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Naba

A language of Chad

ISO 639-3: mne

Population	278,000 (2006). 136,629 Bilala, 76,660 Kuka, and 19,159 Medogo.
Region	Batha region, Batha Est Department, Ati Subprefecture; Batha Ouest Department, Oum Hadjer Subprefecture; Hadjer Lamis region, Dababa Department, Bokoro Subprefecture. Bilala around Lake Fitri and toward the east to Ati; Kuka between Moïto and Bokoro in Bokoro Subprefecture, and between Ati and Oum Hadjer; Medogo southwest of Ati.
Language map	Southwestern Chad, reference number 47
Dialects	Bilala (Bilaala, Boulala, Bulala, Mage, Ma), Kuka (Kouka, Lisi), Medogo (Modogo, Mud). Related but not inherently intelligible with Berakou [bxv] or Kenga [kyq]. Lexical similarity: between Bilala, Kuka, and Medogo dialects is 99%.
Classification	Nilo-Saharan, Central Sudanic, West, Bongo-Bagirmi, Sara-Bagirmi, Bagirmi
Language use	Some also use Chadian Spoken Arabic [shu]. One part of the Kuka ethnic group, who live near Oum Hadjer, have shifted to Chadian Spoken Arabic.
Comments	Bilala, Kuka, and Medogo are 3 ethnic groups who share a common culture and speak essentially the same language, called ‘Naba’ by all 3 groups. Muslim.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

MAASS, Antje, author. 2001. Rapport d’enquête sociolinguistique: première évaluation parmi les Bilala, Kouka et Medogo du Batha, Tchad.

MAASS, Antje, author. 2008. "Le bilala, le kouka et le medogo : trois langues ou une?."  

OLSON, Kenneth S.; SCHULTZ, Paul H., authors. 2002. Can [sonorant] spread?.