Maɗa language

Not to be confused with Mada language.

Maɗa
Native to	Cameroon
Region	Far North Region, Cameroon
Native speakers	(17,000 cited 1982)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Chadic Biu–Mandara Wandala–Mafa Mafa (A.5) South (a) Maɗa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mxu
Glottolog	mada1293

Maɗa is a Chadic language spoken in northern Cameroon. It has 17,000 speakers.

The Maɗa (17,000 speakers) inhabit the Maɗa massif, on the eastern edge of the Mandara Mountains, between the Wuzlam massif to the north and the Zélgwa massif to the south. They live in the canton of Madakalkoss, arrondissement of Tokombéré, department of Mayo-Sava, Far North Region.

Vowels

Maɗa has seven vowels.

	Front	Middle	Back
High	i		u
Middle	e ø	ə	o
Low		a

Consonants

Maɗa has 25 consonants in total, including implosives, lateral fricatives, and prenasalized stops.

		Labial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Velar	Glottal	Rounded Glottal
Stop	Tenuis	p		t		k	kʷ
	Voiced	b		d		g	ɡʷ
	Implosive	ɓ		ɗ
	Prenasalized	ᵐb		ⁿd		ᵑg
Nasal		m		n		ŋ
Fricative	Tenuis		f	s				h	hʷ
	Voiced		v	z
Lateral fricative	Tenuis			ɬ
	Voiced			ɮ
Affricate	Tenuis			ts
	Voiced			dz
	Prenasalized			ⁿdz
Rhotic				r
Approximate		w			j
Lateral approximate				l

References

• Daniel Barreteau & André Brunet. 2000. Dictionnaire mada. Berlin: Reimer.
• http://pbase.phon.chass.ncsu.edu/language/322