Mbandja language

Not to be confused with Mbandja Ovambo.

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.

Mbandja
Native to	Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic
Native speakers	(360,000 cited 2000)[1]
Language family	Ubangian Banda Mbandja
Dialects	Kala Gbado
Language codes
ISO 639-3	zmz
Glottolog	mban1263

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

• [ŋ] mainly occurs as a sound of /n/, when preceding a velar consonant.^[2]

Vowels

Oral vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ĩ		ũ
Mid	ẽ		õ
Open		ã