| Kare | |
|---|---|
| nzáà kã́rĩ́[1] | |
| Native to | Central African Republic, Cameroon |
Native speakers | (97,000 cited 1996–2000)[2] 62,000 Kare, 35,000 Tale in CAR (1996) |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kbn |
| Glottolog | kare1338 |
Kare (Kãrɛ̃, Kareng; autonym nzáà kã́rĩ́, where nzáà = "mouth") is a southern Mbum language of the Central African Republic, spoken by the Kare people in the mountains of the northeasterly Ouham-Pendé prefecture around Bocaranga. It is spoken by around 97,000 people in the country, and another few thousand speakers in Cameroon. The language's presence on the southeastern edge of the Mbum family is thought to reflect early 19th-century migrations from the Adamawa Plateau, fleeing Fulani raids.[3]
Ethnologue 17 reports that Kare is intelligible with Mbum proper. However, languages more closely related to either are not reported to be intelligible. Ethnologue lists Tale (Tali) as a dialect, but Blench (2004) leaves it unclassified within the Mbum languages. Ethnologue also lists Kali as a synonym; Blench lists a Kali language in a different branch of the Mbum languages.
Kare has the following consonantal phonemes:[4]
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar |
Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||||||||||
| Stop | p | b | t | d | k | ɡ | kp | ɡb | ||||||
| Prenasalized stop | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑg | ᵑɡb | ||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | h | |||||||||
| Prenasalized fricative | ⁿz | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||||||||
| Flap | ⱱ | r | ||||||||||||
It has the following vowel phonemes:[5]
| Oral vowels | Nasal vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Close | i | u | ĩ | ũ |
| Close-mid | e | o | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ɛ̃ | ɔ̃ |
| Open | a | ã | ||
There is a phonological contrast between high and low tone (egsá "say" vs. sà "laugh"), and a rarer phonetic mid tone whose phonological status is not established. Only monosyllabic words may bear rising or falling tone.[6]
The basic word order of Kare is subject-verb-object:
eg
kɛ́
3SG
hòrò
eat
húrù
manioc
kɛ́ hòrò húrù
3SG eat manioc
"he ate manioc".[7]
Negation is handled with the sentence-final particle yá "not";[8] when negated, the locative copula yè "be (in a place)" is replaced by tí, and the equative copula ɓá "be (equivalent to)" by tí ɓá.
Verbal nouns are formed by raising the last syllable's tone and adding a suffix -Cà, where C = lorr after an oral vowel, n after a nasal vowel, and is empty after a consonant: fà "deny" > fárà "denial", sɛ̀l "untie" > sɛ́là "untying".[9]
Kare has no grammatical gender. Its personal pronouns are as follows:[10]
| Free | Subject | Object | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | mìí | mì | mí |
| you sg. | mɔ̀ɔ́ | mɔ̀ | mɔ́ |
| he/she/it | mɛ̀ɛ́ / kɛ́ | kɛ́ | rɛ́ / nɛ́ |
| we | màá | ná | ná |
| you pl. | yìɓàí | yì | ɓàí |
| they | kìí | kì | kìí |
To these may be added hánà "each other, other".
There is a closed class of morphologically invariant adjectives (egfé "new", sɛ́ŋɛ́ "red"), which typically precede the noun but may also follow it to indicate a permanent quality, or may be used as nouns in their own right.[11] Determiners (hánà "other", kɛ́ "the", yɛ̀í "this", yɔ̀ɔ́ "that", nɛ̄ "that yonder") follow the noun, and are followed by the plural marker rì:
eg
nzù
person
kɛ́
DEF
rí
PL
pí
also
nzù kɛ́ rí pí
person DEF PL also
"the people too"[12]
Numerals and quantifiers come at the end, following the (optional) plural marker:
eg
nzù
person
ndíɓí
five
nzù ndíɓí
person five
"five people"
eg
nzù
person
rì
PL
sérè
two
nzù rì sérè
person PL two
"two people"[13]
Direct genitives are formed by juxtaposition
eg
sã̀ũ̀
root
lìà
story
sã̀ũ̀ lìà
root story
"the story's basis"[14]
analytic genitives use the particle ʔà
eg
vùn
house
ʔà
GEN
bá
father
vùn ʔà bá
house GEN father
"the father's house"[15]
Relative clauses are formed with a demonstrative followed (not always immediately) by the relative marker ɗá
eg
nzù
person
yɛ̀í
this
ɗá
REL
rí
rob
mí
me
léóɗáà
yesterday
nzù yɛ̀í ɗá rí mí léóɗáà
person this REL rob me yesterday
"the person who robbed me yesterday"
All adpositions in Kare precede their complement. There are four primary (pure) prepositions: kà "with (instrumental)", té "with (comitative)", ʔá "in", báŋ "like",[16]
eg
kɛ́
3SG
ɡí
come
té
with
bá
father
nɛ̄
3SG.POSS
kɛ́ ɡí té bá nɛ̄
3SG come with father 3SG.POSS
"he came with his father"
Alongside these there are a number of secondary postpositions transparently derived from nouns (often body parts), eg tûl "head" > túl "on top of".[17]
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