Cebaara language

Cebaara
Senari
Native to	Ivory Coast
Native speakers	(860,000 cited 1993)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Senufo Senari Cebaara
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sef
Glottolog	ceba1235

Cebaara (Tyebala), one of a cluster of languages called Senari, is a major Senufo language, spoken by a million people in Ivory Coast.

Phonology

Cebaara has the following sound inventory:

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k	k͡p	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ	ɡ͡b
Fricative	voiceless	f	s
	voiced	v	z
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic			r
Lateral			l
Approximant				j		w

• /b/ can be heard as a voiced fricative [β] when in intervocalic position.
• Voiceless stops /p, t/ can occur as slightly voiced before /i/ as [p̬, t̬]
• /s/ can be palatalized before an /i/, and can be recognized as a post-alveolar fricative [ʃ] before another vowel in /siV/ position.
• Palatal sounds /c, ɟ/ can also be heard as affricate sounds [t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ] within free variation.
• /ŋ/ can also be heard as a post-nasal [ɡ ̃] within word final positions.

Vowels

	Oral vowels			Nasal vowels
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː	ĩ ĩː		ũ ũː
Close-mid	e eː	ə	o oː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː	ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː		ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː
Open		a aː			ã ãː

• Vowels /e, o/ can be realized as [ɪ, ʊ] when in shortened form.