The Bua languages are a subgroup of the Mbum-Day subgroup of the Adamawa languages spoken in southern Chad. They are ultimately part of the Niger-Congo family. They include:

• Bua language, north of the Chari River around Korbol and Gabil (after which the group was named); mutually comprehensible with Fanian (also called Mana or Kobe) around Karo and Chinguil
• Niellim or Lua, spoken around Niellim along the Chari River north of Sarh
• Tunia, around Sarh (including the Perim dialect)
• Noy or Loo, spoken between Sarh, Djoli, Koumra, and Koumogo. Nearly extinct.
• Gula languages, around Lake Iro and Zan.
• Koke, around Daguela
• Bolgo, near Melfi
• Fanian, or Mana, or Kobe, in the villages of Mouraye, Sengué, Malakonjo, Rim, Sisi, Karo west of Lake Iro.

They have exerted a significant influence on Laal.

In Joseph H. Greenberg's classification, they were referred to as Adamawa-13.

Bibliography

General relevance

• Pascal Boyeldieu and C. Seignobos, "Contribution à l'étude du pays niellim (Moyen-Chari - Tchad)", L'homme et le milieu, Aspects du développement au Tchad, Série: Lettres, Langues vivantes et Sciences humaines, no. 3, 1975, pp. 67-98. Includes an 80-word comparative list for Niellim and three Tunia varieties, with some remarks on regular correspondances
• P. Boyeldieu. "Présentation sommaire du groupe boua, Tchad (Adamawa 13 de J.H. Greenberg)", pp. 275 - 286, in: Colloques et séminaires (http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/afrikanistik/mega-tchad/Table/Presentation/lemilieuetleshommes.html): Le Milieu et les Hommes. Recherches comparatives et historiques dans la bassin du lac Tchad. Actes du 2ème colloque Méga-Tchad ORSTOM BONDY, le 3 et 4 octobre 1985. Ministère française de la Coopération & MESRES Cameroun, 1985.
• P. Boyeldieu & C. Seignobos, Contribution à l'étude du pays niellim, Université du Tchad / INTSH, N'djamena, 1974. Includes word lists for Kwa Tchini (Niellim dialect) and Kwa Perim (Tunia dialect).
• M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Documents sur les langues de l'Oubangui-Chari, Paris, 1907. Includes (pp. 107-122) a 200-word comparative list of Bua, Niellim, Fanian, and Tunia, with a brief grammar and some phrases collected by Decorse.
• A. Joly, Le canton de Boli, 1935, N'djamena archives W-52/19. Contains some 200 Fanian and Bolgo words (pp. 43-50.)
• J. Lukas, Zentralsudanisches Studien, Hamburg, Friedrichsen, de Gruyter & Cie, 1937. Gives the wordlists of Nachtigal, zu Mecklenburg, Barth, and Gaudefroy-Demombynes for Bua (~400 words), Niellim (~200 words), and Koke (~100 words).
• P. Palayer, "Notes sur les Noy du Moyen-Chari (Tchad)", Les langues du groupe Boua, N'djamena, I.N.S.H., "Etudes et documents tchadiens", Série C (Linguistique), no. 2, pp. 196-219. Elements of Noy, plus a 50-word comparative list of Noy, Niellim (2 dialects), Tunia, Iro Gula.
• Gen. de Rendinger, "Contribution à l'étude des langues nègres du Centre Africain", Journal de la Société des Africanistes, XIX-II, 1949, pp. 143-194. Includes examples and grammatical information on Bolgo varieties and Gula.
• A. N. Tucker & M. A. Bryan, The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa, Handbook of African Languages, part III, Oxford University Press for International African Institute, 1956. Includes an over-inclusive list of Bua languages and summarizes their properties based on existing fieldwork.

Specific languages

• P. Boyeldieu, La langue lua ("niellim") (Groupe Boua - Moyen-Chari, Tchad) Phonologie - Morphologie - Dérivation verbale. Descriptions des langues et monographes ethnologuistiques, 1. Cambridge University Press & Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme for SELAF. Paris 1985. ISBN 0 521 27069 3 (CUP). (A source for this bibliography.)
• P. Boyeldieu, "Esquisse phonologique du lua ("niellim") de Niou (Moyen-Chari)", in Jean-Paul Caprile (ed.), Etudes phonologiques tchadiennes, Paris:SELAF 1977.
• J. Mouchet, "Contribution à l'étude du Gula (Tchad)", Bulletin de l'I.F.A.N, vol. XX, series B, no. 3-4, 1958, pp. 593-611. On Bon Gula.
• C. Pairault, Documents du parler d'Iro, "Langues et littératures de l'Afrique noire", Klincksieck, Paris, 1969.
• P. Palayer, Esquisse phonologique du Tounia, INSH, 1974 (?).