Manza (''Mānzā'', Mandja) is a
Ubangian language
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 are ...
spoken by the
Mandja people
The Mandja (also: Mandjia, Mandija, Manja) are an ethnic group found in the central region of the Central African Republic. They are related to the Gbaya people
The Gbaya, also Gbeya or Baya, are a people of western region of Central African Repub ...
of 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 the C ...
. It is closely related to
Ngbaka and may be to some extent
mutually intelligible.
Phonology
The phonology consists of the following:
Consonants
* Sounds /ɾ/ and /ⱱ/ are very rare in word-initial position.
* /ⁿz/ can be heard in free variation as a prenasal affricate sound
��d͡ʒ
*
is only heard in free variation of /j/.
* /j/ can be heard as
�when preceding a nasal vowel.
Vowels
* /a/ can have an allophone of
� when in complementary distribution.
* The nasalization of /ɛ̃/ may also be heard more lower as
�̃in free variation.
Writing system
The tones are indicated on the letters using diacritics:
* the middle tone is indicated using the umlaut: ;
* the high tone is indicated using the circumflex accent: .
References
Gbaya languages
Languages of the Central African Republic
Languages of Cameroon
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