In the classification of the Sara Kaba group used in the Ethnologue, it is considered a Sara Proper Language. This gives the erroneous impression that these languages are as closely related to other Sara Proper
languages, say Gulay or Sar, as Gulay and Sar are to each other. While Sara Proper Languages and Sara Kaba
Languages are clearly related, there are important phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic differences.
A speaker of a Sara language in N'Djamena will be able to understand much of what a speaker of any other Sara Proper dialect is saying. But he or she will be unable to understand sentences in a Sara Kaba languages such as
Na. A preliminary comparison of differences between Sara Kaba and Sara Proper languages is found in
at
Sara Kaba Is Not Sara Proper.pdf
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Deme
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Deme, also called Kaba Deme or Sara Kaba Deme, is spoken in southern Chad in an area directly to the
east of Sarh. According to Palayer(2006) Deme spreads 120 kilometers along the east bank of the Chari
River, in the Moussafoyo, Banda, Marabe, Bohobe, Sime-Gotobe and Baltoubaye cantons, as well as
in certain neighborhoods in Sarh. According to the Ethnologue, there are some 40,000 speakers in
Chad, and unknown number in the Central African Republic.
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Kulfa
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According to the Ethnologue, there were some 7,300 speakers of Kulfa and closely related dialects in 1993, living in
the Southeast part of the Moyen Chari Prefecture in the Kyabe Subprefecture,
southwest of Lake Iro and centered in Alako and Kirimikoro.
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Na
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Na, also called Kaba Na or Sara Kaba Na, is spoken in the Moyen-Chari region,
Lac Iro Department, centered in Kyabe, and in Central African Republic. The Ethnologue
estimates that there were 35,000 speakers in Chad in 1993.
(
More information available.)
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Sara Dunjo
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According to the Ethnologue there were in 1996 approximately 4,000 speakers of Sara Dunjo,
in the Ndele Subprefecture in the Central African Republic, near the Chadian border.
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Sara Kaba
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According to the Ethnologue there were in 1996 approximately 13,600 speakers of Sara Kaba
in the Ndele and Birao Subprefectures in the Central African Republic.
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