Maba language

Maba
Maba
buraa mabaŋ ; بُرَا مَبَݝ‎
Native to	Chad
Region	Ouaddaï, Wadi Fira
Ethnicity	Maba
Native speakers	570,000 (2019)
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Maban Mabang Maba; ; ;
Dialects	Maba; Kodroy; Kabartu; Kondongo;
Writing system	Arabic script ; Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mde
Glottolog	maba1277

Maba (Maban, Mabang, or Bura Mabang) is a Nilo-Saharan language of the Maban branch spoken in Chad and Sudan. It is divided into several dialects, and serves as a local trade language. Maba is closely related to the Masalit language.^[2] Most speakers of Maba reside in Chad with 542,000 speakers as of 2019. In 2022 there were 28,000 speakers in Sudan where the language is known as Sulaihab.^[1]

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː
Open		a aː

/ɛ, ɛː/ and /ɔ, ɔː/ may be realized as more close [e, eː] and [o, oː], when found in open syllable positions.
Vowels may also be marginally realized as nasal when in nasal environments.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	voiceless	(p)	t	(ʈ)	c	k
	voiced	b	d	(ɖ)	ɟ	g
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	(ᶯɖ)	ᶮɟ	ᵑɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s		ʃ		(h)
Fricative	voiced		(z)
Rhotic			ɾ
Lateral			l
Approximant					j	w

Stop sounds /b, t, k/ are heard as unreleased [p̚, t̚, k̚] when in word-final position.
Sounds [p, h] are heard mostly as a result of loanwords. [z] is also mostly from Arabic loanwords, but also may occur in some native words as well.
/t, d, ⁿd/ when preceding a tap /ɾ/, are then heard as retroflex [ʈ, ɖ, ᶯɖ].
/ɾ/ may also be heard as a trill [r] in free variation.^[3]

Orthography

Maba language is written with the Latin and Arabic Chad Alphabet.

Maba Latin alphabet ^[4]
A a	B b	C c	Ch ch	D d	Dr dr	E e (Ɛ ɛ)	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	Kh kh	L l	M m	Mb mb
[a]	[b]	[c]	[ʃ]	[d]	[ɖ]	[ɛ]	[f]	[g]	[h]	[i]	[ɟ]	[k]	[x]	[l]	[m]	[ᵐb]
N n	N̰ n̰	Nd nd	Ndr ndr	Nj nj	Ŋ ŋ	Ng ng	O o (Ɔ ɔ)	Pp	R r	S s	T t	Tr tr	U u	W w	Y y	Z z
[n]	[ɲ]	[ⁿd]	[ᶯɖ]	[ᶮɟ]	[ŋ]	[ᵑɡ]	[ɔ]	[p]	[ɾ] ([r])	[s]	[t]	[ʈ]	[u]	[w]	[j]	[z]

Maba Arabic alphabet^[5]
Arabic (Latin) [IPA]	أ إ‎ ‌( - ) [∅]/[ʔ]	ب‎ (B b) [b]	پ‎ (P p) [p]	ت‎ (T t) [t]	ث‎ (T t) [t]	ج‎ (J j) [ɟ]
Arabic (Latin) [IPA]	ڃ‎ (Nj nj) [ᶮɟ]	چ‎ (C c) [c]	ح‎ (H h) [h]	خ‎ (Kh kh) [x]	د‎ (D d) [d]	ڊ‎ (Nd nd) [ⁿd]
Arabic (Latin) [IPA]	ذ‎ (S s) [s]	ر‎ (R r) [ɾ] ([r])	ڔ‎ (Dr dr) [ɖ]	ز‎ (Z z) [z]	ڗ‎ (Tr tr) [ʈ]	ژ‎ (Ndr Ndr) [ᶯɖ]
Arabic (Latin) [IPA]	س‎ (S s) [s]	ش‎ (Ch ch) [ʃ]	ص‎ (S s) [s]	ض‎ (D d) [d]	ط‎ (T t) [t]	ظ‎ (Z z) [z]
Arabic (Latin) [IPA]	ع‎ ( - ) [ʔ]	غ‎ (Kh kh) [x]	ݝ‎ (Ŋ ŋ) [ŋ]	ڠ‎ (Ng ng) [ᵑɡ]	ف‎ (F f) [f]	ق‎ (G g) [g]
Arabic (Latin) [IPA]	ك‎ (K k) [k]	ل‎ (L l) [l]	م‎ (M m) [m]	ݦ‎ (Mb mb) [ᵐb]	ن‎ (N n) [n]	ݧ‎ (N̰ n̰) [ɲ]
Arabic (Latin) [IPA]	ه‎ (H h) [h]	و‎ (W w) [w]	ؤ‎ ‌( - ) [ʔ]	ي‎ (Y y) [j]	ئ‎ ‌( - ) [ʔ]

Vowel at beginning of word
A	E (Ɛ)	I	O (Ɔ)	U
أَ‎	أٚ‎	إِ‎	أٛ‎	أُ‎
Aa	Ee (Ɛɛ)	Ii	Oo (Ɔɔ)	Uu
آ‎	أٚيـ‎	إِيـ‎	أٛو‎	أُو‎

Vowel at middle and end of word
a	e (ɛ)	i	o (ɔ)	u	∅
◌َ‎	◌ٚ‎	◌ِ‎	◌ٛ‎	◌ُ‎	◌ْ‎
aa	ee (ɛɛ)	ii	oo (ɔɔ)	uu
◌َا / ـَا‎	◌ٚيـ / ـٚيـ‎ ◌ٚي / ـٚي‎	◌ِيـ / ـِيـ‎ ◌ِي / ـِي‎	ٛ◌و / ـٛو‎	◌ُو / ـُو‎

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Maba at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^ "Maba". Ethnologue. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
^ Weiss, Doris (2009). Phonologie et morphosyntaxe du Maba. Université Lumière - Lyon II.
^ Maass, Antje; Mahamat, Abdoulaye Issaakha; Ali, Ousman Timsa; Adam, Duudeen Ali (2017) [2000]. Buraa mabaŋnu jiŋ ger mirni! (Kitab 1) (in Maba) (3 ed.). N’Djaména: SIL Tchad. (PDF Archived 2024-04-18 at the Wayback Machine dead link)
^ Oumar, Alkassim; Hicham, Fathimat Al-Zahra; Dahab, Abdoulaye Ali; Ali, Ousman Timsa; Zürcher, Evodie; Weiss, Doris (2007) [2000]. بُرَا مَبَݝْنُ، جِݝ قٚر مِرْنِ! (كِتَب ١) (Buraa mabaŋnu jiŋ ger mirni! (Kitab 1)) (in Maba) (4 ed.). N’Djaména: SIL Tchad.