Kera

Abstract

Kera is an Eastern Chadic language spoken by about 50,000 people in southwestern Chad, south of the town of Fianga, and in major towns of Cameroon and Chad. Most Kera speakers would claim to speak a standard variety of Kera although there is some variation depending on gender and location. The differences involve the relationship between tone and voicing, the number of contrastive tones and the presence or absence of a voicing contrast. Women are more conservative than men in the use of tone in rural settings and more innovative than men in urban settings (Pearce 2009). Previous literature on Kera includes Ebert (1975, 1976, 1979) and Pearce (1999, 2006a, b, c, 2007a, 2008, 2009).