Marba language

Description

• Tandjilé Ouest, one of three departments in the Tandjilé Region of south-western Chad
• Leou-Mbassa sous-préfecture in the department of Kabbia in the Mayo-Kebbi Est region.

Classification

Geographic distribution and variations

• Marba
• Kolon
• Leou.

The various names of the language

Azumeina versus Marba

• A lexicon published by Colin Price in 1968 was titled Azumeina—English Dictionary
• The Holy Bible published by the Alliance Biblique du Tchad in 1999 carried the French subtitle La Sainte Bible en langue Azumeina
• The sixth edition of the Azumeina hymn book published in December 2014 by the Marba-language translation committee carried the French subtitle Cantiques en langue Marba.

  Origin of the Marba

Les migrations gumay ont été, en revanche, quelque peu bousculées par le passage du Logone, au Sud, de colonies marba et musey, toujours plus nombreuses. Au début de la période coloniale, les Marba Gogor, aprés leurs démêlés avec le chef Azina Kolon, ont en effet traversé le Logone et les Musey les ont suivis. Faisant irruption dans le no man’s land dégagé par les Kwang, alors en repli devant les Masa à Vabolo et Kunsul, Marba et Musey ont agrandi le passage entre Kwang et Masa, allant jusqu’à coloniser les abords de la piste Bongor-Gelendeng. Les fronts pionniers masa avancent moins vite que les colonies marba-musey, disposant du poney. De tradition guerrière, Marba et Musey suscitent encore la crainte. Aussi les Kwang lâchent-ils pied devant eux et gagnent de leur côté le Chari, alors que les Masa ne progressent plus dans cette région. L’interférence marba-musey avec la remontée masa a fait s’infléchir le couloir de migration de ces derniers en direction des Munjuk, au Nord, ce qui complique encore une carte ethnique déjà passablement bigarrée dans cette région de l’interfluve Chari-Logone.

The Gumay migrations were, however, somewhat diverted by the passage of Logone, in the South, of Marba and Musey colonies, ever more numerous. At the beginning of the colonial period, the Marba Gogor, after their separation from the chief Azina Kolon, crossed the Logone and the Musey followed them. Bursting into the no man's land cleared by the Kwang, then retreating before the Masa to Vabolo and Kunsul, the Marba and Musey expanded the gap between the Kwang and the Masa, colonising as far as the area around the Bongor-Gelendeng track. The pioneer Masa fronts advanced more slowly than Marba-Musey colonies, with the pony. Of a warrior heritage, the Marba and Musey are still feared. Also the Kwang let them walk in front of them and gained their side of the Chari, while the Masa no longer advanced in this region. The Marba-Musey interference of the rise of the Masa curbed the migration corridor of the latter in the direction of the Munjuk, to the North, further complicating an already quite patchy ethnic map in this region between the Logone and Chari rivers.

• A man went out hunting and caught some game. He shared the meat with his brothers but not his father. The father complained that he had been left out i.e. “Mar-ba” where mar means forget and ba means father
• Marba was the ancestor of the Marba people group. The names of the Marba clans come from the names of his sons.

Origin of the name Azumeina

Origin of colloquial names Banana and Ho Ho

Linguistics

Historical survey of linguistic work

Orthography and phonetics

AD 1960 – 2000

• Must be able to be typed on a French typewriter
• Letters should be written in a similar manner to French to minimise additional learning with the exception that ‘ou’ was written ‘u’ in Marba to simplify vowel clusters. This was because French is one of the two official national languages of Chad and was the written language of the milieu.
• Tones should be indicated only to avoid ambiguity with another word because first-language speakers know the tones.

• Two adjacent vowels pronounced as separate phonemes
• Implosive consonants, as explained below.

Current developments in orthography

• Simplified the orthography of some consonant phonemes by adding new letters
• Included additional vowel letters Ə ə and Ɨ ɨ
• Used the tilde to indicate nasal vowels instead of the circumflex, which is the preferred linguistic notation for nasalisation.

• Table 2 Consonant letters
• Table 3 Vowel letters
• Table 4 Vowel tonal and pronunciation marks
• Table 5 Punctuation marks.

• ʼ indicates that the two adjacent vowels are pronounced as separate sounds with a slight pause between them.
• Although not found in the texts surveyed, capitals marked * would be used for writing in all-caps, for example in document headings.

Vocabulary

Grammar