Bura-Pabir (also known as Bura, Burra, Bourrah, Pabir, Babir, Babur, Barburr, Mya Bura, Kwojeffa, Huve, Huviya) is a
Chadic language spoken in
North-eastern Nigeria by the
Babur/Bura people. Dialects are Pela, Bura Pela, Hill Bura, Hyil Hawul, Bura Hyilhawul, and Plain Bura. The language is closely related to Kilba, Chibok, Margi and a few order North-eastern Nigerian Languages.
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Phonology
Bura has been reported to contrast a voiceless palatal lateral fricative
The voiceless palatal lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in a few spoken languages.
This sound is somewhat rare; Dahalo has both a palatal lateral fricative and an affricate; Hadza has a series of affricates. In Bura, ...
, ''or'' , which is quite rare. There are thus five laterals in Bura: , though can be analyzed as a palatalized fricative, . Apart from this, its inventory is much like the very complex system of Margi.
Orthography
In the 2010 Bura-English DictionaryRoger Blench
Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and work ...
proposed an orthography similar to that of Hausa includes the Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
with the addition of the letters ɓ, ɗ, ə, and ƙ. In addition, the following digraphs are used:
See also
*Bura Sign Language
Bura Sign Language is a village sign language used by the Bura people around the village of Kukurpu, 40 km (25 miles) south-east of Biu, Nigeria, an area with a high degree of congenital deafness. What little is known about it is due to a brie ...
Notes
References
World Atlas of Language Structures entry for Bura-Pabir
Biu-Mandara languages
Languages of Nigeria
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