Gbanu is a Gbaya language of the Central African Republic

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...

. The people do not consider themselves to be Gbaya

Gbaya people

The Gbaya live in Central African Republic, East-central Cameroon, the north of the Republic of Congo, and the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They numbered 970,000 at the end of the 20th century. They are the largest ethnic group in the Central African Republic, comprising 34% of...

, and it is not clear how distinct Gbanu is from the Gbaya language

Gbaya language

The Gbaya languages, or Gbaya–Manza–Ngbaka, are a group of perhaps a dozen Ubangian languages spoken mainly in the Central African Republic, and to a lesser extent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon...

(or languages).

Phonology

Gbanu has 14 vowels, oral /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/ and nasal /ĩ ẽ ɛ̃ ã ɔ̃ õ ũ/. Syllables may be maximally CVN, where N is /m/ or /n/. There are four tones on CV syllables, high, low, rising, and falling. Words have six tone patterns, those four plus dipping (falling–rising) and peaking (rising–falling).

Consonants

m	n	j~ɲ		w~ŋm
mb	nd		ŋɡ	ŋmɡb
ɓ~ˀm	ɗ~ˀn
p	t		k	kp	ʔ
b	d		ɡ	ɡb
f	s			h
v	z
	nz
	l

Intervocallically, the only voicing distinction that is maintained is /s, z/; otherwise only voiceless oral stops and fricatives occur between vowels.
Nasal consonants lightly nasalize surrounding vowels, and nasal vowels, including those triggered by nasal consonants, nasalize the glottalized consonants. The approximants /j w/ do not occur with nasal vowels, and so may not be phonemic; /j~ɲ/, /w~mŋ/ may be posited as the underlying phonemes.