The Sara languages comprise over a dozen

Bongo–Bagirmi languages The Bongo–Bagirmi or Sara–Bongo–Bagirmi languages are the major branch of the Central Sudanic language family with about forty languages. Principal groups include Bagirmi languages such as Naba and the Sara languages. They are spoken ac ...

spoken mainly 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 ...

; a few are also spoken in the north 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 ...

. They are members of the

Central Sudanic Central Sudanic is a family of about sixty languages that have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Uganda, Congo (DRC), Nigeria an ...

language family. Greenberg (1966) treats all varieties as dialects of a Sara language, whereas Tucker and Bryan (1966) consider the Sara to be a

dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...

of several languages. Most members of the different Sara languages/dialects consider their speech form distinct languages, but there is currently insufficient language information to determine which speech varieties need to be considered distinct languages, and which are dialects of other languages. The most populous variety of Sara proper is

Ngambay Ngambay (also known as Sara, Sara Ngambai, Gamba, Gambaye, Gamblai and Ngambai) is one of the major languages spoken by Sara people in southwestern Chad, northeastern Cameroon and eastern Nigeria, with about a million native speakers. Ngambay is ...

(Sara Ngambay), a major trade language of southern Chad, with about a million speakers, though Sar (Sara Madjingay) is the lingua franca of

Sarh Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive det ...

Names

The term "Sara Languages", sometimes called "Sara Proper Languages", is distinct from the so-called "Sara Kaba Languages". The latter include Sara Dunjo,

Kaba Deme Kaba may refer to: Places * Kaaba, the holiest place in the Islamic World, a large cube-shaped building inside the al-Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca * Kaba, Hungary, a town in Hajdú-Bihar County, Hungary, which had a rare carbonaceous chondri ...

and Kaba Na. The term Sara itself is confusing, as within this family there exists a language named Sar, whose capital is Sarh. The term Kaba is likewise confusing. Kaba of Gore is not a Sara Kaba language, but rather a Sara language. Further, the Sara Kaba group includes a language named Sara Kaba

Languages

The Sara languages are: ;West Sara :*

Laka In Hawaiian mythology, Laka is the name of two different popular heroes from Polynesian mythology. (In other parts of Polynesia they are known as Rātā, Rata, Lata, Ata, or Lasa). In one Hawaiian legend, Laka is the son of the '' Ali'i nui'' ...

:* Kabba :* Laka of Lau (spoken in Nigeria) ;Central Sara ( Doba) :* Bedjond :* Bebote :* Mango :* Gor ;East Sara :* Sar :* Mbay :* Ngam :* Dagba :* Gulay :* Horo The inclusion of Gulay with the Eastern Sara Languages is based on lexical comparison. Phonologically and morphologically Gulay behaves more like a Central Sara Language.

Boyeldieu (2006)

Boyeldieu (2006)Boyeldieu, Pascal. 2006.
Présentation des langues Sara-Bongo-Baguirmiennes
'. Paris: CNRS-LLACAN (online version). classifies the Sara languages as follows. ;Sara *Peripheral **Ndoka **Wad **Bagiro **Na **Tiye **Kulfa **Simé **'Dem *Central **Sar **Mbay **Ngambay **'Bedjond **Kaba P. *Others **Bulala **Beraku **Kenga **'Barma

Footnotes

References

Roger Blench (2012, ms)
*Greenberg, Joseph H. (1966) ''The Languages of Africa'' (2nd ed. with additions and corrections). Bloomington: Indiana University. *Keegan, John M. (2012) ''Sara Languages Lexicon: French - Sara Languages, English - Sara Languages'', Morkeg Books, Cuenca. * * * * *Tucker, A.N. and M.A. Bryan (1966) ''Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa''. Published for the International African Institute. London/New York/Cape Town: Oxford University Press.

External links

PanAfriL10n page on Sara
Bongo–Bagirmi languages Languages of Chad Sara people {{ns-lang-stub