Maɗa language
| Maɗa | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Cameroon |
| Region | Far North Region, Cameroon |
Native speakers | (17,000 cited 1982)[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mxu |
| Glottolog | mada1293 |
Maɗa is a Chadic language spoken in northern Cameroon. It has 17,000 speakers.
The Maɗa (17,000 speakers) inhabit the Maɗa massif, on the eastern edge of the Mandara Mountains, between the Wuzlam massif to the north and the Zélgwa massif to the south. They live in the canton of Madakalkoss, arrondissement of Tokombéré, department of Mayo-Sava, Far North Region.[2]
Vowels
Maɗa has seven vowels.
| Front | Middle | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Middle | e ø | ə | o |
| Low | a |
Consonants
Maɗa has 25 consonants in total, including implosives, lateral fricatives, and prenasalized stops.
| Labial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Velar | Glottal | Rounded Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Tenuis | p | t | k | kʷ | ||||
| Voiced | b | d | g | ɡʷ | |||||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||||
| Prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑg | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||||
| Fricative | Tenuis | f | s | h | hʷ | ||||
| Voiced | v | z | |||||||
| Lateral fricative | Tenuis | ɬ | |||||||
| Voiced | ɮ | ||||||||
| Affricate | Tenuis | ts | |||||||
| Voiced | dz | ||||||||
| Prenasalized | ⁿdz | ||||||||
| Rhotic | r | ||||||||
| Approximate | w | j | |||||||
| Lateral approximate | l | ||||||||
Notes
- ^ Maɗa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
References
- Daniel Barreteau & André Brunet. 2000. Dictionnaire mada. Berlin: Reimer.
- http://pbase.phon.chass.ncsu.edu/language/322
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