Maba (Maban, Mabang, or Bura Mabang) is a

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributari ...

language of the Maban branch spoken in

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

and

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

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

Phonology

Vowels

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

Orthography

Sample Text

References

Further reading