Manza | |
---|---|
Mandja | |
Native to | Central African Republic |
Ethnicity | Mandja |
Native speakers | (220,000 cited 1996)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mzv |
Glottolog | manz1243 |
Manza (Mānzā, Mandja) is a Ubangian language spoken by the Mandja people of the Central African Republic. It is closely related to Ngbaka and may be to some extent mutually intelligible.
Phonology
The phonology consists of the following:[2]
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar |
Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | (ɲ) | ŋ | ŋ͡m | ||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | k͡p | ||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡ͡b | |||
prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᵑᵐɡ͡b | |||
implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | |||
voiced | v | z | |||||
prenasal | ⁿz | ||||||
Tap | ⱱ | ɾ | |||||
Approximant | (l) | j | w |
- Sounds /ɾ/ and /ⱱ/ are very rare in word-initial position.
- /ⁿz/ can be heard in free variation as a prenasal affricate sound [ⁿd͡ʒ].
- [l] is only heard in free variation of /j/.
- /j/ can be heard as [ɲ] when preceding a nasal vowel.
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | o | |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
Open | a |
- /a/ can have an allophone of [ɐ], when in complementary distribution.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | ĩ | ũ | |
Open-mid | ɛ̃ | ɔ̃ | |
Open | ã |
- The nasalization of /ɛ̃/ may also be heard more lower as [æ̃] in free variation.
Writing system
a | b | bh | d | dh | e | ɛ | f | g | gb | h | i | k | kp | l | m | mb | n | nd | ndj | ngb | ŋ | ŋg | ŋm | o | ɔ | p | r | s | t | u | v | vb | w | y | z |
The tones are indicated on the letters using diacritics:
- the middle tone is indicated using the umlaut: ⟨ä, ë, ɛ̈, ï, ö, ɔ̈, ü⟩ ;
- the high tone is indicated using the circumflex accent: ⟨â, ê, ɛ̂, î, ô, ɔ̂, û⟩.
References
- ^ Manza at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Moore, Troy C. (2000). Manza Phonology Statement. SIL.
- ^ Ngodi, Gounoukon & Moore 2017, p. 34-35.
Works cited
- Ngodi, Edmond; Gounoukon, Orphe-Magloire; Moore, Troy (2017). Hârâ nɛ mɛ̈ yɔ̂ rɔ̂ nû mandja [Lire et écrire en mandja] (3 ed.). Bangui: Association centrafricaine pour la traduction de la Bible et d’alphabétisation (ACATBA) et SIL International.