Makaa language
Makaa, or South Makaa, is a Bantu language of Cameroon. It is not intelligible with the other language spoken by the Makaa people, North Makaa.
Varieties
The central part of the Meka area consists of the three central dialects Bésáp, Bébánde and Mbwas. Byáp in the north and Békol in the south are more geographically peripheral dialects. Byáp and Asón should not be confused with Northern Maka.Meka covers essentially the entire northern part of Haut-Nyong department. Bébánde covers the entire northern part of Abong-Mbang commune and also Bebeng commune. Mbwas covers most of the Doumé area, and Bésáp covers the north of Nguélémendouka.
Byap occupies the eastern part of Diang commune and Bélabo commune, west of Bertoua. It extends into the Central and Southern Regions in Nyong-et-Mfoumou and Dja-et-Lobo departments.
There are 89,500 speakers.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
- /, / may have allophones which occur in free variation in many environments.
Writing system
Tones are indicated using diacritics:
- the high tone with an acute accent;
- the descending high-low tone with a circumflex accent;
- the low-high rising tone with a caron;
- low tone without accent.