Gbeya language

Gbeya (Gbɛ́yá, Gbaya-Bossangoa) is a Gbaya language of the Central African Republic. Ethnologue reports it may be mutually intelligible with Bozom.[3]

Gbeya
Native to	Central African Republic
Native speakers	ca. 250,000 (1996–2005)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Savannas Gbaya Western Bokoto–Bozom Gbeya
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: gbp – Gbaya-Bossangoa sqm – Suma
Glottolog	gbey1244[2]

Suma (Súmā) is a language variety closely related to Gbeya.[4]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labialvelar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	k͡p	ʔ
	voiced	b	d			ɡ	ɡ͡b
	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd			ᵑɡ	ᵑᵐɡ͡b
	ingressive	ɓ	ɗ
Nasal	preglottalized	ˀm	ˀn
	plain	m	n			ŋ	ŋ͡m
Fricative	voiceless	f		s				h
	voiced	v		z
Lateral				l
Tap/Flap		ⱱ	ɾ
Approximant					j		w

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

[5]

References

1. Gbaya-Bossangoa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Suma at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Gbeya–Suma". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Samarin, William J. (1966). The Gbeya language: Grammar, texts, and vocabularies (PDF). ASIN B000S2UYWE. hdl:1807/67174. OCLC 897343. Book reviewed in both Courtenay, Karen (1 January 1968). "Review of The Gbeya Language: Grammar, Texts, and Vocabularies". Language. 44 (2): 420–423. doi:10.2307/411642. hdl:1807/67174. JSTOR 411642, and Crabb, David W. (1969). ": The Gbeya Language: Grammar, Texts, and Vocabularies . William J. Samarin". American Anthropologist. 71 (2): 365–366. doi:10.1525/aa.1969.71.2.02a00600.
4. Suma materials from Raymond Boyd
5. Samarin, William J. (1966). The Gbeya Language Grammar, Texts, and Vocabularies (PDF). University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles.

External links

• Suma materials from Raymond Boyd