Maba (Maban, Mabang) is a Maban language spoken in

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Repub ...

and Sudan. It is divided into several dialects, and serves as a local trade language. Maba is closely related to the Masalit language.

Phonology

Vowels

* /ɛ, ɛː/ and /ɔ, ɔː/ may be realized as more close , eːand

, oː The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline o ...

when found in open syllable positions. * Vowels may also be marginally realized as nasal when in nasal environments. *

Consonants

* Stop sounds /b, t, k/ are heard as unreleased ̚, t̚, k̚when in word-final position. * Sounds

, h The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...

are heard mostly as a result of loanwords. 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 �, ɖ, ᶯɖ * /ɾ/ may also be heard as a trill in free variation.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

References

Further reading