Kabba language
Kaba, or Kabba of Goré, is a language of the Sara people in Central African Republic and Chad, with around 100,000 speakers.
There are several languages named Kaba, which is a local generic term approximately equivalent to Sara. Kaba of Gore is confusing classified as a Sara rather than as a Kaba language.
Kabba is a tonal language. There are three tones, High Mid and Low.
Phonology
Consonants
- The glottal stop is only heard in word-initial position, before vowels.
- /h/ occurs only in limited distribution.
- Sounds /t, d, ⁿd/ are heard in complimentary distribution with affricate sounds when in word initial position before /i/.
- /ɗ/ may have a retroflex or trill allophone, when in intervocalic positions.
- /ɾ/ may also be heard as a retroflex in free variation.
- occurs as an allophone of /n/ when before a velar stop, or when at the end of root words or morphemes.
Vowels
- /ə/ is heard as when in CVCV open syllables.