to)' by tí ɓá.

Verbal nouns are formed by raising the last syllable's tone and adding a suffix -Cà, where C = l or r after an oral vowel, n after a nasal vowel, and is empty after a consonant: fà 'deny' > fárà 'denial', sɛ̀l 'untie' > sɛ́là 'untying'.^[9]

Pronouns

Kare has no grammatical gender. Its personal pronouns are as follows:^[10]

	Free	Subject	Object
I	mìí	mì	mí
you sg.	mɔ̀ɔ́	mɔ̀	mɔ́
he/she/it	mɛ̀ɛ́/kɛ́	kɛ́	rɛ́/nɛ́
we	màá	ná	ná
you pl.	yìɓàí	yì	ɓàí
they	kìí	kì	kìí

To these may be added hánà 'each other, other'.

Noun phrases

There is a closed class of morphologically invariant adjectives (e.g. fé 'new', sɛ́ŋɛ́ 'red'), which typically precede the noun but may also follow it to indicate a permanent quality, or may be used as nouns in their own right.^[11] Determiners (hánà 'other', kɛ́ 'the', yɛ̀í 'this', yɔ̀ɔ́ 'that', nɛ̄ 'that yonder') follow the noun, and are followed by the plural marker rì:

e.g.

nzù

person

kɛ́

DEF

rí

PL

pí

also

nzù kɛ́ rí pí

person DEF PL also

'the people too'^[12]

Numerals and quantifiers come at the end, following the (optional) plural marker:

e.g.

nzù

person

ndíɓí

five

nzù ndíɓí

person five

'five people'

e.g.

nzù

person

rì

PL

sérè

two

nzù rì sérè

person PL two

'two people'^[13]

Direct genitives are formed by juxtaposition

e.g.

sã̀ũ̀

root

lìà

story

sã̀ũ̀ lìà

root story

'the story's basis'^[14]

analytic genitives use the particle ʔà

e.g.

vùn

house

ʔà

GEN

bá

father

vùn ʔà bá

house GEN father

'the father's house'^[15]

Relative clauses are formed with a demonstrative followed (not always immediately) by the relative marker ɗá

e.g.

nzù

person

yɛ̀í

this

ɗá

REL

rí

rob

mí

me

léóɗáà

yesterday

nzù yɛ̀í ɗá rí mí léóɗáà

person this REL rob me yesterday

'the person who robbed me yesterday'

Prepositions

All adpositions in Kare precede their complement. There are four primary (pure) prepositions: kà 'with (instrumental)', té 'with (comitative)', ʔá 'in', báŋ 'like',^[16]

e.g.

kɛ́

3SG

ɡí

come

té

with

bá

father

nɛ̄

3SG.POSS

kɛ́ ɡí té bá nɛ̄

3SG come with father 3SG.POSS

'he came with his father'

Alongside these there are a number of secondary postpositions transparently derived from nouns (often body parts), e.g. tûl 'head' > túl 'on top of'.^[17]