Aja is a Central Sudanic language spoken in the southern South Sudanese province of Bahr el Ghazal and along the South Sudanese border in the Central African Republic. Although the Aja are ethnically Kresh, their language is unintelligible to other Kresh languages. It is largely Banda in vocabulary, though it remains Kresh in structure. Most members of the tribe are bilingual in Kresh. Alternate spellings are Adja and Ajja.
| Aja | |
|---|---|
| Native to | South Sudan, Central African Republic |
| Ethnicity | Aja people |
Native speakers | (200 cited 1993)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aja |
| Glottolog | ajas1235 |
| ELP | Aja |
Phonology
edit| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b ɓ | t d ɗ | ʈ ɖ | c ɟ | k ɡ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||
| Tap or Flap | ⱱ | ɾ | ||||||||
| Affricate | ts | tɕ dʑ | ||||||||
| Fricative | f v | θ | s | ʃ ʒ | x ɣ | ħ ʕ | h | |||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l |
Vowels
edit| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |||
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |||
| Close-mid | e | o | |||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |||
| Near-open | ɐ | ||||
| Open | a |
References
edit- ^ Aja at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b Santandrea, Stefano (1976). The Kresh group: Aja and Baka Languages (Sudan). Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale.
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