Maba is a
language spoken by perhaps 300,000
people in south-eastern
Chad and in the
neighboring borderlands of
Sudan. It's
language code is
MDE.
Maba is one of a small group of Nilo-Saharan languages, and is called Bura Mabang by its speakers.
Historically, Maba is the most important of its group because it was the language of the Islamic state of Wadai founded by Abd al-Karim in the Seventeenth century. Maba, the language of the ruling class, and Arabic, the language of religion, were the two lingua francas of Wadai. Later, when the Bornu empire reduced Wadai to vassal status, Kanuri became a third language of power in Wadai.
How to count to ten in Maba :
- tek
- bar
- kungal (kungāl)
- asal (asāl)
- tor
- settal (settāl)
- mindri (mindrī)
- iya (īya)
- adoi (adoī)
- atuk