TerraverbaAn atlas of the world’s languages 简体中文 Open the atlas

Baa

Baa is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken in Nigeria. Glottolog rates it threatened.

See it on the globeOpen in the family tree

Baa · 9.4°N 11.4°E

Kwah (Kwa), also known as Baa (Bàː), is a Niger–Congo language of uncertain affiliation; the more it has been studied, the more divergent it appears. Joseph Greenberg counted it as one of the Bambukic languages of the Adamawa family. Boyd (1989) assigned it its own branch within Waja–Jen. Kleinewillinghöfer (1996) removed it from Waja–Jen as an independent branch of Adamawa. When Blench (2008) broke up Adamawa, Kwah became a provisional independent branch of his larger Savannas family.

Blench (2019) lists the locations of Baa as Gyakan and Kwa towns (located near Munga) in Numan LGA, Adamawa State, Nigeria. One Baa-speaking person (singular) is raBáà (sg.), and more than one would be Báà (pl.); the language is referred to by speakers as nyaa Báà. The Baa varieties in each of the two towns differ primarily in phonology.

Baa traditional religion has two main deities, Gbandima and Kassimin.

From Wikipedia · Kwah language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Baa

MeaningWordRomanization
personnaho*
namezin*
eyenuvi*
earntu*
nosegyo*
toothnyanwivi*
tonguedyenvi*
handnavi*
bloodtwen*
bonekukut*
skinbiyal*
kneekwegwivi*
breastyi*
liverlet*
waterman*
firelwe*
sunpyon*
starvangyen*
stonetita*
mountaingwita*
treeki*
leafwan*
nightnayi*
doggya*
fishnyu*
lousesin*
onenonku*
twonogbe*
Iiyo*
youmu*

* in the simplified ASJP transcription

Most similar languages

Vocabulary

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

Nearby languages

Elsewhere

Something wrong here? Tell us

Glottolog · kwaa1262 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · kwb