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Yaka (Central African Republic) |
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Aka, also known as Yaka or Beka, is a Bantu language spoken in the Central African Republic and Republic of Congo, along the
Ubangi River dividing the two countries. Aka is spoken by the Aka people, Pygmies closely related to the Ubangian-speaking
Baka of Cameroon, Congo, and Gabon. Together, these peoples are known as the Mbenga (Bambenga) or Binga (Babinga), the latter
derogatory. Famously, Aka shares vocabulary with the Baka languages, mostly concerning a specialized forest economy, such
as words for edible plants, medicinal plants, and honey collecting. This is among the 30% of Aka which is not Bantu, and the
30% of Baka which is not Ubangian, and has been posited as the remnant of an ancestral Western Pygmy (Mbenga or Baaka) language
which has otherwise vanished. However, it is entirely possible that the Aka shifted to Bantu from a Ubangian language related
to Baka, in which case the situation reduces to a single ethnic group adapted to the forest with correspondingly specialized
vocabulary. There is no evidence for a wider linguistic affiliation with any of the other Pygmy peoples. The Aka people call
themselves Mraka in the singular and Beka in the plural. The people and their language go by various alternate spellings:
Mò-Áka, Moyaka, Bayaka, Yaga, Bayaga, Gbayaka, Biaka, Beká, Yakwa, Yakpa, Yakpwa, Nyoyaka. The western Aka are known as the
Benzele (Mbenzélé, Babenzélé, Bambenzele, Ba-Benjelle), and the eastern Aka as the Sese (Basese). These might be distinct
dialects; Nzari might be another. Pygmies of northern Gabon called the Mikaya and Luma are evidently either Aka or speak a
language closely related to Aka. |
Names (more)[de] Yaka[en] Aka language [hr] Yaka [mk] Акаски јазик |
Language type : Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Yaka (Central African Republic). |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : axkLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/axkhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:axk More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: axkFreebase ISO 639-3 : axk GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |