Mubi-Toram lexicon in Chadic and Afro-Asiatic perspective I: Lexemes with initial *B-

Mubi-Toram is a group of languages in the Republic of Chad (some of them close to the border with Sudan). This group belongs to the eastern subbranch of Chadic and thus represents the member of the immense Afro-Asiatic (Semito-Hamitic) macrofamily comprising six equipotential branches: Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, Omotic, and Chadic. Mubi-Toram is namely the last (26th) Chadic group in the classification proposed by H. Jungraithmayr (Jungraithmayr — Ibriszimow 1994, Vol. II, p. xv). This is one of the least studied Chadic groups from the standpoint of both lexicography and comparison. For each of its daughter languages we usually find just one wordlist, among them only Mubi is relatively better provided with sources.The success of modern research on Chadic phonological and lexical reconstruction (initiated by V. M. Illič-Svityč and P. Newman in the mid-1960s) fundamentally depends on how the inner reconstruction and the external (Afro-Asiatic) comparison of every single individual Chadic language group proceeds at the same time. Unfortunately, out of the 26 Chadic groups, only six (namely, Angas-Sura, Bole-Tangale, North Bauchi, Bura-Margi, Mafa-Mada, Kotoko) have been so far more or less satisfactorily studied from this viewpoint.Work on the planned comparative lexicon of the Mubi-Toram languages was begun by the author in the summer of 2008. The present series of papers is to integrate this remote lexical stock in its wider Chadic and Afro-Asiatic context by providing materials for the research outlined above