Baba language

Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon

Baba
Papiak
Supapyak’
Region	Cameroon
Ethnicity	Papiak
Native speakers	25,000 (2005)^[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Nun Baba
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`bbw`
Glottolog	`baba1264`

The Baba language, Supapyak’, is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.

Phonology

Baba has a (C)V(C) syllable structure, with syllabic nasals. The only phonemes that can occur in the final position are /p, m, ŋ, ʔ, r/ and /x/. There are no vowel-initial roots but they can form morphemes.^[2]

Baba Consonant Phonemes^[2]
		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	k͡p	ʔ
Plosive	voiced					ɡ͡b
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋ͡m
Trill			r
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	x
Fricative	voiced	v			ɣ
Approximant			l	j
Affricate			t͡s	t͡ʃ

Between nasals and vowels, voiceless stops become voiced; a noticeable exception is /ɡ͡b/, which is its own separate phoneme. There are also some additional phonological processes that create the allophones of [r~d͡z], [l~d], [j~d͡ʒ], and [ɣ~g~w].^[2]

Baba Vowel Phonemes^[2]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

Vowels are also punctuated with contrastive high and low tones.^[2]

References

^ Baba at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Pepandze, Nashipu Julius (2008-06-01). "A generative account of consonant alternations in Baba 1". Studies in African Linguistics. 37 (1): 94–99. doi:10.32473/sal.v37i1.107300. ISSN 2154-428X.