Manza Phonology Statement

 Chercheurs : Troy Christopher MOORE











ACATBA et SIL RCA

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Manza Phonology Statement

By Troy Christopher MOORE

SIL - CAR January 2000

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Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1.1 The Manza People ...... 1 1.1.1 Location ...... 1 1.1.2 History ...... 2 1.1.3 Population ...... 3 1.1.4 Contact with Outside Groups ...... 4 1.2 Linguistic Background ...... 4 1.2.1 Name of the Language ...... 4 1.2.2 Varieties of Manza ...... 5 1.2.3 Previous linguistic investigations ...... 5 1.2.4 The present study ...... 6

2. MANZA PHONE CHARTS...... 7

3. VOWELS ...... 8

3.1 Display of Vowel Contrast Examples ...... 8 3.2 Allophones ...... 10 3.3 Vowel Distribution ...... 10 3.3.1 Initial Position ...... 10 3.3.2 Isolated Vowels ...... 11 3.3.3 Vowel Clusters ...... 11 3.3.3.1 Vowel Length ...... 12 3.3.4 Medial Position ...... 14 3.4 Vowel Harmony and Vowel Length ...... 14 3.5 Nasalization ...... 14 3.5.1 Restrictions with syllables ...... 14 3.5.2 Restrictions after nasal consonants ...... 15 3.6 Semivowels ...... 16 3.6.1 Distribution in Syllable Onset ...... 16 3.6.2 Distribution in Vowel Clusters ...... 16

4. CONSONANTS...... 17

4.1 Display of Consonant Contrast Examples ...... 17 4.1.1 Allophones ...... 27 4.2 Consonant Distribution ...... 27 4.2.1 Chart of Consonant Distribution ...... 29

5. CHARTS OF PHONEMES ...... 30

6. TONE ...... 31

6.1 Lexical Tone ...... 31 6.1.1 Possible Tone Patterns ...... 31 6.1.1.1 No Contour Tone ...... 31 6.1.2 Minimal Nominal Pairs ...... 32 6.2 Grammatical Tone ...... 33

- iii - 6.2.1 Possessive Noun Constructions...... 33 6.2.1.1 Possessive Relationship ...... 34 6.2.2 Verbal Tense ...... 34 6.2.3 Pronominal Tone ...... 36 6.2.3.1 Accompanying Tense ...... 36 6.2.3.2 Indicating Aspect ...... 36 6.3 Allotones ...... 37 6.3.1 Down Gliding Intonation ...... 37 6.3.2 Fast Speech Tone Levelling ...... 37

7. PHONOTACTICS ...... 38

7.1 The Syllable...... 38 7.1.1 Distribution ...... 38 7.1.1.1 CVCV, Vowel and Tone Harmony ...... 38 7.1.1.2 Nasalization On Syllables ...... 38 7.1.1.3 No Consonant Harmony ...... 39 7.2 Stress and Intonation ...... 39 7.3 Compounding and Foreign Language Appropriations ...... 40 7.3.1 Forming Compounds ...... 40 7.3.2 Transforming Appropriations (Borrowings) ...... 41 7.4 Morphophonemic Alternations Across Morpheme Boundaries ...... 42 7.4.1 First Person Possession ...... 42 7.4.2 Past Tense Alterations ...... 42 7.4.3 Labialization ...... 42

8. CONCLUSION ...... 44

9. SWADESH 200 WORD LIST...... 45

10. SUGGESTED ORTHOGRAPHY ...... 48

11. REFERENCES: ...... 50

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Tables and Figures

Table 1: Population Estimates (based on Dictionnaire 1993) ...... 2 Table 2: Varietal Differences ...... 5 Table 3: Oral and Nasal Vowel Phones ...... 7 Table 4: Manza Consonant Phones ...... 7 Table 5: Results of “Flap /l/ Deletion Rule” ...... 13 Table 6 Vowel Restrictions Following Consonants ...... 15 Table 7: Distribution of Manza Consonants ...... 29 Table 8: Oral and Nasal Vowel Phones ...... 30 Table 9: Manza Consonants ...... 30 Table 10: Noun + Noun Minimal Pairs ...... 32 Table 11. Grammatical Forms and Semantic Differences ...... 34

Figure 1: Current Manza Territory ...... 1 Figure 2: Chart of Vowel Contrasts ...... 8 Figure 3: Syllables with One Vowel ...... 11 Figure 4: Dominant Vowel Sequences ...... 12 Figure 5: Chart of Consonants ...... 17

1. Introduction

Figure 1: Current Manza Territory

1.1 The Manza People 1.1.1 Location The Manza ethnic group is the third largest in the Central African Republic (Banda and Gbaya, respectively, are the first and second most populous). While the Manza are found in all economic and political walks of life, the majority are subsistence farmers living in the north-central region of the Republic (their traditional land for perhaps some 200 years). As is clear from the map above, most live close to the roads. Therefore, instead of being evenly dispersed throughout their area, they live in villages stringed together by unpaved roadways, with vast expanses of uninhabited wooded savannah all around. Their lands are concentrated in the prefectures of Nana-Gribizi (around the large town of Kaga Bandoro) and Kemo-Ibingui (around Sibut and Dékoa). But many speakers are also found in the east of the préfecture of Ouham (around Bouca). This area is roughly 180 km north by south and 120 km east by west, a territory which is roughly half the size of Switzerland (21,600 km2). Because of the three relatively large urban centres just mentioned, Kaga Bandoro, Sibut, and Bouca, the Manza is divided into three regions, and the result has been the development of three distinct, but still mutually intelligible, varieties of the

- 1- - 2 - language.1 This is understandable given the large territory that the Manza occupy and the fact that most travel in rural areas is by foot (an average man can cover 30 km in about six hours). The large towns of Kaga Bandoro, Sibut and Bouca are a mix of various ethnic groups, but in each of these three Manza speakers are usually in the majority. The result is that there are some non-Manza speakers that speak Manza because of intermarriage and cohabitation within a pre-dominantly Manza area. While the large towns tend to be cosmopolitan, the small outlying villages are quite homogeneous. Most villages are between 85 and 95% ethnic Manza. One example is the road which goes south out of Kaga Bandoro and runs 110 km to Mbrès. All the villages located on this road for the first 40 km (roughly 15) are over 85% Manza Then, very abruptly, all the villages are Banda villages until one comes to Mbrès. It is also important to point out that the very last Manza village, Kako, located right at the 40 km mark, is still over 90% Manza. The churches in Kako and just before Kako are attended by about 95% Manza speakers. Linguistic Region urban population rural population rural villages Kaga Bandoro 8,000 Manza speakers 25,000 speakers 100 villages (45% of town’s total population) Bouca 4,000 Manza speakers 14,000 speakers 80 villages (60% of town’s total population) Sibut-Dékoa- Mala2 10,000 Manza speakers in total 32,000 speakers 140 villages totals: 22,000 71,000 speakers 320 villages

Table 1: Population Estimates (based on Dictionnaire 1993)

A good percentage of the Manza population also live in the capital, Bangui, especially in two quarters, Gobongo and Fou,3 representing another 30,000 ethnic Manzas. Those living in the capital practice their language to varying degrees; some teach their children Manza at home, while others do not. In either case, those ethnic Manza born and raised in Bangui know little of the songs and stories commonly recited in the rural areas. Besides the traditional rural areas and Bangui, there are a number of other small Manza villages reported to exist in southern Chad. As well, some large towns that are well beyond the traditional Manza territory have significant number of Manza speakers, such as the towns of Bossangoua, Bozum, etc. 1.1.2 History The Manza language is related to that spoken by the Gbaya of eastern Cameroon and the western CAR as well as that spoken by the Ngbaka-Minagende of northern Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire). The speakers of Proto-Gbaya-Manza-Ngbaka (Proto-GMN) all arrived four or five hundred years ago during eastward migrations out of what is now Nigeria and into their present locations. Shortly after their arrival, European and Arab slave traders from the west and north, respectively, began attacking these people groups. The immediate result was a great loss of their population and their material culture. (The country is still vastly under-populated and compared to many other sub-Saharan groups, the Oubangian people have few crafts or art forms.) In the late 1800’s the French arrived in the Manza area, via Chad in the north, and then from the south, up the Ubangi river. The French, guided by Sango and Yakoma speaking traders, began what would be a

1 Dékoa is between Kaga Bandoro and Sibut, and the variety of Manza spoken there reflects this. 2This is the break down of the triangle, Dékoa-Sibut-Mala. Dékoa 5,000 (70% of Dékoa) 15,000 rural speakers 60 villages Sibut 5,000 (30% of Sibut) 11,000 " " 60 " Mala (and area) n/a 5,600 " " 20 "

3 According to some Manza speakers, these names were originally Manza, and mean, Hyena Rock and Flour.

- 3 - seventy year occupation of the future Central African Republic. Practical slave labour was imposed upon the Manza and other ethnic groups within the country. Also at the turn of the century, Catholic and Protestant missionaries introduced the indigenous populations to Christianity. By the twenties, the Sango language was chosen by the missionaries as the only language for evangelism and for conducting church services. The Manza language, together with other local languages, was officially ignored and the use of these “dialects” was considered to be a waste of time (a notion not uncommon among some present day expatriate workers). The linguistic situation today is such that French is used as the medium of instruction in schools, for government publications, and for many radio broadcasts. But Sango is also used on the radio, and is effectively the language of wider communication within the nation. For instance, within Bangui and in other urban centres (i.e., Berberati, Kaga Bandoro, Sibut, etc.), it is used in the markets, in church services, and on the streets. Sango is the mother tongue of perhaps three hundred thousand non-ethnic Sango/Yakoma peoples. However, in small rural villages within the Manza territories, Sango is heard only between non- Manza speakers, and never among ethnic Manzas. There is even a significant number of monolingual Manza speakers in each village; though most are aged individuals, some young men and women who have not travelled outside their area do not know Sango. In these villages, Sango is restricted to church services and communication among non-Manzas passing through a Manza village. Manza is without a doubt the dominant language for ethnic Manza speakers and they are proud of it. Unfortunately, the Manza language has not been developed, and their is no literature in the language at present. In summary, because influential Westerners have forced other languages and values onto the Manzas, this ethnic group (along with others) has seen a definite erosion and loss of self-esteem for their own language and culture. The vast majority of Manza speakers (who are in the rural areas), only know French at a primary school level, and speak Sango to a degree that allows them to communicate with non-Manza speakers. Yet the language into which they were born and that they use every single day, in every sphere of their life, they are completely unable to read or write, and have been totally discouraged to even consider such a possibility. 1.1.3 Population The total estimated population of those who call themselves Manza within this Central African nation is around 160,000 (Dictionnaire 1993). Out of the entire group, only 100,000 can be found in the language area. Because many of them live in small homogeneous villages, or similar quarters in larger towns, it can be assumed that most of them are current speakers of the language. In areas where they are in the majority, other ethnic groups have begun speaking Manza. The author knows many ethnic Banda and Vale living in Kaga Bandoro and in small villages that have also learned to speak Manza. The remaining 60,000 (of the original 160,000) can be found in Bangui and in small pockets in the north central or north western regions of the CAR. The level of speaking ability among those in this latter group can vary tremendously, for some of these are learning the languages spoken around them, to the detriment of their mother tongue. Based on native speaker opinion and face to face contacts with this latter group in Bangui, there appears to be two basic groups. Generally speaking, if Manza speaking parents bear children in the capital, and the parents are social climbers (educated persons or in the government) then they will not teach their offspring Manza and the children will only speak Sango and French. But if the parents are both ethnic Manza, but less educated and / or manual labourers, then they will teach their children Manza (and Sango and French will be learnt outside of the home). Then there are those who have been born in one place and moved to another; that is, those born in the rural areas and have moved after puberty to the capital (these generally speak Manza well but lack knowledge of traditional songs, dances and stories) and those born in the capital who have moved back to the village (they try to learn Manza and speak to it to varying degrees of fluency).

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1.1.4 Contact with Outside Groups In rural areas all Manza villages are extremely homogenous (the author is most familiar with the area around the town of Kaga Bandoro). A census was taken of every person in the two towns of Bomanza and Gbanza. Out of eight hundred individuals, there was less than forty non-ethnic Manza. In other words, 95% of the town is composed of Manza speakers. Because this correlates very closely with the results also found in Dictionnaire 1993, and with population figures in other towns that the author is familiar with, one should assume that most of the figures found in the Dictionnaire to be accurate. The Dictionnaire consistently shows villages in all three areas as either highly homogeneous (always above 90% are Manza speakers) or highly heterogeneous (less than 30% Manza speakers). There are few villages that are half one ethnic group and half of another—villages are basically all Manza, or all mixed. This is also true of various sections of large towns; most town sections are modelled after rural villages, where each is predominantly one ethnic group or completely diversified. Generally speaking then, there is very little mixing of the various ethnic groups in rural areas. And the territory is also well marked. For example, the road which leads south out of Kaga Bandoro, and continues due east to Mbrès is composed of villages that are exclusively Manza. The last Manza village, Kako (34 km from Kaga Bandoro) is still over 90% Manza, yet the very next village and all the other villages after it are Banda, and they remain like this until one arrives at the town of Mbrès. The territory is easily defined. However, the road between Sibut and Grimari to the east (not marked) does have Banda villages among the mostly Manza villages, and appears to be due to Banda encroachments and attacks into the Manza territory at the turn of the century (Gaud 1911). This desire to remain apart is also reflected to some degree in the language, for Manza has relatively few borrowed words. Thus far, in a database of 2,400 lexemes, only six are from Banda, seven from French, and forty from Sango. All of these should be considered as appropriated into Manza. The author has used three qualifications for including foreign words into the database; 1) the appropriation is frequently used and competes with Manza lexemes that have the same or similar semantic content (i.e., ‘gbalâka’ the Sango word for ‘display table/altar’ is used as often as the Manza word /saŠr˜Š/ which has the same meaning), 2) the borrowing has completely replaced a Manza lexeme (i.e., /mbaŠlà/ ‘elephant’ is from Banda, while the original Manza/Gbaya term is /f„©r‚©/, and is only remembered by a few old people), and 3) the borrowed lexeme was introduced along with ideas or objects new to the culture (such as nginza ‘money’ from Sango, and pronounced /™ìnzà/ in Manza, or ‘paper/book’ from mbëtï from Sango, but pronounced, /mb„Št„Š/).4 With borrowings it is rarely clear as to exactly how they are viewed by the borrowing language group. Some borrowed lexemes are used only by social climbers and others are truly part of the language community at large. Thus far the author has tried to maintain appropriations that the people themselves think should be included in a “Manza” dictionary, despite the fact that it might be from another language.5 As difficult as it is to know which borrowings to include in the Manza lexicon, the total count of assumed borrowings thus far is barely three percent of the total computerised database.

1.2 Linguistic Background 1.2.1 Name of the Language Manza is an Ubangian language, part of the Niger-Congo family of African languages on the Adamawa-Ubangi branch. Following Boyd (1989), Manza is found in the first grouping of Ubangian languages called Gbaya (or Gbaya-Manza-Ngbaka).

4 Manza has a strong preference for vowel harmony (more on this below). 5 Ethnic Manza speakers often believe that certain borrowings are truly Manza and that it was the Sango speakers who have borrowed the term from Manza.

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1.2.2 Varieties of Manza There are three main spoken varieties recognised by the Manza and all appear to agree that the variety spoken in the prefecture of Nana-Gribizi, 300 km north of the capital, especially around the town of Kaga Bandoro, is the ‘standard’.6 Those who speak this variety of Manza refer to it as // ‘language above’ and there are about 33,000 speakers. The second variety and also the second largest in population is found in the area directly south of Kaga Bandoro, from Dékoa to Sibut, and is called // ‘language below’ by those in Kaga Bandoro and there are about 42,000 speakers. (The terms // ‘language below’ refers to the fact that Kaga Bandoro is north of Dékoa and Sibut, of which the latter is south, or ‘below’.)

The third variety is to the west of the first two and is referred to by both as // ‘language of Bouca’; there are about 18,000 speakers. The first two varieties claim that // has a lot of Gbaya in it. The fact of the matter is that // is geographically close to a variety of Gbaya and has some phonological similarity but whether there have been massive borrowings from Gbaya (as some seem to believe) is yet to be proven. The main difference between the varieties is in regards to the presence or absence of the intervocalic /l/. The /l/ is found intervocalically in Dékoa Manza, but in Bouca Manza it has changed to /y/ and in the KB variety it is almost non-existent, resulting in systematic changes to adjacent back rounded vowels.

Sibut Variety Bouca Variety Kaga Bandoro Variety English gloss /gbuŠluŠ/ /gbuŠyuŠ/ /gbuŠuŠ/ ~ /gbº˜Š/ ‘fetish’ /boŠloŠ/ /boŠyoŠ/ /boŠeŠ/ ~ /bºeŠ/ ‘steel’ /l/ /y/ /„/ ~ /º„/ ‘to arrive’ /gbala/ /gbaya/ /gba„/ ~ /gb„„/ ‘to pour’ Table 2: Varietal Differences

This paper principally describes the Manza currently spoken at Kaga Bandoro. If data is presented from other varieties, it will be clearly marked as coming from a different variety. 1.2.3 Previous linguistic investigations Only one other work solely about Manza has been written and that was by a Catholic priest, Père Hoch in 1982. It was published in French and only locally within the country. He did his work in the village of Dissikou (on the linguistic border between Kaga Bandoro Manza and Dékoa/Sibut Manza; there is a large river there, the Gribingui). Therefore, to my knowledge, no serious work has yet been devoted to studying “Standard” Manza. Research on Manza that was conducted by Moniño was always of a comparative nature, and on data taken from the variety spoken at Mala (near Dékoa). None of his data appears similar to that spoken in the north, and the author has not found any other linguist presenting data from this variety of Manza. As far as publications in the Manza language, there are very few. Père Hoch did publish an excellent collection of three hundred Manza proverbs, each of which was accompanied by extensive commentary in French, transcription in IPA and translation into Sango. But other than this, the author knows of no other items published in the language. The author has printed and distributed on a very small scale a number of

6 There has been some reference made to a fourth variety, Manza-Mbrès. During a meeting in Nov. 1999, in the town of Boto (8 km south of Kaga Bandoro), the author was accused of speaking Manza-Mbrès. And then two months latter, two Manza language speakers that the author was working with in Bangui (but they were from Kaga Bandoro) read a story from Bomanza and refered to this as Manza-Mbrès (it was a conjunction /gó/ that they said should have been /k‚§¥/. But generally speaking, this variety does not have many differences from Kaga Bandoro proper.

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Manza calendars (1995 and 1996), and a half page story, Mr. Baboon and Mr. Crocodile (included in Section 8 of this write up with translations and interlinearized.) 1.2.4 The present study The work below is a study on the Kaga Bandoro variety of Manza. Data were collected from three main sites. From July 1994 to May 1996, the author and his family lived continuously in the village of Bomandja /®òmànzà/, 30 km south-east of the town of Kaga Bandoro, 5 km from Kako (which is the last Manza village on the Kaga Bandoro—Mbrès road). Four neighbouring villages; namely Ndenga, Faya 1, Faya 2, and Gbanzaa to the west of Bomanza and Kako to the east, were also visited during this time and data collected from their. From September 1998 to July 1999 the author lived and worked in Bangui with frequent visits to the town of Kaga Bandoro and the village of Bomanza. Since August 1999, the author has been living in the town of Kaga Bandoro, in the quartier Daagaza /dáágàzá/, continuing to collect data on the Manza language.

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2. Manza Phone Charts The following two tables present all the phones that appear in the Manza of Kaga Bandoro. The following chapters will present an analysis of these phones to show which of these are phonemic in the language and which are not.

Front central back unround unround round ORAL High i u Mid e  o Low „ a 

NASAL High i¥ u¥ Low „¥ a¥ ‚¥ æ¥ Table 3: Oral and Nasal Vowel Phones

The inventory is relatively similar to other Gbaya languages. Notable exceptions are the inclusion of the alveolar nasal, [nz], and the exclusion of the palatal nasal, [¡]. Labial Labio- Alveolar Velar Palatal Labio-velar Glotta dental l Plosive vl p t k kp Plosive vd b d g gb prenasal mb nd ™g ™b Nasal m n ™ ¡ ™m Implosive vd ® ¯ Fricative vl f s h Fricative vd v z prenasal nz nÝ Approximant w y Lateral l Flap vb r Table 4: Manza Consonant Phones

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3. Vowels A search for vowel contrast follows the chart below. For each line there will be an example of contrast in identical environments (minimal pairs) or contrast in analogous environment, revealing the phonemic nature of these vowels.

Figure 2: Chart of Vowel Contrasts

3.1 Display of Vowel Contrast Examples The chart below follows place of articulation, by first showing contrasts involving the high front vowel /i/, moving down to the central vowel /a/, and then ascending through the back vowels to /u/. Nasal counterparts follow after the oral counterparts. Minimal pairs involving CV type lexemes precede CVCV type lexemes, and verb precede nouns. (If the examples differ from this pattern it is because there were no other lexemes found.) An attempt has been made to show that the vowel in question are phonemic in nouns and verbs.

Vowel Manza translation Manza translation i/e CV bi (v) to put out fire be (v) to exist CV yí water yé village i/u CV si (v) to return home su (v) to swell CVCV tiri (v) to put back turu (v) to drag, pull CVCV kìnd˜Š colobus guereza (monkey) kùnduŠ bow (and arrow) i/i¥ CV zi (v) to spin, go around zi¥ (v) to grow fat CVV kùì 7 traditional red paint kù¥ì¥ plant, type of

i¥/u¥ CV zi¥ (v) to grow fat zu¥ (v) to steal CV z˜Š¥ a fly zuŠ¥ a theft i¥/„¥ CV di¥ (v) to peel fruit with knife d„¥ (v) to make fire

e/i see i/e e/i¥ CV de (v) to make di¥ (v) to peel fruit with knife

7Except for a few CV morphemes, the phoneme [] can only be found in CVV syllables (true for nouns or verbs). In these syllables it is "long" or if it is with another vowel it is usually [u] or [a] and is always the final vowel.

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e/„ CV fe (v) to die f„ (v) to search CVCV were (v) to resonant w„r„ (v) to be bent CV tè tree t„© body CVCV nzeŠreŠ lonchura cucullata nz„Šr„Š beard (bronze.mannikin) e/o CV kpe (v) to close kpo (v) to tie CV tè tree, general term tò story e/„¥ CV he (v) to cry h„¥ (v) to be full, swollen CV tè tree, general term t„©¥ thorn

„/a CV gb„ (v) to kill gba (v) to rise up CVCV k„r„ (v) to shave kara (v) to last CV t„© body tà stone CVCV t„§r„© cove to catch fish tárà tree, type of „/‚ CV n„ (v) to go n‚ (v) to drink CVCV h„r„ (v) to tie up h‚r‚ (v) to up root CV w„© fruit, general w‚© hunger „/„¥ CV gb„ (v) to kill gb„¥ (v) to give birth while nursing CV t„© body t„©¥ thorn CVV g‚Š„Š catfish g‚§¥„§¥8 ant, type of

„¥/a¥ V „¥ (v) to peel fruit a¥ (v) to be healed CV d„¥ (v) to make fire da¥ (v) to insult CV g„©¥ fish trap ga©¥ cold „¥/‚¥ V „¥ (v) to peel fruit ‚¥ (v) to loose weight CV g„¥ (v) to place on hock g‚¥ (v) to carry on pole CV g„©¥ fishing trap g¥‚©¥ leopard CVV d„¥§„©¥ plant, type of medical d‚§¥‚©¥ vine (spec) „/e see e/„

a/„ see „/a a/‚ CV nda (v) to cut breath nd‚ (v) to trap, seduce CVCV ndara (v) to poison someone nd‚r‚ (v) to shoot, hoop CV yà ancestor y‚© rope, type of CVCV saŠraŠ split in a tree or path s‚Šr‚Š star a/a¥ CV sa (v) to wrap up, mate sa¥ (v) to call CV dà bottle dॠscolding

a¥/‚¥ V a¥ (v) to be healed ‚¥ (v) to loose weight CV sa¥ (v) to call s‚¥ (v) to push CV ba©¥ cephalophus rufilatus (red- b‚©¥ banana flanked duiker)

8The distribution of the phoneme [] is similar to that of nasalized [] and often in complementary distribution in CVV and CVCV morphemes with [], it's oral counterpart.

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‚/„ see „/‚ ‚/a see a/‚ ‚/o CV k‚ (v) to catch, grab ko (v) to give birth CVCV y‚r‚ (v) to write yoro (v) to stand up CV d‚© caterpillar, general term dò fish catching poison CVCV ™g‚©t‚Š bat, type of ™goŠtoŠ turtledove ‚/‚¥ CV k‚ (v) to catch, grab k‚¥ (v) to like, agree with CV t‚© blood t‚©¥ termite mound

o/e see e/o o/‚ see ‚/o o/‚¥ CV kpo (v) to tie knot kp‚¥ (v) to spring open CV gò flat exposed rock surface g‚©¥ leopard, general term o/u CV lo (v) to throw stones lu (v) to bind with thread CVCV doro (v) to hinder duru (v) to be long CVCV koŠtoŠ hat kùtuŠ fog o/u¥ V o (v) to break open u¥ (v) to uproot CV fo (v) to remove off fu¥ (v) to pop open CVV kóò female kú¥ù¥ deformity

u/i see i/u u/o see o/u u/u¥ CV su (v) to swell su¥ (v) to put in a line CV zuŠ head zuŠ¥ stolen property

u¥/‚¥ CV ku¥ (v) to cross sticks k‚¥ (v) to accept, want CV zuŠ¥ a theft z‚Š¥ grassland    3.2 Allophones The low central oral vowel, /a/, is in complementary distribution with the slightly higher central vowel, []. The latter only appears in the environment of the flap /r/. Therefore, such words as /®árá/ ‘piece’ and /gbara/ ‘to stretch’ should more precisely be transcribed as /®/ and //. Because it is in complementary distribution with /a/, it is not necessary to mark this in the orthography. Nasalisation will shortly be discussed in more detail, but at this point it’s affect on the height of the low front vowel /„/ should be mentioned. Nasalisation on this vowel causes it to be lower in height and to sound very similar to an /æ/. Because this vowel only appears when /„/ is phonemically nasalized (it does not usually does appear after a nasal consonant), it should not considered as a phonemic vowel.

3.3 Vowel Distribution 3.3.1 Initial Position All vowel phonemes are found in all syllable types, be they V, VV, VCV or CV. (The default initial glottal stop before an initial vowel is neglected for the initial position.) As shown below, all vowels can be found in initial position of VCV or VV type lexemes.

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i ínì urine i¥ ˜Š¥ demonstrative e eŠreŠ plant (unidentified) „ „§r„§ claws/fingernail „¥ „©¥™bà¯à polyboroides radiatus (harrier hawk) a aŠlaŠ sadness a¥ aŠ¥ (adj) old ‚ ‚§mì a breath ‚¥ ‚§¥ì¥ vomit o ófè tree bark u ufu (v) to blow (with mouth) u¥ u¥i¥ (v) to stick

3.3.2 Isolated Vowels Manza has no restrictions on what vowels can be isolated to form a single syllable. In fact, each vowel serves as a single verbal morpheme. As shown in the chart below, there are single syllable morphemes formed with every vowel; the only possible exception is the low front vowel /„/, which is actually two vowels.

Oral to know (v) i u to pull out (v) vowels to place (v) e o to break open (v) to pour (v) „„9 a  to exist (v) ask (v)

Nasal this (dem) i¥ u¥ to pick seeds (v) vowels to peel (v) „¥ a¥ ‚¥ to loose weight (v) to be healed (v)

Figure 3: Syllables with One Vowel

3.3.3 Vowel Clusters There is one general rule that accounts for the majority of vowel clusters in Manza, and that rule is that both vowels must be equal in height. The figure below graphically demonstrates the VV patterns that are so dominant in Manza. (The heavy lines show the dominant pattern of VV syllables, and the two lighter lines show a second dominant pattern.)

9 The verb ‘to pour’ is actually two vowels, and is occasionally pronounced /aya/.

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Figure 4: Dominant Vowel Sequences

Originally, Proto-GMN must have had complete vowel harmony in lexemes; that is, all vowels in a lexeme must not have just been equal in height, but have been identical. However, at about the turn of the century all flap /Þ/’s were deleted from the variety of Manza spoken in Kaga Bandoro (based on present day data and date found in Gaud 1911). If the flap /Þ/’s were intervocalic, that resulted in two identical vowels coming together, with the second vowel becoming [+front]. So presently we find that all verbs with a VV or CVV structure in which V1 is [-front], then V2 has to be [+front] and [ height] (more in the following section). As for nouns with the same structure, VV or CVV, we find this to be true for 85% of the lexemes. In other words, the oral sequences /ui, oe, ‚„, ‚a, a„/, as seen in the chart above, are also very common in nouns. The findings are the same with regards to the nasal sequences, /ui¥, ‚„¥, ‚a¥, a„¥,/.10

Other patterns that have more than one example in nouns, are /ae, ea, ao, io, ai, ‚¥i¥, a¥i¥, i¥a¥, a¥„¥/. Some of these vowel sequences could be the result of compounding, but in either case account for less than 10% of all known vowel clusters.

3.3.3.1 Vowel Length Vowel length should be discussed at this point because on the surface, Manza does appear to have contrastive vowel length. For example, /bò/ ‘of’, contrasts with, /bòò/ ‘tree’ (spec. unidentified); /dò/ ‘poison’, contrasts with, /dòò/ ‘tail’; and /kpà¥/ ‘cricetomys gambianus (gambian rat)’, contrasts with /kpà¥à¥/ ‘smelling good’ (ideophone), and, /s„©/ ‘smart’, with /s„©„©/ ‘melon’.

However, closer examination will show that what looks like long vowels, are simply two identical vowels side-by-side (marked as XX or CXX in the paper). One proof of this is the acoustical length of the vowel. The vowel in a XX or CXX syllable is twice as long as the same vowel in a V or CV type syllable; a phenomenon similar to Gbaya of Bossangoa (Samarin 1966:28; as quoted in Ruckstuhl 1997). Secondly, a number of XX and CXX syllables can have two different tones associated with the vowel, such as /kíì/ ‘fear’ and /wéeŠ/ ‘person’.

But the third and most convincing reason to believe that there is no contrastive vowel length in Manza is that many of the CXX syllables were historically CXCX syllables with a medial flap /Þ/ that feel out from between the vowels. At present, the Manza spoken at Kaga Bandoro has no flap /Þ/’s left at all. The flap /Þ/’s

10 Nasalization is typically on the last vowel; this will be discussed below under nasalization of syllables.

- 13 - have all been changed to a /y/, and some of these resultant /y/’s have gone to zero. (This change in the language is very recent, beginning perhaps less than 60 years ago.)11 Because Manza historically preferred identical vowels, when the flap /Þ/’s changed and then fell out, it resulted in a large number of syllables with two identical adjacent vowels. For instance, /s„§„©/ ‘spear’, is still pronounced with the intervocalic flap /Þ/ as, [s„§Þ„©], in Manza of Sibut, and in Ngbaka Minagende. Likewise, /s„Š„Š/ ‘fur’, is pronounced as, /saŠÞaŠ/, in the same two places.

The, “/aÞa/  /„„/” transformation, seen in the last example, will be explained in the following paragraphs. It is worth taking the time now to explain the transformation because the language is in a transition stage and the process is not yet stable in the Manza of Kaga Bandoro today. Generally speaking, when the flap /Þ/ became a /y/, it also added the feature of [+front] to the vowel to it’s right. Front vowels were unaffected by the process; only back vowels in the second syllable were fronted (i.e., /uÞu/ went to/uyi/ or /ui/, /oÞo/ to /oye/ or /oe/, and /‚Þ‚/ to /‚y„/ or /‚„/), and the central vowel /a/ which was in the second syllable also fronted, such that /aa/ become /a„/. (Because the /a/ is replaced by the same vowel as the /‚/ that is, by an /„/, all three of these vowels are considered as having the same height.)

Flap /l/ between [+front] vowels Flap /l/ Flap /l/ between [-front] vowels wíÞì  wíì ‘man’ i between u u¥Þu¥  u¥i¥ ‘to smell’ zeÞe  zee ‘to listen’ e /a/ o tòÞoŠ  tòeŠ ‘dog’ s„§Þ„©  s„§„© ‘spear’ „ a  ‚¥Þ‚¥  ‚¥„¥ ‘to vomit’ aÞa  ala  aya  ay„  a„  „„

Table 5: Results of “Flap /l/ Deletion Rule”

The chart above clearly demonstrates the changes that have taken place in the language. Firstly, the process whereby all flap /Þ/’s became /y/’s is complete.12 At present in Kaga Bandoro, there remains only two clear examples of an intervocalic /l/ (not a flap /Þ/) between two identical front vowels.13

But the result of the /Þ/’s falling out from between two identical vowels had three different results, depending on whether the vowels where [+front], or [-front], or the central vowel /a/. The first, and simplest result, occurred when both vowels where [+front]; the consonant was simply deleted and two identical front vowels ended up being adjacent to one another (see chart above).

The second type of result occurred when the two vowels on both sides of the consonant were [-front], the vowel in the second syllable became [+front] (see chart above). This resulting combination of vowels (where V1 is [-front] and V2 is [+front]) has lead to a further development in which V1 becomes labialized. Therefore, all VV sequences of /ui, oe, ‚„/, and, /‚a/, are pronounced as, /wi, we, w„/, and /wa/, respectively. (Labialisation across morpheme boundaries also occurs when similar vowels are adjacent.)

The third, and last, type of result is the most complex to describe (and is still an active phonological process in the language—discussion below). This third change, which takes place when a flap /l/ is between two central vowels, appears to have about five steps. As seen in the table above, the steps are, aÞa  ala  aya  ay„  a„  „„. The problem is that a lexeme may go through the whole process until the /aÞa/

11 Linguistic data at the turn of the century shows that ‘dog’ in the Kaga Bandoro area was pronounced as either /tolo/ or /toyo/, the current pronunciation in Sibut and Bouca, respectively (Gaud 1911). But now, in the Kaga Bandoro area, ‘dog’ is pronounced only as /tòeŠ/. 12 Hoch, working at Dékoa, found that [g‚©„©] could vary with [g‚©y‚©], and some elderly in Bomanza do as well. 13 These are /tele/ ‘to shine’ and /fele/ ‘to be ripe’. But it is not yet clear if these were even flap /Þ/’s to begin with.

- 14 - sequence finally becomes, /„„/, or it may stop somewhere before the last step. At present it appears completely random as to which of the five steps a lexeme may stop at. As well, some lexemes have two or more forms, such as ‘mountain’, which can be realised as, /kày„©/, /kà„©/, or /k„©„©/ within Kaga Bandoro itself. But it is assumed that further study will reveal certain social factors which contribute to the final forms of each lexeme.

While both nouns and verbs are involved in same process, verbs appear to have less possible surface forms than nouns. Among the nouns there are clear examples from each of the four possibilities, and for all intents and purposes, each lexeme seems have a fairly stable form somewhere along the four steps, aya  ay„  a„  „„. It is therefore important to take the time to understand this apparent “instability” because it will create a number of challenges for the final orthography and for literacy projects.14 It will also require further research to know which form will be the most acceptable when publishing materials in the language, such as dictionaries, stories and the proposed Bible in Manza.

On the other hand, verbs containing the /aya/ sequence appear to have all changed to the /„„/ sequence. The only real exception is the verb, /dala/ ‘to raise a child’, because it has an intervocalic /l/ (not a flap /Þ/). The presence of an /l/ is a major change from the usual pattern in the Kaga Bandoro variety.

3.3.4 Medial Position This was already clearly presented above in Section 3.1, Display of Vowel Contrast Examples, where each vowel was shown to be found in at least one CV.

As was stated above, Manza has no closed syllables, therefore there is no discussion on vowels in such an environment.

3.4 Vowel Harmony and Vowel Length See Section 3.2.3 above (under the discussion about vowel length and vowel clusters).

3.5 Nasalisation Nasalisation is a common feature in Manza. Fifteen percent of the lexemes within the lexicon at present have at least one nasal vowel (400 out of 2400). Of the 400, 250 are nouns and 100 are verbs.

3.5.1 Restrictions with syllables There appears to be a strong tendency in Manza to limit nasalisation to only V and CV structured lexemes (significantly more lexemes of this shape have nasals than other types). The few CVCV lexemes that do have nasalisation, have it only on the final syllable (i.e., among nouns, [gàgà¥] ‘evening’, [s‚Šs‚Š¥] ‘nectarinia (sunbird)’, and [zàfà¥] ‘peanut’, and among verbs, /misi¥/ ‘to flick’, /nifi¥/ ‘to weave rope’, and /n‚kp‚¥/ ‘to insist’). There are a number of CVV structured lexemes which have nasalisation, but again, it appears that the feature is stronger on V2 than on V1 (i.e., [gíà¥] ‘shade’, [g‚§„§¥] ‘ant (spec)’, [káì¥] ‘charcoal’).

This process of shifting nasalisation to the final syllable of a word appears to be at work even when verbs are reduplicated. (Reduplication of the verb indicates the present continuous aspect; in which case the verb’s first syllable is doubled and placed before the entire verbal root which has a particular H-L tone pattern associated with it.) During reduplication, nasalisation is restricted to the final syllable of the verb root, and is not found on the doubled first syllable. For instance, the verbs, /ku¥/ ‘cross (river), and, /kp‚„¥/ ‘to be injured’, are both reduplicated in the following sentences…

14 It is also the major difference between the three varieties of Manza.

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1 /à kú yì kúù¥/ ‘He is crossing the river 3s cross(pres-red1) river cross(red-root) right now’ 2 /máà kp‚§ kp‚§„©¥/ ‘It (an arm) is wounded’ 3s-ina wounded(pres-red1) wounded(red-root)

In both instances, the verb’s original nasalisation is lost on the reduplicated CV syllable (marked “red1”) and is found only on the verb’s second root (marked, “red-root”). Therefore, in summary, some individuals may pronounce a CVV lexeme with nasalisation on both V1 and V2, but it will usually appear stronger on V2. As for reduplicated verbs, again it is the final syllable that receives nasalisation.

3.5.2 Restrictions after nasal consonants It is clear from the data that only nasal vowels follow nasal consonants, oral vowels follow pre- nasalized consonants, and that both oral and nasal vowels follow all the other consonants (which do not have the feature nasal). This is clearly presented in the following table. (It should also be mentioned that nasal vowels are not allowed after the flap /r/, nor word medial implosives, nor after word medial /y/.)

i ¥ u ¥ /m n ™ ™m/ „ ¥ a ¥ ‚¥

i u /mb nd ™g ™b/ e o „ a ‚ C i i ¥ u u ¥ [-nasal] e o „ „ ¥ a a ¥ ‚ ‚ ¥ Table 6 Vowel Restrictions Following Consonants

What is not so clear is the reason for varying degrees of nasalisation on nasal vowels. To begin with, it might seem contradictory to find that the nasalisation on nasal vowels after nasal consonants is generally much less than when the same vowels follow oral consonants. For instance, a Manza speaker may pronounce the lexeme, // ‘tree (spec),’ with a strong amount of nasalisation, or as, /n„§„©/, with no noticeable nasalisation at all. But when pronouncing the verb, /gb„¥/ ‘to become pregnant while nursing’, Manza speakers always place a strong degree of nasalisation on the vowel because nasalisation helps contrast this verb, /gb„¥/, with another verb, /gb„/ ‘to kill, or, to finish’.

This appears to be the finding in Gbaya of Bossangoa, for Ruckstuhl states, “there are no minimal pairs between a nasal vowel and its oral counterpart in the immediate environment of a nasal consonant” (1997:7; emphasis mine). In other words, one never finds a contrast between /m„/ and /m„¥/, or /n‚/ and /n‚¥/.

Hoch found the same to be true of Manza and came to the conclusion that nasal vowels following nasal consonants are not true nasals (1982). However, the author prefers to view them as true nasals because of the absence of [e] and [o] after nasal consonants. Because these two oral vowels are not found after nasal consonants, it is preferable to say that all vowels following nasal consonants are indeed true nasals vowels, thereby justifying the absence of the oral vowel, [e], and, [o]. All that remains to be explained is the varying degree of nasalisation found on these true nasals. And this phenomenon can in turn be explained by the simple fact that there is no contrast between oral and nasal vowels in the environment following nasal consonants, and so there exists little motivation to nasalise these vowels. That is to say, nasalisation on these nasal vowels is optional. On the other hand, nasal and oral vowels are in contrast after oral consonants, and therefore there must be a contrastive pronunciation of both vowels after oral consonants.

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One result of this analysis is to show that the orthography does not need to show nasalisation of vowels after nasal consonants. Therefore the lexeme, [] ‘tree (spec),’ could be written without indicating nasalisation on the vowel; it could be written as, “n†„”. But the orthography does need to clearly mark nasalisation on nasal vowels after oral consonants. Therefore, /gb„¥/, could be written as “gb„n”, and /gb„/, could be written as “gb„”.15

3.6 Semivowels 3.6.1 Distribution in Syllable Onset In initial position, the semivowels, /w/, and, /y/, are found preceding their respective syllabic vowel counterparts /u/ and /i/. While there are not many examples of the latter in the initial position of lexemes, it is nonetheless well substantiated that the semivowels contrast with the vowels in this environment. In medial position however, the semivowels /w/ and /y/ are more problematic. First the /w/. While there are four words with the VV sequence, /ua/, that could appear on the surface as /uwa/, they have instead been re-analysed as being simply /ua/. Therefore it appears accurate to state that in Manza there are no intervocalic /w/’s (in uncompounded lexemes). The situation in regards to intervocalic /y/ has already been discussed above (because it is often the result of a transformed flap /Þ/) and is very dissimilar from the situation with the semivowel /w/, and differs according to word class. Briefly, what was already stated above was that, firstly, among nouns, /y/ is well attested between vowels in lexemes that appear to be uncompounded, such as /díy„Š¥/ ‘cicada’, /™bày˜Š/ ‘hibiscus esculentus (okra)’, /sá¥yà¥/ ‘tree (unidentified)’, and /sàyò/ ‘sperm’. However, there are other nouns in which the /y/ was historically a flap /Þ/ (and still is in the Sibut variety), such as in the words, /kày„©/ ‘crab’, /mbàyì/ ‘jewels’ and /sìyà/ ‘liver/heart’. 3.6.2 Distribution in Vowel Clusters

As was mentioned briefly above, when a VV combination exists in which V1 is [+round] and V2 is [- round], then V1 becomes labialised, taking on a semivowel quality. In other words, the sequences, /ui, oe, ‚„, ‚a/, become, /uºi, oºe, ‚º„, ‚ºa/, or /wi, we, w„, wa/. This is also true for the nasal counterparts, and among verbs and nouns. (The formation of all of this type of VV sequences are due to the deletion of flap /Þ/’s in the language, /oÞo/  /oyo/ /oye/  /oe/.) The pattern is well established in the language, but here are only a few examples; the verb ‘to fly’ contains two high vowels and is usually written //, but a more accurate transcription would be []; and // ‘steel’ with two mid vowels would be more accurate if written as []; and // ‘foolish’ as []; and // ‘two’ as []. Some individual speakers do pronounce both vowels slowly without the appearance of any labialisation, but it is rare.

The appearance of the semivowel, /w/, in place of the rounded V1 vowel also has an affect on vowel length and on the tone over the lexeme. The replacement of V1 should have no affect on the length of the V2, and analysis with Speech Analyser appears to confirm this. The lexeme /tùì/ ‘clothing’ is simply pronounced [tºì], and /t‚©à/ ‘house’ is [tºà], and in both cases the vowel is of a normal length. However, in some lexemes there is a slight lengthening of V2 in the case where the tone on V1 is different than the tone on V2. A good example of such a word would be, /tòeŠ/ ‘dog’. In normal speech the vowels are not individually pronounced and the word becomes /tºèeŠ/, but the length is not quite fully two vowels, for there is only a slight amount of lengthening. This also happens across morpheme boundaries and will be discussed latter.

15 These two examples reflect some of the proposed Manza orthography.

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4. Consonants The search for consonant contrast follows the chart below. For each line there will be an example of contrast in identical environments (minimal pairs) or contrast in analogous environment, revealing the phonemic nature of these consonants.

nÝ ¡

vb

Figure 5: Chart of Consonants

4.1 Display of Consonant Contrast Examples The following section focuses on the distribution of consonant phonemes and present data taken from a restricted database of 1700 Manza nouns, verbs and ideophones. (This database is considered to be generally void of all foreign language appropriations (borrowings) and of all compounds.) Because all syllables in Manza are open (a major difference from Gbaya languages) consonants were analysed according to their initial position and their intervocalic positions only. The chart below attempts to show that each consonant in question can be found in the initial and intervocalic positions; firstly among the verbs (indicated by a, (v), under the, English column), and then secondly among the nouns. CV (or CVV)

- 18 - type lexemes precede CVCV type lexemes (when CVCV type are found). (If no lexemes are found among both nouns and verbs, ideophones might also be used.) The table below goes from left to right, following the place of articulation, and then top down, following the manner of articulation.

Lastly, at the end of each set there is a summary describing the consonant. Also included in this summary is information about distribution across the word classes (distribution is normally homogenous, but there are some interesting exceptions). Lastly, vowel restrictions following some consonants are also noted.

Consonants Manza English Manza English p/b CV pu (v) to reveal a secret bu (v) to fan a fire CVCV ------(v) /p/ never intervocalic ------(v) /b/ never intervocalic16 CV pॠwhirlpool bॠcephalophus rufilatus (red duiker) p/t CV p„ (v) to sow seeds t„ (v) to come CV p„© year, season t„© body p/f17 CVCV p„r„ (v) to split wood f„r„ (v) to be tired, worn out CV p˜Šì insect (unidentified) fìì death p/kp CV pi¥ (v) to drop kpi¥i¥ (v) to squeeze CV pॠwhirlpool kpॠcricetomys gambianus (cane rat) /p/ a voiceless bilabial stop which is commonly found root initial among all three word classes, only intervocalically among ideophones; there are no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English t/p see p/t t/k CVV t„„ (v) to wash hands k„„ (v) to gather CVCV k‚t‚ (v) to miss, lack k‚k‚ (v) to soil, make dirty CV t‚© blood k‚© pudding CVCV ™b‚Št‚Š gravy ™b‚Šk‚Š large sugar cane t/d CVCV turu (v) to pull, drag duru (v) to be long CVCV ™gutu (v) to be burnt ------(v) /d/ never intervocalic CVCV taŠnaŠ turtle / tortoise dànà bridge t/s CVCV tara (v) to be itchy sara (v) to search, to brush CV t„©¥ thorn s„©¥ gossip CVCV koŠtoŠ hat kòsò musophaga rossae (Ross’ turaco) /t/ is a voiceless alveolar stop which is commonly found root initial and intervocalically among all three word classes; no apparent vowel restrictions.

16There are no [p]'s nor voiced stops [b, d, g, gb] found intervocalic in verbs. 17 There is also one lexeme, /pàrà/ that is often pronounced /fàrà/; this is the only lexeme where the /p/ appears in free variation with /f/.

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Consonants Manza English Manza English k/t see t/k k/kp CV k„¥ (v) to share around kp„¥ (v) to be spoiled (of fruit) CVCV s‚k‚ (v) to poke something s‚kp‚ (v) to be finished CVV kòè rib kpòè bump CVCV fuŠkuŠ lung ------/kp/ no clear examples k/g CV ka¥ (v) to follow, chase ga¥ (v) to knock down w/stick CVCV raka (v) to sharpen knife ------(v) /g/ never intervocalic CV k‚Š¥ hand g‚Š¥ snake, generic term k/h CV k„¥ (v) to share h„¥ (v) to swell CVCV raka (v) to sharpen knife ------(v) /h/ never intervocalic CVV kùì traditional red paint hùì diarrhea /k/ is a voiceless velar stop which is commonly found root initial and intervocalically among all three word classes; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English kp/k see k/kp kp/p see p/kp kp/gb CV kp„¥ (v) to be spoiled (of fruit) gb„¥ (v) be pregnant while nursing CVCV sukpu (v) to rinse with water ------(v) /gb/ never intervocalic CVV kpòè bump (i.e., ankle) gbòé parrot (unidentified) /kp/ is a double articulated stop which is commonly found root initial in all three word classes, but intervocalically it is unrepresented or rare among nouns and verbs respectively, yet among ideophones it is well represented; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English b/f CXX b„„ (v) to be burnt f„„ (v) to search CVCV ------(v) /b/ never intervocalic ¯afa (v) to repair CVV b˜ŠaŠ thryonomys swinderianus f˜ŠaŠ insect (unidentified) (cane rat) b/d CVV bu¥i¥ (v) to be dirty du¥i¥ (v) to stoop, or crawl under CV bॠcephalophus rufilatus (red dॠa scolding, crewing out duiker) CVCV kàbá tree, type of hard-wood gbaŠdaŠ stomach b/® CV bi (v) to put out fire ®i (v) to gather fruit CVCV ------(v) /b/ never intervocalic d‚®‚ (v) to walk on tiptoes CV buŠ wind ®ú ten CVCV kàbá tree, type of gà®aŠ meat bag b/gb CV bo (v) to peel with a knife gbo (v) to pierce, arrive CVV b„©„© a lie gb„©„© partridge, type of b/mb CV bo (v) to peel with a knife mbo (v) to give advice, counsel CVCV ------(v) /b/ never intervocalic kombo (v) burn slightly CVV b‚©„© foolishness mb‚©„© mucus CVCV kàbá tree, type of kàmbá baby cloth

- 20 - b/w CVV b„„ (v) to be burnt w„„ (v) to produce fruit CVCV ------(v) /b/ never intervocalic ------(v) /w/ never intervocalic CV bॠcephalophus rufilatus (red wॠmiddle, centre duiker) /b/ is a voiced bilabial stop which is commonly found root initial among all three word classes, but almost never intervocalically; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English d/t see t/d d/¯ CV dii (v) to thunder, rumble ¯ii (v) to apply a bandage CVCV ------(v) /d/ never intervocalic za¯a (v) to return, come back CVV d„©¥„©¥ tree, type of hardwood ¯„©¥„©¥ traditional grass belt CVCV gbùdù ameranth (African spinich) guŠ¯uŠ grass hut d/n CV d‚ (v) to burn something n‚ (v) to drink CVCV ------(v) /d/ never intervocalic b‚n‚ (v) to hurry up CV dù mortar nù mouth, edge CVCV b‚Šd‚Š sweet potato d‚©n‚© hammer d/nd CV do (v) to put, set something ndo (v) to copulate CVCV ------(v) /d/ never intervocalic ®ondo (v) to make into a ball CV d‚© caterpillar, general term for nd‚© mud CVCV gèdè tree, type of deŠndeŠ stupidity d/g CV d„¥ (v) to start a campfire g„¥ (v) to hang on a hock d/z CV da¥ (v) to insult za¥ (v) to dig a hole in the ground /d/ is a voiced alveolar stop which is commonly found root initial among all three word classes, but intervocalically it is rarely found among nouns and never among verbs or ideophones; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English g/k see k/g g/d see d/g g/gb CV g„¥ (v) to hang on a hock gb„¥ (v) be pregnant while nursing CV(V) g„©¥ fish trap gb„©¥„©¥ bone g/™ CVCV gana (v) to escape ™anda (v) to be tall, grown CVCV g„©z„© basket, type of ™„§nz„§ scabbies g/™g CV g„„ (v) to be bent ™g„„ (v) to be strong CVCV ------(v) /g/ never intervocalic k„™g„ (v) to build a fence, to hide CVCV guŠ˜ŠyaŠ co-wife ™gùìyaŠ potamochoerus porcus (forest pig) /g/ is a voiced velar stop which is commonly found among all three word classes in root initial position, but intervocalically it is found only among nouns and never among verbs or ideophones; no apparent vowel restrictions.

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Consonants Manza English Manza English gb/g see g/gb gb/b see b/gb gb/kp see kp/gb gb/™b CVCV gbara (v) to tie ropes together ™bara (v) to stretch CVCV ------(v) /gb/ never intervocalic ‚™b‚ (v) to appreciate, esteem CVCV gb„Šr„Š old person ™b„Šr„Š leprosy CVCV d‚©gbà cercocebus (mangabey) d‚©™bà state of weakness /gb/ is a double articulated stop which is commonly found root initial among all three word classes, but intervocalically it is only found among nouns and never among verbs or ideophones; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English mb/b see b/mb mb/m CVV mbii (v) to sweep (with broom) mii (v) to wipe (nose), or to twirl CVCV y‚mb‚ (v) to be flat yumu (v) to hum CVV mbùì white hair, or brideprice mùì pile of dirt CVCV dámbá dance, type of dámálá Newcastle chicken disease mb/® CV mbo (v) to give advice, counsel ®o (v) to knead CVCV y‚mb‚ (v) to be flat y‚®‚ (v) to act stupid CVCV mbùtú trouble ®ùtù a drizzly rain CVCV dàmbà dance, type of doŠ®oŠ tree, type of mb/™b CV mb„„ (v) to assemble together ™b„„ (v) to wonder about CVCV y‚mb‚ (v) to be flat ‚™b‚ (v) to appreciate, esteem CVCV mbàrá a cover ™bàrà phacochoerus aethiopicus (warthog) CVCV kàmbá baby cloth ká™bá xylophone mb/nd CVCV kombo (v) to burn slightly ®ondo (v) to make into a ball CV mbùì gray hair ndùì mouse, general term for /mb/ is a pre-nasalized bilabial stop which is found root initially and intervocalically across all three word classes; only found before oral vowels.

Consonants Manza English Manza English nd/mb see mb/nd nd/d see d/nd nd/™g CVCV dende (v) to be stupid de™ge (v) to pile up, arrange CV ndò yard broom plant ™gò hardwood, general term for nd/nz CV(V) nd„„ (v) to repart nze (v) to laugh at, mock CVCV ™„nz„ (v) to be dry h„nz„ (v) to tie up with cord CVCV nd‚©l‚© scar nz‚©l‚© macroscelidea (elephant shrew) CVCV ™g„©nd„Š lazy boy chair ™„§nz„§ scabies nd/¯ CV(V) ndi (v) to thicken a sauce ¯ii (v) to apply a bandage CVCV ™anda (v) to be tall, grown ™ga¯a (v) to bit CV ndò yard broom plant ¯ò back, or behind (of someone)

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CVCV bàndeŠ under garments bà¯è stall for animals /nd/ is a pre-nasalized alveolar stop which is commonly found root initially and intervocalically across all three word classes; only found before oral vowels.

Consonants Manhza English Manza English nz/n see n/nz nz/nd see nd/nz nz/¯ CV nz‚®‚ (v) to suck ¯‚k‚ (v) to be enlarged CVCV h„nz„ (v) to tie up h„¯„ (v) to wear cloths CVCV nz‚©l‚© macroscelidea (elephant shrew) ¯‚©r‚© faeces CVCV gànzà thorn bush, type of gà¯à™gà manioc /nz/ is a pre-nasalized alveolar fricative (often in free variation with the pre-nasalized post-alveolar fricative [nÝ]), which is commonly found root initial among all three word classes, but intervocalically is only among nouns and verb; only found before oral vowels.

Consonants Manza English Manza English ™g/nd see nd/™g ™g/g see g/™g ™g/™b CVV ™g„„ (v) to be hard ™b„„ (v) to walk about CVCV d‚™g‚ (v) to praise, adore d‚™b‚ (v) to be tired CV ™guŠ˜Š vine (unidentified) ™buŠ˜Š cheek/jaw CVCV kò™goŠ milvus migrans (black kite) kò™bò solid wood stool ™g/™ CVCV ™ga¯a (v) to bit ™anda (v) to be tall, grown CVCV ya™ga (v) to play ya™a (v) to lack or miss something CVCV ™g„©nd„Š long chair ™„Šnz„Š„Š atherurus africanus (bushy tailed porcupine) /™g/ is a pre-nasalized velar stop which is very commonly found root initially and intervocalically across all three word classes; only before oral vowels.

Consonants Manza English Manza English ™b/™g see ™g/™b ™b/gb see gb/™b ™b/mb see mb/™b ™b/™m CV ™b„„ (v) to walk about ™m„ (v) to step on something VCV ‚™b‚ (v) to appreciate, esteem ------(v) /™m/ never intervocalic CVCV ™baŠ™baŠ foolishness ™mà™gà noon CVCV ¯á™bà hernia ------/™m/ never intervocalic /™b/ is a pre-nasalized labio-velar stop which is very commonly found root initially position and intervocalically across all three word classes; only before oral vowels.

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Consonants Manza English Manza English m/mb see mb/m m/b see b/m m/n CVV m‚„ (v) to argue n‚„ (v) to be boiling VCV ‚m‚ (v) to breath ‚n‚ (v) to destroy CV m‚© thing n‚© a walk CVCV d‚©m‚© hare d‚©n‚© hammer m/™m CV m„ (v) to tear ™m„ (v) to step on something CVCV manza (v) to test, verify ™manza (v) (an insect) to sting CVCV kúmà python sebae (rock python) ------/™m/ never intervocalic /m/ is a bilabial nasal which is very commonly found root initially and intervocalically among nouns and verbs but is rare among ideophones; only found before nasal vowels.

Consonants Manza English Manza English n/m see m/n n/d see d/n n/nd see nd/n n/nz CV n„ (v) to go, leave nz„ (v) to tease, poke fun at CVCV ™mana (v) to chop off ™manza (v) (an insect) to sting CVV náà mother, family nzáà outside CVCV kpánà earthen pot kpànzà meat skewer n/™ CV n„™„ (v) to arrange inside basket ™„nz„ (v) to dry in sun CVCV dunu (v) to be full du™u (v) to remain or stab CVCV naŠ™aŠ foot ™ànà war or battle CVCV y‚Šn‚Š meal y‚©™‚Š hystrix cristata (crested porcupine) /n/ is an alveolar nasal which is commonly found root initial and intervocalically among nouns and verbs, but never among ideophones; only before nasal vowels.

Consonants Manza English Manza English ™/n see n/™ ™/™g see ™g/™ ™/g see g/™ ™/™m CVCV ™anda (v) to be tall, grown ™mana (v) to chop off CVCV yi™i (v) to roll something ------(v) /™m/ never intervocalic CVCV ™ànà war or battle ™mànà hardwood tree, type of CVCV nz„©™„§n„Š caterpillar, type of ------/™m/ never intervocalic

/™/ is a velar nasal which is found root initial and intervocalically among nouns and verbs, but among ideophones they are never found root initial and rarely intervocalically; only before nasal vowels.

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Consonants Manza English Manza English ™m/™b see ™b/™m ™m/™g see ™g/™m ™m/m see m/™m ™m/™ see ™/™m /™m/ is a double articulated labio-velar nasal which is rarely found root initially (only 10 lexemes thus far) and never intervocalically, and only among nouns and verbs; only before nasal vowels.

Consonants Manza English Manza English ®/b see b/® ®/mb see mb/® ®/¯ CV ®uu (v) to be dusty, powdery ¯uu (v) to be deep, profound CVCV y‚®‚ (v) to be stupid y‚¯‚ (v) to swallow CV ®à arm or wing ¯à wide space, expanse CVCV ™guŠ®uŠ hippopotamus amphibius ™gù¯ù chest /®/ is an implosive bilabial stop which is found root initially and intervocalically across all three word classes; root initially it precedes oral and nasal vowels, but intervocalically only before oral vowels.

Consonants Manza English Manza English ¯/d see d/¯ ¯/® see ®/¯ ¯/nd see nd/¯ ¯/nz see nz/¯ /¯/ is an implosive alveolar stop which is found root initially and intervocalically across all three word classes; root initially it precedes oral and nasal vowels, but intervocalically only before oral vowels.

Consonants Manza English Manza English f/p see p/f f/s CV fo (v) to spread out, remove so (v) to pump or fetch water CVCV kafa (v) to doubt, deny kasa (v) to wrap up CV fᥠchicken coup sᥠclear, bright f/v CV fu¥i¥ (v) to open vu¥i¥18 (v) to mix with stick CVCV dofo (v) to be scalded ------/v/ is rarely intervocalic CVCV l„©f„© tongue ------/v/ is rarely intervocalic CVV fàà the sound of spilling water vàà the look of sprinkled stars /f/ is a bilabial fricative which is found root initially and intervocalically across all three word classes; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English s/f see f/s s/t see t/s

18 There is free variation between /vu¥i¥/ and /vui/.

- 25 - s/z CV sa¥ (v) to call za¥ (v) to dig a hole CVCV toso (v) to touch ends together ------(v) /z/ never intervocalic CVV s„©„© squash z„©„© last night CVCV g„©s„© now g„©z„© flour sifter /s/ is an alveolar fricative which is commonly found root initially and intervocalically across all three word classes; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English h/k see k/h h/w CVV h„„ (v) to crawl w„„ (v) to bear fruit CVCV ------(v) /h/ never ------(v) /w/ never intervocalically intervocalically CVV híí spirit wíí man /h/ is a glottal fricative which is commonly found root initially across all three word classes, but never present intervocalically; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English v/f see f/v v/w CV xxx (v) (v) CVCV ------/v/ is rarely intervocalic ------/w/ is never intervocalic19 CVCV và™gè hardwood, type of wè™geŠ plant, unidentified v/vb CV(CV) vu (v) to win vburu (v) to be full CV-CV vù-vù the feel of stinging pain vbù-vbù the sound of a heart beating /v/ is a labio-dental fricative which is poorly represented both root initially and intervocalically among all three word classes (however, among ideophones in initial position it is common); no vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English z/s see s/z z/d see d/z z/nz CVCV z„ (v) to be hurt, in pain nz„ (v) to tease VCV ------(v) /z/ is never intervocalic unzu (v) to remove CVCV z‚©r‚© pimple nz‚©l‚© macroscelidea (elephant shrew) CVCV gàzá rite of circumcision gànzà thorn tree, type of /z/ is an alveolar fricative which is found root initially across all three word classes, but intervocalically only among nouns and ideophones (never among verbs); no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English w/b see b/w w/v see v/w w/h see h/w

19 The word, /balawa. ‘tree (spec)’, is the only lexeme with an intervocalic, /w/; it may turn out to be a compound.

- 26 - w/y CVCV w„r„ (v) to pray y„r„ (v) to dry in the sun CVCV ------(v) /w/ is never intervocalic taya (v) to wash hands CVCV wàrà hoe yàrà sleep CVCV ------/w/ is rarely intervocalic mbaya animal grease w/vb CVCV wàrà hoe vbàrà thorny patch /w/ is a bilabial approximant which is commonly found in initial position among all word classes, but never intervocalically; no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English y/w see w/y y/r CVCV yara (v) to wander, visit raka (v) to sharpen CVCV daya (v) to raise (a child) dara (v) to limp CV-- yìkìtìkì state of being dull ríkpíríkpí state of being tight together20 CVCV g‚©y‚© yam, type of g‚©r‚© honey y/l CV y„ (v) to remove seeds l„ same CVCV kaya21 (v) to gather pieces kala (v) to get someone’s attention CVV yòò termite, soldier lóò man-made beehive CVCV sìyà liver saŠlaŠ tiliacées grewia mollis (tree) /y/ is a palatal approximant which is commonly found in initial position among all word classes (and sometimes in free variation with /l/); intervocalically, /y/, is rare among nouns and ideophones, and disappearing among verbs (among verbs it is found only between the back vowel /a/).22 There are no apparent vowel restrictions.

Consonants Manza English Manza English l/y see y/l l/r CVCV luku (v) to poke raka (v) to sharpen CVCV dala (v) to finish off dara (v) to limp CVCVCV lálálá a way to refuse rárárá a way to run CVCV saŠlaŠ tiliacées grewia mollis saŠraŠ fork, or groin /l/ is an alveolar lateral approximant which is rarely found root initial among verbs (because it is in free variation with /y/), but commonly root initial among nouns and ideophones; and intervocalically it is

common across all three word classes; only found before oral vowels. Note: If /l/ is C1, then C2 cannot be /r/, nor a nasal consonant.

Consonants Manza English Manza English r/l see l/r r/y see y/r r/vb CVCV raka (v) to sharpen vba™ga (v) to cross CV-- ruku-ruku sound of working vbù-vbù the sound of heart beating CVCV buŠruŠ underside buŠvbuŠvbuŠ way to run wildly

20 The phoneme /r/ is extremely rare in initial position, except among ideophones. 21 The intervocalic /y/ is disappearing; this verb is usually realised now as, /ka„/, or as, /k„„/. 22 This is part of a shift in the language that has been discussed elsewhere in the write-up, in which the /aya/ sequence can be pronounced variably as /aya/, /ay„/, /a„/, or /„„/; this pattern is clearly seen in seventeen verbs.

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/r/ is an alveolar flap which in initial position is extremely rare—nearly all /r/’s in this position are ideophones, except for one verb—but intervocalically it is one of the most frequent consonants; it is restricted to the environment of oral vowels only23.

Consonants Manza English Manza English vb/v see v/vb vb/w see w/vb vb/r see r/vb /vb/ is labio-dental flap which is extremely rare; in initial position there are only a few examples found among verbs and nouns, but it is found in both positions among ideophones; no apparent vowel restrictions.

4.1.1 Allophones The consonant, /y/, can sometimes be realised as a palatal nasal, /¡/. This happens when the /y/ is followed by a nasal vowel, as seen in the words, /yifi¥ /¥ ~ /¡i¥fi¥/ ‘to rub a cord’, and /ya¥/ ~ /¡a/ ‘ant’, ‘brother’, and ‘cord’ (the meaning depends on the tone). This allophone might be more a result of language loss than phonological reasons, the reason being that the variation between, /y/ ~ /¡/, is only seen among people who have been out of the language area for a significant amount of time and who consequently speak Sango well (the /¡/ is found in Sango). No monolingual speakers of Manza have yet exhibited the, /y/ ~ /¡/ variation.

Also there is free variation between, /nz/ and /nd/. There does not appear to be any phonological conditioning causing the production of either the alveolar nor the palatal fricative. Between /l/ and /y/ there appears to be some complementary distribution. The /l/ is never found in initial position if the C2 is /r/ or a nasal, nor is /l/ followed by nasal vowels, while /y/ is commonly found in all of these environments. The result is that /y/ is roughly five times more common than /l/ in initial or medial position, and among nouns or verbs.

4.2 Consonant Distribution Below is a discussion of the consonants according to class and how the consonants within one class act together. All Manza consonants can be found in the syllable onset, except that among nouns the phoneme, /r/, is absent. All 29 consonants can also be found word medially, except for, /™m, h, w/, and perhaps, /b/24. There are no closed syllables in Manza, neither does the language allow for consonant clusters; while there are a number of common double-articulated consonants, /kp, gb, mb, nd, nz, ™b, ™g, ™m, vb/, there are no consonant clusters. Throughout the preceding section, each phone will be presented in initial and in intervocalic environments. This section will discuss important points of how some classes of phones act in the language. Voiceless Plosives: /t k kp/ are found root initial and intervocalically with no differentiation among lexeme class. There are also no apparent vowel restrictions It should be pointed out however that, /kp/, is relatively rare intervocalically which is analogous to the phone, /p/, which is never found intervocalic.

23 There are no nouns and only one verb, raka ‘to whip’, that have an initial /r/; but among ideophones there are twelve examples. It is worth noting that the distribution of the consonant /r/ is the opposite of the other consonants, with the exception of /l/; most consonants are more frequent in initial position. 24 There are no examples of intervocalic /b/ among verbs or ideophones, and all examples among nouns are compounds, or suspected as being compounds.

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Voiced Plosives: /d g gb/ are all found root initial and intervocalically among nouns, but only root initial among verbs and ideophones. There are no apparent vowel restrictions. It should be noted however that, /g/, is weakly represented among nouns intervocalically, and all lexemes with intervocalic, /b/, are suspect as being the result of borrowing from other languages or of compounding. Pre-nasalized Consonants: /mb nd nz ™g ™b/ are found root initial and intervocalically with no differentiation among lexeme classes. They are restricted to being before oral vowels only. It should be noted that, /™m/, is never found intervocalic, and that, /nz/, is only found root initial among verbs. Nasal Consonants: /m n ™ ™m/ are commonly found root initial and intervocalically among nouns and verbs only—interestingly, among ideophones nasals are very rare or non-existent. Nasal consonants are only found before nasal vowels. Implosives: /® ¯are commonly root initial and intervocalically with no differentiation among lexeme classes. As for vowel restrictions, they are never followed by nasal vowels when intervocalic. Voiceless Fricatives: // are found root initial and intervocalically with no differentiation among lexeme classes, except for, /h/, which is never intervocalic. There are no vowel restrictions. Voiced Fricatives: // is very rarely found root initially or intervocalically among all lexeme classes, except among ideophones in initial position it is common. There are no vowel restrictions. The // is commonly found root initial among all lexeme classes, but intervocalically only among nouns and ideophones. There are no vowel restrictions. Approximants: // are commonly found in initial position but rarely intervocalically among all lexeme classes. There are no vowel restrictions. Voiced Obstruents: There appears to be a generally absence or rarity of voiced obstruents intervocalically. This is particularly true of /b d g gb v z/ which are all absent or rare in this position among all lexeme classes

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4.2.1 Chart of Consonant Distribution

The following table shows the distribution of the phonemes among the three major lexeme classes of nouns, verbs and ideophones. All of the phonemes are written in bold, except poorly represented phones, which have been un-bolded to indicate a low frequency within that particular environment. If there are any vowel restrictions associated with that phoneme, then it is underlined (see details above).

Nouns Verbs Ideophones Initial Medial Initial Medial Initial Medial p t k kp t k p t k kp t k kp p t k kp p t k kp b d g gb b d g gb25 b d g gb b d g gb mb nd nz mb nd nz mb nd nz mb nd nz mb nd nz mb nd nz ™g ™b ™g ™b ™g ™b ™g ™b ™g ™b ™g ™b m n ™ ™m m n ™ m n ™ ™m m n ™ m ™m m ™ ® ¯ ® ¯ ® ¯ ® ¯ ® ¯ ® ¯ f s h f s f s h f s f s h f s v z v z v z v z v z w y y w y y w y y l vb l r l vb r l r l vb r l vb r

Table 7: Distribution of Manza Consonants

25 The presence of this group of phones in the intervocalic position is probably due to compounding.

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5. CHARTS OF PHONEMES The following two tables present all the phonemes that appear in Manza of Kaga Bandoro. Manza uses the phonetic space symmetrically along the edges with a seven vowel system. All seven have an oral form and five of them also occur nasalized. Oral and nasal vowels are contrastive.

Front central back unround unround round ORAL High i u Mid e o Low „ a 

NASAL High i¥ u¥ Low „¥ a¥ ‚¥

Table 8: Oral and Nasal Vowel Phones

Manza has a total of 29 consonants phonemes. Labial Labio- Alveolar Velar Labio-velar Glottal dental Plosive vl p t k kp Plosive vd b d g gb prenasal mb nd ™g ™b Nasal m n ™ ™m Implosive vd ® ¯ Fricative vl f s h Fricative vd v z prenasal nz Approximant w y Lateral l Flap vb r Table 9: Manza Consonants

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6. Tone Similar to most sub-Saharan languages, Manza is a tonal language. But unlike the other languages within the Ubangian family which have two level tones, Manza possess three possible tone contrasts; high, mid and low. All three tonal contrasts are used to phonemically distinguish over 200 nominal lexemes, to indicate a possessive relationship between nouns, and to denote the various tenses on the Manza verbs. In other words, the language makes considerable use of both lexical and grammatical tone. According to tone patterning, Hoch divided all Manza lexemes into three groups; those which can take all three tones (verbs only), those which have two patterns (pronouns and nouns) and those for which tone never changes (all remaining word classes; 1982:323-32).

6.1 Lexical Tone 6.1.1 Possible Tone Patterns Every Manza syllable is associated with one of three level tones: low (L; indicated in this paper with an grave accent), mid (M; marked by a level line above the vowel), and high (H; indicated by an acute accent). On CVCV structured nouns, this allows for nine possible different combinations; these nine are presented below along with the number of lexemes currently in the database with each particular tone pattern.

 H-H 20  H-M 10  H-L 60  M-M 70  M-H 10  M-L 0  L-L 140  L-H 40  L-M 50

As is clearly demonstrated from the table above, the most preferred tone pattern is L-L (there are nearly twice as many of this pattern than any other pattern). Only one pattern appears impossible, M-L, a pattern which is also impossible among other languages using three tones (i.e., Kabba; see Grundbacher 1999). A review of all CVV structured nouns reveals similar findings; namely that there is a preference for L-L, M-M and H-H, with fewer examples of M-H, H-M., and no M-L. 6.1.1.1 No Contour Tone On some CVV syllables there appears to be a rising or a falling contour tone on long vowels, such as /kóò/ ‘woman’, /béè/ ‘child’, /bèé/ ‘fast’, and /lóò/ ‘beehive’. However, analysis has shown that Manza does not have contour tones. What appears on the surface to be a contour tone is actually two level tones on adjacent vowels. This is due to a historical loss of a consonant in the medial position (usually intervocalic /l/) and the coming together of the two vowels and their associated H-L or L-H tones. Take /kíì/ ‘fear’ for example. Historically this word was pronounced as, /kílì/, and is still pronounced as such in the Sibut area (Renouf-Stefanik 1978). Other examples are, /wéeŠ/ ‘person’, which is, /wéÞeŠ/ in Sibut, and, /wíì/ ‘man’, which is, /wíÞì/. Around the turn of the century all intervocalic flap /l/’s and most /y/’s were deleted from the Kaga Bandoro variety of Manza. The tones however remained unchanged, as did the length of the vowels (though the quality of some vowels did change; more below). Currently in Kaga Bandoro, the two adjacent vowels are given full length and the tones appear to have a contour nature.

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6.1.2 Minimal Nominal Pairs The chart below contains ten nominal sets where each lexeme is distinguished only by tone.

low tones mid tones high tones mixed tones [bàrà] ‘fatness’ [bárà] ‘ant (spec)’ [®àrà] ‘rainy season’ [®árá] ‘piece’ [dùà] ‘goat’ [duŠaŠŠ] ‘flower’ [gaŠzaŠ] ‘foot’ [gàzá] ‘circumcision rite’ [kày„©] ‘mountain’ [kaŠy„Š] ‘crab’ [kòrò] ‘tree (spec)’ [koŠroŠŠ] ‘Gabon viper’ [kórò] ‘God / rain’ [k‚Š„ŠŠ] ‘machette’ [k‚§„§] ‘stream’ [tà] ‘a stone’ [tá] ‘foot’s sole’ [wàrà] ‘garden hoe’ [waŠraŠ] ‘path, road’ [yà]¥ ‘rope, cord’ [yá]¥ ‘sibling’ Table 10: Noun + Noun Minimal Pairs

Besides these ten, there are the sets of, nose / frog, leopard / snake, dog / package, elephant / refusal, mourning / wasp, bow / skirt, beard / squirrel, to name a few. At present, there are over one hundred known minimal pairs in Manza of Kaga Bandoro. Tone also helps contrast nouns from other classes of words, such as conjunctions or adjectives. For instance, the table below presents five sets of words from various words classes that are distinguished by tone only. At present there are fifty such sets, besides those cited below. [gà] ‘flute’ [gaŠ] ‘thus (conj)’ [gá] ‘this (dem)’ [k‚©] ‘porridge’ [k‚Š] ‘in’ [k‚§] ‘of (poss)’ [n„©] ‘and (conj)’ [n„Š] ‘it (pro)’ [n„§] ‘2 per pl’ [™g„©r„§] ‘rat (spec)’ [™g„§r„©] ‘barbed spear’ [™g„§r„§] ‘very dry (ideo)’ [sà]¥ ‘box trap’ [saŠ]¥ ‘middle (dem)’ [sá]¥ ‘bright (adj)’

The end result of all of this research is the finding that currently 15% of all lexemes which are not verbs (non-verbals) are distinguished solely on the bases of tone. This finding is significantly higher than similar studies done in Gbaya of Bossangoa (<5%; see Ruckstuhl 1997). Besides the large number of minimal noun-to-noun pairs, or noun-to-other pairs, there are 140 nouns that have surface forms that are identical to verbs with which they have no semantic relationship.26 For instance, the infinitive form of the verb, /b„„/ ‘to be burnt,’ is identical to the noun, /b„©„©/ ‘a lie’; the verb, /sa/¥ ‘to call’, resembles, /sà/¥ ‘box trap’;27 the past tense of the verb, /koro/ ‘to be dry’, is identical to, /koŠroŠ/ ‘viper’;28 and the present tense of, /n‚/ ‘to drink’, is identical to, /n‚§/ ‘oil’. The similarity between these verbs and these nouns is due to the fact that Manza verbs can be associated with all three tone patterns, each of which indicates a different tense (more discussion to follow). The final outcome is that 20% of Manza verbs have one or more surface forms which resemble a particular non-verb lexeme.

26 In Manza, a noun and a verb may have similar surface structures, but rarely will they share any semantic similarity. 27 The verb can also resemble the nouns, ‘middle,’ and ‘bright’. 28 The verbs other forms also resemble the nouns, ‘rain / God’, and a particular species of tree in Manza.

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In summary, every syllable in Manza has a tone associated with it. Also, tone on nominal lexemes is totally unpredictable. These two observations, together with the fact that tone has a high contrastive role in the language, help the author to conclude that a clear and exhaustive method of representing tone will be needed in any Manza orthography.

6.2 Grammatical Tone As was stated above, Manza uses both lexical tone and grammatical tone. There are two examples of grammatical tone in the language; one marks the possessive relationship between nouns, while the other indicates the tense and the aspect of verbs. 6.2.1 Possessive Noun Constructions It appears that all Manza nouns have two associated tone patterns; one which marks the noun to be in a state of isolation, and the other which marks the noun to be in a possessive (or genitive) relationship with another noun or pronoun. Take for example the word, /zà¥à¥/ ‘stomach’. Here it has an isolated tone pattern of L-L (or what Hock called, state-0). When the lexeme is in relationship with another noun, as in the possessive phrase, /zaŠ¥aŠ¥ m˜Š/ ‘my stomach’, the tone changes to M-M, (or in what Hoch called, state-1). The rising of the tone on, /zà¥à¥/, indicates that it is in a possessive relationship with the following noun. Other examples are, /naŠ™aŠ/ ‘foot’  /ná™á béè/ ‘baby’s foot’, and /t‚©à/ ‘house’  /t‚ŠaŠ n‚Š„Š/ ‘bird house’. The chart below lists the changes that take place on CVCV nouns.

Isolated Possessive Isolated Possessive Isolated Possessive                  n/a         

In most circumstances the isolated tone pattern contrasts with the possessive tone pattern. The chart shows that there are eight possible isolated tone patterns, but only five genitive tone patterns. The chart also shows that once one knows the isolated tone pattern, the possessive tone pattern is predictable. The basic rule is such that the tone on the final vowel will rise one level tone to mark the possessive; in other words, a final low tone will rise to a mid [vŠ], and a final mid [vŠ] will rise to a high [v§], and a final high remains unchanged. (This helps explain the low number of H tone patterns on isolated nouns, seeing as an isolated H is not contrastive with the possessive.) If however, all the tones on a lexeme are identical, it is not just the final syllable’s tone that will adjust, but all the tones on the lexeme. This general rise in the tone across the entire lexeme is seen among lexemes with a, CVV, CVCV, and a CVCVCV shape. Also from the table it will be noticed that there is only one exception to the rule which states that a tone can rise only one level, and it rises two levels, and that is when a low tone is preceded by a high tone. For example the word, /dóè/ ‘trail’, has an isolated tone pattern of H-L. But in the noun phrase, [dóé bìrì] ‘trail of the baboon’, the tone changes to H-H. Hoch said that because each noun was associated with two tone patters, a dictionary of the language would have to show both tone patterns. But given that the fact that the possessive pattern is predictable, Hoch’s suggestion to mark this in a dictionary could probably be abandoned. In the final analysis this phenomena in the language should not be considered as a grammatical case, such as being something akin to a genitive marker. Instead, a preferred analysis would propose a possessive morpheme that is a floating high tone that associates itself with the final syllable of the head noun. This analysis assumes that the floating high tone associates itself with the final vowel of the possessed noun, and causes a general rise in the final syllable’s tone, and / or a general rise on all of the lexeme’s syllables if they

- 34 - are all identical in the isolated state. In the following section, there is a discussion about a second possessive morpheme in the language. Both of these morphemes will be compared phonologically (and semantically) in the next section. 6.2.1.1 Possessive Relationship Manza has two morphemes to mark possession, the first is a floating high tone (just discussed above), and the second is the lexeme, /k‚§/ ‘of’. This morpheme is also found between the two nouns but unlike the floating high tone, it has no affect on the tone of the head noun and the, /k‚§/, generally does not change in form. For example, the head nouns in each of the following possessive noun phrase have low tone, i.e., /dàà k‚§ m„Š/ ‘granary of you’, and, /t‚©à k‚§ Baagaza/ ‘house of Baagaza’. In general, the floating high tone morpheme is used to mark possession on all inalienable nouns. The list of inalienable nouns in Manza includes body parts and kinship terms. On the other hand the, /k‚§/, morpheme is typically used for all other lexemes; that is, those lexemes that are alienable. But it is an interesting study to note the nouns that can take either possessive form, and to study the semantic differences signalled by each of the two possessive forms chosen. For instance, the table below lists six different lexemes that can take either possessive form. f˜Š˜Š m˜Š ‘death my’ (Condition) fii k‚§ m˜Š ‘death in my family’ (Social) kíí m˜Š ‘my fears’ (Complement) kíí k‚§ m˜Š ‘someone fears me’ (Part-Whole) g‚Št‚Š m˜Š ‘my grave’ (Complement) g‚t‚ k‚§ m˜Š ‘a hole I dug’ (Possession) p„Šr„Š m˜Š ‘a trap set for me’ (Complement) p„re k‚§ m˜Š ‘trap I made’ (Possession) ™˜ŠnzaŠ m˜Š ‘money paid for me’ (Complement) ™inza k‚§ m˜Š ‘money of me’ (Possession) zuŠf˜Š m˜Š ‘my funeral’ (Complement) zuŠfì k‚§ m˜Š ‘a funeral I organise’ (Social) Table 11. Grammatical Forms and Semantic Differences

The differences between the two possessive morphemes is beyond this paper, but it is worth nothing that the first form, the floating high tone morpheme, is representative of “close relationships” between the nouns (complement, condition), while the second morpheme, the, /k‚§/, is typically employed for more “remote relationships” (social, part-whole, possession, etc.). Lastly, there are some nouns which use both forms yet their meanings are unchanged; such as, bé m˜Š, or, béè k‚§ m˜Š, and both mean, ‘my child.’ 6.2.2 Verbal Tense Manza, like Gbaya and Ngbaka, uses tone on the verb to show the tense and the aspect of the phrase.29 At present, the author is working with the hypothesis that Manza has three primary tenses; past, present, future, and a number of aspects, but only the hypothetical / subjunctive will be discussed here. The tenses are signalled over the phrase by a three way contrast on the verb. Along with the contrast on the verb, there is a two way contrast on first and second pronouns that is predicatable. (The hypothetical aspect, marked solely by the pronoun’s tone, is discussed below.)

29 There still is a great deal of work to be done in this area; much of the following information is tentative (Hoch’s research has been leaned on heavily).

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1 /m˜Š n„§ Bangui/ “I am going to Bangui” 1s go(pres) Bangui 2 /mí n„Š„Š30 Bangui/ “I went to Bangui” 1s go(past) Bangui 3 /mí n„© Bangui/ “I will go to Bangui” 1s go(fut) Bangui

A high tone on all of a verb’s syllables indicates present tense (Sent. 1, 4-6), a mid tone indicates past (Sent. 2, 7-8),31 and a low tone indicates future (Sent. 3, 10-11). There are some interesting alterations to this pattern when a phrase is negated. If the tense is present and negative, the verb’s tone remains the same, high (Sent. 6). But when the tense is past, the verb carries a low tone instead of a mid tone as might be expected (and the phrase is followed by the negative marker; Sent. 9). Likewise, when the tense is future, the tone is mid instead of low which might be expected (and followed by the negative marker; Sent. 12).

4 /wà ‚§ hॠsàà wénaŠ/ “They are very happy” 3pl be(pres) with happy much 5 /m„Š n„§ ¯ó/ “Where are you going?” 2s go(pres) where 6 /máà félé naŠ/ “It is not ripe” it ripe(neg. pres) neg 7 /m„§ n„Š„Š ¯ó/ “Where did you go?” 2s go(past) where 8 /oŠ-béè ‚Š‚Š tíkpó ndeŠ/ “Did the children sleep well?” pl+child sleep(past) okay question-mkr 9 /yàr˜Š g„© ‚© déè naŠ/ ‘The hunt was not good’ hunt DEM is(neg. past) good neg 10 /m„§ ¯òè yeŠ há ¥ n˜Š ndeŠ/ “Will you arrive at your 2s arrive(fut) place at that quest-mkr destination?” 11 / í t‚©¥ wè ™g‚§ wè k‚§ m„§ g„©/ “I will speak on this problem of 1s speak(fut) word on word of 2s this yours” 12 /Kórò n„Š„Š tè naŠ/ ‘It will not going to rain’ rain go(neg. fut.) come(inf) neg

30 It is noteworthy that whenever the tone is mid on a CV verb, the vowel is lengthened. 31 There is also a lengthening of the vowel on CV shaped verbs; this is due to an historic verbal suffix, /-a/ ‘past’ and is discussed below under the section on morphophonemics.

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In all cases, it is the main verb which carries the tense. If there is a second verb immediately following the primary verb, this second one has a low tone, which one might call the “infinitive” (Sent. 12). Also, the main verb has the same tone on all syllables (a verb can have up to three syllables). In summary, the significance of the three tones over the verbs can be summarised as follows:

H = present, M = past L = future H+nä = neg. present M+nä = neg. future L+nä = neg. past L = infinitive 6.2.3 Pronominal Tone As was briefly mentioned above, the tone on the pronouns plays two important functions. Firstly, the tone on the pronoun “accompanies” the verb’s tense marking, and is predictable. Secondly, the tone on the pronoun marks one of the verbal aspects of the phrase, the hypothetical, or subjunctive, aspect (to be discussed in the following paragraph). 6.2.3.1 Accompanying Tense Firstly, from most of the examples sentences just seen, it will be noticed that the tones on the pronouns can vary. It appears that their function is to accompany, or help to represent, the tense on the verb, for it cannot be said that the tone on the pronoun marks the tense of the phrase, because it is predictive. Thus tone on the pronoun plays only a secondary role in marking the tense. The way in which pronominal tone accompanies the verb’s tense is explained as follows. The first and second person pronouns have high tones whenever the verb has a mid tone or a low tone (as was seen in Sent. 2, 3, 7, 10, and 11). These same pronouns can also have a mid tone whenever the verb has a high tone (Sent. 1, and 5). As for the third person pronouns, they are always low no matter what the tone on the verb is. The only exception to this is when the main verb has a low tone. In this case the third person pronouns are followed by a morpheme, /há¥/, as seen in Sent. 13a. This morpheme, /há¥/, is however usually reduced to a single high tone which rests on the vowel of the third person pronoun, as seen in Sent. 13b.

13 a /à hᥠn„© Bangui/ “He will go to Bangui” b /àá n„© Bangui/ 3s fut-mkr go(fut)32 Bangui

6.2.3.2 Indicating Aspect A second function of the pronoun’s tone is to mark the hypothetical / subjunctive aspect of the Manza verb. This is done by placing a low tone on the first or second person pronouns (this is the only time these pronouns carry a low tone). This is seen in Sent. 14–16 and in the second phrase of 17.

14 /mì n„© Bangui/ “I ought to go to Bangui” 1s(hyp) go(fut) Bangui 15 /àá Férè, „© sí ¯ò/ ‘Oh Crocodile, we should be going Oh Crocodile, we(hyp) return(pres) back back’

32 The morpheme, /há¥/, may actually be the verb marking the present tense, and, /n„©/, could be an infinitive.

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16 /m„© dá™á yí ¯oŠ oŠ/ ‘You should be sitting on my back’ you(hyp) sit(pres) surface-of back 1s.poss 17 /mí ˜Š™˜Š m‚§t‚©™gaŠ¥ ì kú ¥ yì naŠ/ ‘I didn’t know that I would cross the 1s know(neg fut) that 1s cross(hyp) river not river’

It is not yet clearly known how the third person pronouns indicate this aspect.

6.3 Allotones 6.3.1 Down Gliding Intonation Over a phrase it is possible to detect a gradual decrease in height for each tone on each successive syllable, until eventually the phrase ends. The next new phrase will then begin at the same place that the preceding phrase began, but higher then the preceding one ended. This down gliding intonation is not only noticable over each phrase, but also on the final syllables of words spoken in isolation. The result is that lexemes with a H-H, a M-M, or even a L-L tone pattern often have allotones which sound like H-M, M-L or L-extra low tone patterns. 6.3.2 Fast Speech Tone Levelling It is also common to find a word that has a H-L tone pattern to be pronounced as though it had a M-M tone pattern when spoken in fast speech.

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7. Phonotactics

7.1 The Syllable In Manza there are four basic syllable types; V, VV, CV and CVV. From these four structures all Manza morphemes are formed. The fact that Manza has no CVC type syllables is a major change from all varieties of Gbaya and also from Proto-GMN (as proposed by Moniño 1988). Also, Manza has no CCV syllables. Though some may wish to analysis the double-articulated consonants, /gb, kp, ™b, ™g, nd, nz/, in this way, it does not appear that the speakers think of them as two consonants, nor are there any non- ambiguous CC sequences to support such an opinion. 7.1.1 Distribution All lexemes in Manza are created from one or more of the four basic syllable types, V, VV, CV and CVV. While there could conceivably be an endless variety of combinations of these syllable, lexemes are basically shaped in one of three ways; CV, CVV and CVCV.33 These three patterns are used by over 70% of all nominal and verbal lexemes. Because of the very limited shape of Manza lexemes, together with the fact that most lexemes have vowel and tone harmony, it is generally a simple task to locate compounds, and / or to find lexemes that have lost an intervocalic /Þ/. 7.1.1.1 CVCV, Vowel and Tone Harmony

Nearly 50% of all Manza nouns have the shape CVCV. Among CVCV nouns, V1 usually equals V2 in about 60% of the examples, such as, /bàrà/ ‘fat’, /d‚©m‚©/ ‘hare’, /y„©s„©/ ‘laziness’. In 50% of these cases, the tone is also the same and the preferred pattern is L-L (also seen in the three preceding examples). The findings are similar with regards to CVV shaped lexemes (the next most common lexeme shape). That is to say, most CVV lexemes have identical vowels and identical tones, such as /gb„©¥„©¥/ ‘bone’, /naŠaŠ/ ‘animal (general term), and, /sì¥ì¥/ ‘hatred’.34 In summary, most Manza nouns have vowel and tone harmony. When the tones on a noun are not the same however, then the pattern preferred for CVCV and CVV is H-L. This is true for 15% of all nouns. Some examples are, /kú¥ù¥/ ‘deformity’, /nzáà/ ‘outside’, and /s„§„©/ ‘spear’. The findings among Manza verbs is similar to what was just presented to exist among Manza nouns. Again, over 50% of all Manza verbs have a CVCV shape. However, vowels must be identical in CVCV shaped verbs, such as, /b„™„/ ‘to sharpen’, /giri/ ‘to go down’, and /k„¯„/ ‘to scoop out’. As was seen with the nouns, the next most common shape for a verb is CVV. With CVV verbs, usually both vowels are identical, for example, /dii/ ‘to thunder’, /g„„/ ‘to be bent’, and /mbii/ ‘to sweep’. If they are not identical, they both must have the same height and the first will be a back rounded vowel, such as, /®oe/ ‘to carry with another person’, /dui¥/ ‘to bent under’, and /m‚„/ ‘to argue’. (There is no lexical tone on verbs to distinguishe them from other verbs; tone on the verb is solely to mark tense.) 7.1.1.2 Nasalisation On Syllables There is a very high tendency among Manza lexemes that nasalisation be kept to the final syllable. Not only do 80% of all CVCV lexemes with nasalisation restrict it to the last syllable, but also among VV and CVV patterned lexemes, it appears that the last vowel also only receives nasalisation. The table below lists a number of single morpheme lexemes in which nasalisation is limited to the final syllable.

33 Since many of the CVV lexemes were historically CVCV, the language really only preferred CV and CVCV. There are only a few lexemes composed of one vowel. 34This again supports the theory that all original Manza morphemes were CVCV with a preference for identical tones and vowels and that the CVV morphemes are just CVCV morphemes with a missing C2 which was /Þ/.

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VV CVV CVCV ‚„¥ ‘vomit’ fà˜Š¥ ‘laziness’ b‚©z‚Š¥ ‘ghost’ ‚©à¥ ‘plant (unidentified) gíॠ‘shadow’ dàsॠscopus umbretta (hamerkop) káì¥ ‘charcoal’ díy„Š¥ ‘cicada’ s‚§ì¥ sterculia setigera (tree) gàgॠ‘evening’ zui¥ ‘to leave’ zaŠz‚Š¥ ‘savannah’

Similarly, when a verb is reduplicated (a process by which only the first syllable of a verb carries the tense and the whole verb follows with a H-L pattern to show a habitual or present continuous aspect on the phrase), nasalisation is removed from the severed first syllable. For instance, when the verb, [bui¥] ‘to fly’, is reduplicated, they say, /à bú búì¥/ ‘he is flying (right now)’; it is clear that nasalisation is missing from the first syllable. This fact is important to note because of the proposed orthography, because it is being proposed that nasalisation of vowels be indicated by an /n/ after the vowel in question (similar to the Sango orthography). Therefore, using a single /n/ at the end of a noun or verb is very close to the phonology of Manza. It is interesting to note that a Manza speaker who has been out of the language area, and assumingly speaking the trade language Sango, the speaker will lose this aforementioned final syllable nasalisation rule. The result being that they will nasalise both syllables. That is why Manza lexemes like, /sáyà¥/ ‘tree (spec)’, are pronounced as, [sá¥yà¥], where both syllables are nasalized. But another change is also noticed; speakers will also bring from Sango a palatal nasal, /¡/, (common in Sango, but the phoneme does not exist in Manza). The result is that this group of Manza speakers will pronounce, /sáyà¥/ with nasalisation on both syllables, and introduce a Sango phoneme and pronounce it as, [sᥡà¥], with the telltale Sango phoneme, [¡]. Other examples include, /fà˜/Š¥ ‘laziness’, otherwise pronounced as, [fॡ˜Š¥]; /káì¥/ ‘charcoal’, which is otherwise, [kᥡì¥]; and lastly, /yifi¥/ ‘to roll a rope’, is otherwise pronounced a, [¡i¥fi¥]. Speakers that have not travelled outside of the Manza area are aware of this influence from Sango. But they do not as yet appear to be imitating those who have travelled abroad and pronounce these lexemes differently. 7.1.1.3 No Consonant Harmony

There appears to be a tendency in CVCV shaped lexemes to restrict C2 from equalling C1. It is clear that C1 can be any consonant, but C2 is rarely identical to C1. In fact, in most cases, the two consonants are not even similar to each other, such that stops are coupled with non-stops, (i.e., /bìrì/ ‘papio cynocephalus (baboon)’, and /gaŠzaŠ/ ‘foot’), or fricatives are coupled with non-fricatives, (i.e., /sà¯à/ ‘broom’, and /zíkí/ ‘bird (spec)’). Pre-nasals also are not coupled with other pre-nasals, but it appears that a CVCV lexeme can have a nasal consonant in both C1 and C2 nasal, for example, /naŠr„Š/ ‘four, and /màmù/ ‘a laugh’.

7.2 Stress and Intonation Manza does not appear to have any phonemic stress, and is therefore similar to other Gbaya languages in this respect. However, stress over certain lexemes is quite noticeable, such as over ideophones, but this has not yet been studied at length. Intonation is used in a number of different ways over the phrase. Interrogative phrases (with or without the question markers) have a general rise over the entire phrase (without any falling off at the end, as seen in some interrogative English phrases). Direct quotes in a discourse are signalled with a sudden rise in tone of the entire phrase (usually the direct quote is one whole octave higher than the phrase preceding the quote). Lastly, an imperative phrase usually shows no sign of the general downdrift that is seen in declarative phrases.

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7.3 Compounding and Foreign Language Appropriations At present, the computerised Manza database contains nearly 1600 nouns. While much of the research is still tentative, it appears that the database is 55% composed of single morpheme lexemes, 40% of compounded lexemes, and 5% of appropriations from other languages (borrowings). 7.3.1 Forming Compounds Most compounds are produced by associating two nouns in a possessive relationship (see discussion above about the floating high tone possessive morpheme). Some examples are…

[bàà] ‘father’ + [gàzá] ‘rite of circumcision’ = /bàágàzá/ ‘first circumcision initiate’ [gb„©¥„©¥] ‘seed’ + [wè] ‘word’ = /gb„Š¥„Š¥wè/ ‘truth’ [nàà] ‘mother’ + [béè] ‘child’ = /nàábé/ ‘wife’ [s„§„©] ‘spear’ + [™g‚Š] ‘on, height, above’ = /s„§„§™g‚Š/ ‘falling star’ [tù¥] ‘blackness’ + [kórò] ‘rain, God’ = /tuŠ¥kórò/ ‘cloud’

If the first lexeme is not a noun (i.e., it might be a preposition or an adjective, for which the tone is invariable, and then the two lexemes are simply pronounced as adjacent to one another. Speakers consider them to be one word. Some examples are…

[gbà] ‘big’ + [t‚©à] ‘house’ = /gbàt‚©à/ ‘placenta’ [¯‚©] ‘under’ + [tùì] ‘clothing’ = /¯‚©tùì/ ‘pants’ [™gá] ‘hardness’ + [zù] ‘head’ = /™gázù/ ‘disobedience’

Another large number of compounds are formed with verbs in the position of the head lexeme, in which case the verb is usually is in an “infinitive” low tone pattern. This tone pattern, when found in proverbs is translated by, “whosoever does …”, or, “the one who does …”, and the meaning seems useful in understanding these compounds. Some examples are…

[à™à] ‘to dig up’ + [fìì] ‘the dead’ = /à™àfì/ ‘corvus albus (crow), or literally, “the one who digs up the dead” [dàà] ‘to throw’ + [nù] ‘dirt’ = /dàànù/ ‘palpares (ant lion)’ or literally, “the one who throws dirt” [‚©r‚©] ‘to trick’ + [™bàrà] ‘warthog’ = /‚©r‚©™bàrà/ ‘alpine glow, or, bright light on trees’, or literally, “the one who tricks the warthog” (Manza legend) [tùnù] ‘to awake’ + [w‚Šr‚Š] ‘corpse + = /tùnùw‚Šr‚Štò/ ‘ant (spec)’, or literally, [tò] ‘Spider’ “the one who awakes the corpse of Spider” (based on a Manza legend)

Most of the compounds just cited are the names of animals, and birds. Proper names for individuals within the community, and villages, streams, dogs, etc., are also compounds. They are all formed in one of the three above methods; noun plus noun, adjective or preposition plus noun, or verb plus noun. For example, some names are…

[bìsà] ‘pretty’ (adj) + [fìì] ‘death’ (noun) = BISSAFI [gbùrù] ‘who seizes’ (verb) + [g„Šr„Š] ‘throat’ (noun) = GBOUROUGERE (a dog’s name) [goŠ] ‘bare rock’ (noun) + [®ò™gó] ‘hyena’ (noun) = GOBONGO (village name) [nzáá] ‘time’ (noun) + [™ànà] ‘of war’ (noun) = NZANGANA

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The reason why each of these names was chosen and the wider meaning that each contains, has already been studied at length by the author. However such findings, and other onomastic insights, are not appropriate for this paper. The information is presented here only because phonetically indigenous Manza names are formed as other compounds in the language are formed. Nominalization of verbs is also carried out by compounding. This is accomplished by taking the verb root and placing a high tone pattern on it and suffixing a, /m‚©/ ‘thing’. Some examples are…

[y‚§™‚§] ‘eating’ + [m‚©] ‘thing’ = /y‚§™‚§m‚©/ ‘meal’ [g‚§n‚§] ‘cutting’ + [m‚©] ‘thing’ = /g‚§n‚§m‚©/ ‘a room’ [s„§n„§] ‘hating’ + [m‚©] ‘thing’ = /s„§n„§m‚©/ ‘hatred’

Compounds are typically only two morphemes, but three are also common. The longest compound, which is actually a phrase, is the name of a tree frog, /ták‚§¥bìsàgbónùnaŠ/, and means, “the palm of his pretty hand does not touch the ground.” There are several other long compounds like this, but this is the largest.

[tá] + [k‚Š¥] + [bìsà] + [gbó] + [nù] + [naŠ] = /ták‚§¥bìsàgbónùnaŠ/ ‘palm’ ‘hand’ ‘pretty’ ‘arriving’ ‘ground’ ‘not’ ‘tree frog’

7.3.2 Transforming Appropriations (Borrowings) Trying to decide if a lexeme from another language has truly been appropriated by the Manza community is difficult. Some appropriations compete with indigenous lexemes, such as the Sango word, /màkuŠnz˜Š/ (Manza pronunciation), with the Manza term, /waŠaŠnt‚©à/, both meaning ‘village chief”. Other borrowings are needed to label a device or idea introduced from the outside, such as money, cars, aeroplanes, etc. Another difficulty with appropriations is getting a consensus on how they should actually be pronounced. For instance, the Sango word, nginza ‘money’ is commonly pronounced by Manza speakers as, /™„©nzà/ or /™ìnzà/, thus replacing the pre-nasalized velar with a velar nasal. Thirdly, the meaning that the lexeme had in the source language may not be identical to it’s use in Manza. Therefore, the material presented here is tentative. Firstly, most appropriations are not transformed immediately by the phonology of Manza, but as is typical with borrowings in other languages, they change over time. The longer a lexeme has been used by the language community, the more likely it will undergo phonological change. For example, the following French lexemes were probably all introduced early and have undergone considerable change, such as, /k‚©s‚©/¥ ‘cochon’, and /dàmátè/ ‘tomate’.35 Appropriations taken from Sango have undergone little change because of the phonological similarity of this language to Manza. Currently half of all appropriations in the Manza database are from Sango (the next largest group is French and then languages, such as Banda, have some representation). Many other lexemes which are from French and Sango are used by the speech community but have not been included in the database. They have been done ignored if another Manza terms are commonly employed and which appear to be more generally used by the community then the French or Sango lexeme. Thus far it has been up to the author’s discretion to include a borrowed term into the Manza database and classify it as an appropriation.

35 Vowel harmony rules which are indigenous to Manza have helped transform these lexemes.

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7.4 Morphophonemic Alternations Across Morpheme Boundaries 7.4.1 First Person Possession It is possible in Manza to represent first person possession on a noun by changing the isolation tone pattern over the noun to a possessive tone pattern and then placing the first person possessive pronoun, /m˜Š/ ‘my’, after the noun. For example, the tone on the noun, /zù/ ‘head’, is low, but the tone changes when followed by the pronoun, making it, /zuŠ m˜Š/ ‘my head’. It is much the same for, ‘my wife’ /nàábé m˜Š/. However, the more usual way of showing first person possession is to place the genitive tone pattern on the noun and lengthen the final vowel, but omit the possessive pronoun, such that ‘my head’ is, /zuŠuŠ/, and, ‘my wife’ is, /nàábéé/. The process is similar to showing the first person with prepositions; the vowel is lengthened to show the first person, but the tone remeans unchanged, as tone on prepositions is always invariable. For example, /há¥/ ‘at’, becomes, ‘at me’ when the vowel is lengthened, resembling, /há¥á¥/; similarly, /¯aŠ/ ‘toward’, becomes, /¯aŠaŠ/ ‘toward me’, and, /bò/ ‘for’, becomes, /bòò/ ‘for me’. Representing both phenomena in the orthography will require some ingenuity. 7.4.2 Past Tense Alterations As was seen above, tone is the primary method of marking tense over the verb and it is done in combination with the tone patterns on the pronouns. However there are a number of complications with the past tense on lexemes with a single V or single CV syllable.36 With verbs of this structure, there are two ways of indicating the past tense. (With CVCV verbs a mid tone pattern over all the vowels is sufficient.) One way is to place a mid tone pattern on the vowel and lengthen it (as in Sent. 1a, 2a, 3a). The other is to place a mid tone pattern on it and add the suffix, /-aŠ/ (as in Sent. 1b, 2b, 3b).

1 a /t„/, the verb, ‘to come’ /à t„Š„Š há ¥ ¯ò/ “He has already come” b /à teŠaŠ há ¥ ¯ò / 3s come(past) at done 2 a /te/, the verb, ‘to fall’ /à teŠeŠ há ¥ ¯ò / “He has fallen” b /à t˜ŠaŠ há ¥ ¯ò / 3s fall(past) at done 3 a /n„/, the verb, ‘to go’ /à n„Š„Š há ¥ ¯ò / “He has already gone” b /à n˜ŠaŠ há ¥ ¯ò / 3s go(past) at done

It will also be noticed that the addition of the suffix, /-aŠ/, causes the vowel to rise in quality. Thus, /„/, rises to, /e/, and, /e/, rises to, /i/ (compare the vowels in the verbs of, ‘A’ section, with their counterparts in, ‘B’ section). Lastly, the, /„/, in Sent. 3 rises to, /i/, instead of, /e/, because of the rule in Manza that forbids, /e/, or, /o/, from following a nasal consonant. There appears to be no semantic distinction between the two past tense forms and both are commonly employed in the Kaga Bandoro variety. 7.4.3 Labialisation

As was mentioned above, lexemes such as, /kòè/ ‘rib’, or, /ndùì/ ‘egg’, are usually pronounced as, [kºè] and / or, [ndºì], respectively. This is because labialisation always occurs when two vowels are adjacent and when V1 is [+round] and V2 is [–round], with the result being that V1 is replaced by the semivowel, /w/. This labialisation even occurs across morpheme boundaries, and is common in sentences like the following.

36 It appears to be more associated with the presence of the mid tone itself, but that requires more research.

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4 a underlying //  'I’m showing him’ b surface ] 1s show 3s 5 a underlying // ‘I’m going with him’ b surface ] 1s go with 3s

It Sent. 4a, the final vowel of the verb, /boso/ ‘to show’, immediately precedes the object pronoun, /à/ ‘him’. The result is that the final vowel of the verb is usually replaced by the semivowel, /w/ (see Sent. 4b).

The, /ó + à/ combination, creates a situation where V1 is [+round] and V2 is [–round], and so produces, /bósºáà/. The same is true of Sent. 5.

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8. Conclusion

The author has worked to present the Manza language’s phonology as spoken in Kaga Bandoro. It is the author’s sincere desire that the data presented within this paper will help to produce a workable alphabet for the Manza language community. It is also the author’s desire that the Manza people have the opportunity to develop their language as they see fit. This paper began with a brief look at the Manza people, their history, their relations with other ethnic groups within the nation, and the various sociolinguistic issues facing them. It was also pointed out that Manza lacked an orthography and that to the author’s knowledge, nothing as yet had been printed in Manza. This phonology was written to help ameliorate the situation by developing an orthography. And a proposal for the orthography is forthcoming. This phonological research paper focused on the contrast between consonants, vowels and tones. It was found that Manza has 29 phonemic consonants, and 7 oral vowels (five of which are nasal counterparts). Some interesting differences in how each consonant is distributed among the three main word classes was also discussed, such as the striking difference in the distribution of /r/ between nouns, verbs and ideophones. Manza was also found to have a three way contrastive tone system. This was shown to be extensively used in the language to differentiate many different nominal lexemes, to indicate possessive relationships and to denote various tenses and one aspect on the Manza verb. Manza syllable structures were discovered to be very limited in shape, usually consisting of mostly CVCV shaped lexemes. Manza also has a very strong preference for vowel harmony within nouns and verbs. Compounding was also discussed in detail. Throughout this research paper various aspects of the language have been pointed out as needing special representation in a Manza orthography. It is the author’s desire that all of this work will help contribute to the development of the language, particularly in the printing and publishing of oral texts that the language group has an abundance of and of which they are proud to share. This includes their various kinds of songs, their proverbs of wisdom, and their legends and moral stories. But most importantly, the author hopes that this paper will be an important foundational work for the Manza Scripture translation work.

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9. Swadesh 200 Word List The following is a 200 Word Swadesh list. It is presented here so that the reader can see more of the language material than was presented in this brief paper, and for interested linguists working in related languages. The data should be fairly representative of the variety spoken in the town of Kaga Bandoro and eastward toward Kako, between Kaga Bandoro and Mbrès. It was collected during the late 1990’s.

1. animal naŠaŠ n 39. count hara vt 2. animal sà¯è n 40. cry tears he k‚©¥à¥ vt 3. arrow k‚Šnd‚Šr‚Š n 41. cut off ™mana vt 4. arrowhead k‚Šnd‚Šr‚Š n 42. cut by (pass) gba vt 5. arrow, wooden mb˜Š˜Š n 43. dance y‚_yua vt 6. ashes bù n 44. dark tú¥ù¥ n 7. bad ¯á¥ adj 45. daytime wèseŠ n 8. bathe zoe vt 46. deep ¯uŠ adj 9. bear ko vt 47. deep, to be ¯uu vi 10. beat ™b‚ vt 48. desire w‚© n 11. big gásà adj 49. destination yeŠ n 12. bird n‚Š„Š n 50. dew m„©„§ n 13. bitter pᥠadj 51. die, to fe vi 14. bitter, to be pa™a vi 52. dig a hole za¥ vt 15. black mbìì adj 53. dog tòeŠ n 16. black tù¥ adj 54. drink n‚ vt 17. blood t‚© n 55. dry season b„©„© n 18. blow / escape dama vt 56. dry season sáb„©„© n 19. blow w/mouth ufu n 57. dry, to be koro vi 20. bone gbॄ©¥ n 58. ears zàrà n 21. breast bèrè n 59. eat y‚™‚ vt 22. breathe ‚m‚ vi 60. eat / taste mini vi 23. burn with fire d‚ vt 61. edge nú n 24. burn, to be b„„ vi 62. egg kúì n 25. buttocks goŠ¯oŠ n 63. elephant f„©r‚© n 26. call sa¥ vt 64. elephant mbaŠlà n 27. charcoal ká¥ì¥ n 65. end goŠ¯oŠ n 28. chicken k‚©àraŠ n 66. eye gb„Š¥„Š¥yí n 29. child béè n 67. fall te vi 30. child ™ge n 68. family nàà n 31. chop g‚m‚ vt 69. father bàà n 32. cloud tuŠ¥kórò n 70. fear kíì n 33. cold g„Š¥„Š¥ n 71. feces ¯‚©r‚© n 34. come t„ vi 72. female kóò n 35. cook in pan hana vt 73. fermented dà¥à¥ adj 36. cook in water gi vt 74. field f‚© n 37. cook with fire d‚ vt 75. finish mbiti vt 38. cough k‚¯‚ vi 76. finished, to be gb„ vi

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77. finished, to be s‚kp‚ vi 124. leaf fákà n 78. fire wèè n 125. left gàlè n 79. firewood guŠaŠ n 126. leg kuŠ n 80. fish(general) zòrò n 127. leopard g‚©¥ n 81. five m‚©r‚Š num 128. listen zee vt 82. flesh mùrù n 129. liver sìyà n 83. flour fùù n 130. long, to be duru vi 84. fly bu¥i¥ vt 131. make de vt 85. fly z˜Š¥ n 132. man wíì n 86. fog kùtuŠ n 133. many d‚§‚© n 87. foot gaŠzaŠ n 134. money mb˜Š˜Š n 88. foot naŠ™aŠ n 135. month z„© n 89. four naŠr„Š num 136. moon, full z„© n 90. full, to be dunu vi 137. moon, half yà™àz„© n 91. fur s„Š„Š n 138. mortar dù n 92. give ha¥ vt 139. mother nàà n 93. go n„ vi 140. mound t‚©¥ n 94. goat dùà n 141. mountain kày„© n 95. good déè adj 142. mouth nú n 96. good yamba adj 143. nail/claw „§r„§ n 97. ground nù n 144. name h˜Šn˜Š n 98. hair míí n 145. navel kùnù n 99. hand k‚Š¥ n 146. neck g„Šr„Š n 100. head zù n 147. net gbàndà n 101. headlice ®ìs˜Š n 148. net y‚© n 102. heart (organ) ™gaŠloŠ n 149. new mbé adj 103. heavy d˜Š¥ adj 150. night tú¥ù¥ n 104. heavy, to be di¥i¥ vi 151. nose z‚Š¥‚Š¥ n 105. herb/bush z‚Š¥ n 152. not naŠ neg 106. hit z‚„ vt 153. breast feed ama b„©r„© vt 107. hole bà¯á n 154. oil n‚§ n 108. hole k‚©¥ n 155. one kpó num 109. honey g‚©r‚© n 156. path waŠraŠ n 110. honeybee wíg‚©r‚© n 157. people, owner wéeŠ n 111. honeybee zí¥-g‚©r‚© n 158. put into ground hunu vt 112. honeybee g‚©r‚© n 159. rain kórò n 113. horn záà n 160. rainy season ®àrà n 114. hot gb„™„ adj 161. red fíà adj 115. hot, to be ¯„ vi 162. red gb„§¥„©¥ adj 116. house(general) t‚©à n 163. right hand wíík‚Š¥ n 117. hyena ®ò™gó n 164. river yì n 118. interior zॠn 165. root hí¥ n 119. intestines karazॠn 166. rope yॠn 120. kill gb„ vt 167. rough skin k‚ŠaŠ n 121. knee zògoŠroŠ n 168. salt t‚Š¥‚Š¥ n 122. know i™i vt 169. sand k„Šnz„Š n 123. laugh mama vi 170. scrap gb„r„ vt

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171. scratch sthg n‚n‚ vt 218. throw pi¥ vt 172. see z‚ vi 219. tie up h„nz„ vt 173. seed kpárà n 220. tie, with rope h„r„ vt 174. sharp t‚§„§ adj 221. tongue l„©f„© n 175. shoot mb˜Š˜Š n 222. tooth gògò n 176. skin ndàraŠ n 223. tree tè n 177. sleep, to ‚ yara vi 224. turtle/tortoise taŠnaŠ n 178. smell p„©r„§ n 225. twin bédà¥à¥ n 179. smell u¥i¥ vt 226. two b‚©à num 180. smithing doe vt 227. uncle àú n 181. smoke z„§ n 228. uncle/cross yáá n 182. snake g‚Š¥ n cousin 183. send tombo vt 229. urine ínì n 184. sour kpá¥á¥ adj 230. village saŠ¥t‚©à n 185. speak t‚¥ vi 231. vomit ‚¥„¥ vt 186. spit saŠ¥aŠ¥ n 232. walk n‚© n 187. spit tu¥ nú vt 233. want k‚¥ vt 188. spoil mburu vi 234. war ™ànà n 189. stab to vt 235. wash f‚r‚ vt 190. standing, to be yoro vi 236. wash t„„ vt 191. star s‚Šr‚Š n 237. water yì n 192. stay ®ana vi 238. weapon bòè n 193. steal zu¥ vt 239. weed w„„ vt 194. steel bòè n 240. wet yì n 195. stinger s„Š„Š n 241. what.1 gé adj 196. stomach zॠn 242. what.2 gè adj 197. stone tà n 243. white f„§¥„©¥ adj 198. stop (cut) g‚n‚ vt 244. white f„Š¥ n 199. stranger g„©n„© n 245. white f„™„ vi 200. suck nz‚®‚ vt 246. who? aŠò pro 201. sun wèseŠ n 247. wind buŠ n 202. sweetness g‚©r‚© n 248. wing s„§„§®à n 203. swell h„¥ vi 249. wing / arm ®à n 204. tail dòò n 250. work gòsárà n 205. take ba vt 251. work tò n 206. termite,winged dòè n 252. wound dànì n 207. that y„© dem 253. year yì n 208. that (inanimate) m„© dem 254. year,season p„© n 209. thing m‚© n 255. 1pl „§ pro 210. this g„© dem 256. 1pl y„§ pro 211. this ˜Š¥ pro 257. 1sg ˜Š pro 212. this k„§„© pro 258. 1sg m˜Š pro 213. this n˜Š dem 259. 2pl n„Š pro 214. this n‚§„© dem 260. 2sg m„Š pro 215. this (inanimate) gá dem 261. 3pl wà pro 216. thorns t„©¥ n 262. 3s à pro 217. three tàr„© num

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10. Suggested Orthography Lettre Manza Français Lettre Manza Français A a a demander Ngb ngbara étendre ama téter ngb ngbikpi fermer la bouche B b ba prendre Ngg nggadha mordre boso montrer ngg nggedhe visiter piège Bh bh bhe tenir bhara pétrir Nm nm nm„ piétiner D d de faire nmana couper diri essuyer Nz nz nzakata mélanger Dh dh dhafa réparer nz‚bh‚ sucer dhenggere porter sur la tête O o o décortiquer E e e laisser oso acheter ere oublier ƒ ‚ ‚m‚ respirer … „ „ verser ‚r‚ flatter, tromper „r„ passer P p para viser F f f„ chercher p„f„ venter fana tracer R r raka limer G g gi bouillir g‚m‚ couper S s sara fouiller Gb gb gb„„ tuer s„bh„r„ déranger gbini casser T t tana trembler H h hana griller tombo envoyer h„r„ attacher U u uu arracher I i ingi savoir ufu souffler iri pousser fort V v vu gagner K k k„„ ramasser vui tourner la sauce ko enfanter, naître Vb vb vbanga croiser Kp kp kpe fermer vburu regrouper, voler kpasa sauver, guérir W w were résonner L l lo jeter (les cailloux) w„n„ pousser herbes luku fourrager Y y y‚ng‚ manger M m ma sauter yamba apprendre m„ déchirer Z z ziri descendre Mb mb mb„„ rassembler z‚„ frapper, taper mbii balayer N n n‚ boire n‚n‚ gratter Vowel Nasals Nd nd nd‚ pièger an kan poursuivre nd‚r‚ sauter, tirer „n k„n partager Ng ng nganda grandir in kpin serrer sécher ng„nz„ ‚n k‚n aimer, vouloir

- 49 - un kun traverser

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11. References:

Blanchard, Yves and Philip A Noss. 1982. Dictionnaire Gbaya-Français, Dialecte Yaayuwee Mission Catholique de Eglise Evangelique Lutherienne du Cameroun, Meigange: Centre de Traduction Gbaya. Boyd, Raymond 1989 178-215 In The Niger-Congo Languages. ed. John Bendor-Samuel. Dictionnaire des Villages. 1993. Bangui: Division des statistiques et des études économiques. Gaud, Fernand. 1911. Les Mandja. Collection De Monograhies ethnographiques. VIII. Vol. XXIV. Brussels: Institut International de Bibliographie. Grundbacher, Ursula and Hans U. 1999. Phonology of Kabba. Unpublished Paper. Bangui, CAR: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Hoch, Père Jean-Paul. 1983. Recueil de proverbes Manza. Locally published Bangui, Central African Republic. Moñino, Yves. 1971. Notes sur la phonologie d’un dialecte gbaya de Berbérati. SELAF 25. 116-118 Paris: SELAF. ------. 1981a. De 2 à 3 tons, l’évolution tonale dans les langues gbaya-manza-ngbaka. Tons et accents dans les langues africaines, ed by G. Guarisma, pp 65-101 LACITO-documents, Afrique, 7 Paris: SELAF. ------. 1988. Lexique comparatif des langues oubanguiennes. Publ. du Departement langues et parole en Afrique Centrale. Paris: Geuthner. Renouf-Stefanik, Suzanne. 1978. Animisme et islam chez les Manza (Centrafrique) Influence religion musulmane sur les coutumes traditionnelles manza, 1978, 359. Ruckstuhl, Christoph. 1997. Phonology of Gbaya of Bossangoa. Unpublished Paper. Bangui, CAR: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Samarin, William J. 1966 The Gbaya Language. Berkeley: University of California Press