Ngambay language

Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria

Ngambay
Gambaye
Native to	Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria
Ethnicity	Sara
Native speakers	1.38 million (2005–2013)^[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Central Sudanic Bongo–Bagirmi Sara languages West Ngambay
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`sba`
Glottolog	`ngam1268`

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 the most widely spoken of the Sara languages, and is used as a trade language between speakers of other dialects. It is spoken by the Sara Gambai people.

Ngambay has Subject–Verb–Object word order.^[2] Suffixes indicate case.^[2] There is no tense; aspect is indicated by a perfective–imperfective distinction.^[2] Modifiers follow nouns.^[2] The numeral system is decimal, but eight and nine are expressed as 10-minus-two and 10-minus-one.^[3] It is a tone language with three tones: high, mid, and low.^[4] There are loan words from both Arabic and French.^[4]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Labial- velar	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k
	voiced	b	d	dʒ		ɡ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿd͡ʒ		ᵑɡ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Fricative			s
Trill/Flap		ⱱ	r
Lateral			l
Approximant				j	w

Vowels/Nasal Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ		u ũ
Close-mid	ɛ ɛ̃	ə	o õ
Open-mid	ɛ ɛ̃	ə	ɔ ɔ̃
Open		a ã

Tones & Nasalization

The three tones are high /á/, mid /ā/ and low /à/. Vowels can also be nasalised: /ã/.^[5]

References

^ Ngambay at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d The World Atlas of Language Structures Online: Ngambay. Accessed November, 2008.
^ Numeral Systems of the World's Languages: Ngambay. Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute, Leipzig. Accessed November, 2008.
^ ^a ^b 50 Lessons in Sara-Ngambay, Volume 1., by Linda J. Thayer, James E. Thayer, Noé Kyambé and Adoum Eloi Gondjé. Indiana University, 1971. Accessed November 2008.
^ Sarah Moeller, Mekoulnodji Ndjerareou, Christy Melick (2010). A Brief Grammatical Sketch of Ngambay (PDF).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

The Sara-Bagirmi Language Project – Ngambay

Languages of Cameroon

Official languages

Major languages

Pidgins

Indigenous languages

Sign languages

Immigrant languages

v t e Languages of Chad
Official languages	French Arabic
Indigenous languages	Bagirmi Chadian Arabic Daza(ga) Hausa Kanembu Maba Ngambay Sara Teda Mser
Immigrant languages	English French Arabic Chinese Portuguese Japanese Russian Danish Dutch