Buwal language


Buwal, also known as Ma Buwal, Bual, or Gadala, is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Cameroon in Far North Province in and around Gadala.

Phonology

The labiodental flap is marginal, only occurring in two native Buwal words. The labial-velar plosives are also marginal; in particular, only occurs in one word, the ideophone kpaŋ.
Buwal has the vowels, which can occur in high, middle, or low tone. Each vowel has a variety of phonetic realizations. can occur as, and can occur as. The schwa can be analyzed as a solely epenthetic vowel. These vowels occur as rounded allophones when adjacent to a labialized consonant, and as front vowels when the word is palatalized.
Palatalization in Buwal occurs across an entire word, and also affects the affricate consonants, which surface as in a palatalized word. As a result, all of the vowels within a single word are either front or back, producing vowel harmony. An example of this contrast is between 'rat', which is non-palatalized, and 'turtle', which is palatalized. This process does not affect loanwords, e.g. 'oil' or 'school'. Some loanwords have been modified to accommodate Buwal phonology, e.g. 'tea', from Fulfulde sha'i.