Sango (also spelt Sangho) is the primary language spoken in the Central African Republic: it has 5 million second-language speakers, but only 400,000 native speakers, mainly in the towns. It is a vehicular creole based on the language of the Sango tribe, closely related to Ngbandi and Yakoma, with many French words. Studies indicate that some 490 native Sango words account for about 90% of speech; however, while French loanwords are much more rarely used, they account for the majority of the vocabulary. The situation might be compared to English, where most of the vocabulary - particularly "learned" words - is derived from Latin or French, while the basic vocabulary remains strongly Germanic. Being a creole, it is unusually easy to learn; according to Samarin, "with application a student ought to be able to speak the language in about three months."

Sango contains the following consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, kp, gb, mb, nd, ng, ngb, nz, f, v, s, z, h, l, r, y, w (to which some add mv and implosive 'b.) It contains 7 plain vowels - a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ, u - of which four, a ɛ ɔ u, can occur nasalized. It has three tones - high, mid, and low. The standard orthography does not distinguish ɛ from e or ɔ; it marks mid tone with dieresis (ë), and high tone with circumflex (ê).

The word order is Subject Verb Object, as in English. The pronouns are: mbï "I", mo "you (sg.)", lo "he, she, it", ë "we", âla "you (pl.)", âla "they". Verbs take a prefix a- if not preceded by a pronoun; thus mo eke "you are", but Bêafrîka ayeke "Central Africa is". Particularly useful verbs include eke "be", bara "greet" (> bara o "hi!"), hînga "know". Possessives and appositives are formed with the word tî "of": ködörö tî mbï "my country", yângâ tî sängö "Sango language". Another common preposition is na, covering a variety of locative, dative, and instrumental functions.

Bibliography

• William Samarin, 1967. Lessons in Sango.

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