Ntcham language

Not to be confused with Bassari language (Senegal).

Ntcham, or Basari, is a language of the Gurma people in Togo and Ghana. Akaselem (Tchamba) is frequently listed as a separate language.

Ntcham
Basari
Native to	Togo, Ghana
Ethnicity	Gurma
Native speakers	390,000 (2004–2013)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Gur Northern Oti–Volta Gurma Ntcham
Writing system	Latin (Basari alphabet) Basari Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: bud – Ntcham aks – Akaselem
Glottolog	ntch1241

Phonology

The phonology used by Chanard and Hartell is given below. Abbott and Cox (1966) had a similar phonology, though the non labial-velar voiceless plosives were analyzed as aspirated, and vowel length was not distinguished.^[2] Badie (1995) analyzes /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ as /c/ and /ɟ/ and also includes phonemic /ɱ/, vowel lengths, and nasalized vowels.^[3]

Consonants

Consonants^[4]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar
Plosive/Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	kp
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	g	gb
Fricative		f	s
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋm
Trill			r
Approximant			l	j		w

Vowels

Vowels^[4]

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	eː	oː
Open-mid		ɔ
Open	a

Tones

Ntcham also has high, low, and mid tones.^[4]

Writing System

Ntcham Alphabet

Majuscules	A	B	C	D	EE	F	G	GB	I	J	K	KP	L
Minuscules	a	b	c	d	ee	f	g	gb	i	j	k	kp	l
Majuscules	M	N	NY	Ŋ	ŊM	OO	Ɔ	P	S	T	U	W	Y
Minuscules	m	n	ny	ŋ	ŋm	oo	ɔ	p	s	t	u	w	y

Long vowels are indicated by doubling the letter ‹aa, ii, ɔɔ, uu› and two vowels are always long ‹ee, oo›. The tones are represented by acute accents for high tone and grave accents for low tone, on the vowels and the consonants m, n, b, l : ‹ḿ, ń, b́, ĺ›, ‹m̀, ǹ, b̀, l̀›.