Aka, also known as Yaka or Beka, is a Bantu language spoken in the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

and Republic of Congo, along the Ubangi River dividing the two countries. Aka is spoken by the

Aka people Aka, AKA or a.k.a. may refer to: * "Also known as", used to introduce an alternative name Languages * Aka language (Sudan) * Aka language, in the Central African Republic * Hruso language, in India, also referred to as Aka * a prefix in the na ...

, pygmies closely related to the

Ubangian The Ubangian languages form a diverse linkage of some seventy languages centered on the Central African Republic. They are the predominant languages of the CAR, spoken by 2–3 million people, and include the national language, Sango. They ar ...

-speaking Baka of

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, Congo and

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

. Together, these peoples are known as the Mbenga (''Bambenga'') or Binga (''Babinga''), the latter derogatory. Famously, Aka shares vocabulary with the Baka languages, mostly concerning a specialised forest economy, such as words for edible plants, medicinal plants and honey collecting. This is among the 30% of Aka which is not Bantu and the 30% of Baka which is not Ubangian and has been posited as the remnant of an ancestral Western Pygmy (Mbenga or "Baaka") language which has otherwise vanished. However, it is entirely possible that the Aka shifted to Bantu from a Ubangian language related to Baka, in which case the situation reduces to a single ethnic group adapted to the forest with correspondingly specialised vocabulary. There is no evidence for a wider linguistic affiliation with any of the other Pygmy peoples. The Aka people call themselves ''Mraka'' in the singular and ''Beka'' in the plural. The people and their language go by various alternate spellings: ''Mò-Áka, Moyaka, Bayaka, Yaga, Bayaga, Gbayaka, Biaka, Beká, Yakwa, Yakpa, Yakpwa, Nyoyaka.'' The western Aka are known as the Benzele (''Mbenzélé, Babenzélé, Bambenzele, Ba-Benjelle''), and the eastern Aka as the Sese (''Basese''). These might be distinct dialects; ''Nzari'' might be another. Pygmies of northern Gabon called the ''Mikaya'' and ''Luma'' are evidently either Aka or speak a language closely related to Aka.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Specialized forest vocabulary

Some vocabulary with nearby Baka:Serge Bahuchet, 1993, ''History of the inhabitants of the central African rain forest: perspectives from comparative linguistics.'' In C.M. Hladik, ed., ''Tropical forests, people, and food: Biocultural interactions and applications to development.'' Paris: Unesco/Parthenon.

Literature

* Serge Bahuchet (2012)
"Changing Language, Remaining Pygmy."
''Human Biology'': Vol. 84: Iss. 1, Article 9.

References

Ngondi-Ngiri languages African Pygmies Languages of the Central African Republic Languages of the Republic of the Congo {{CentralAfricanRepublic-stub mk:Акаски јазик