Laal is an endangered language isolate spoken by 749 people (as of 2000[update]) in three villages in the Moyen-Chari prefecture of Chad on opposite banks of the Chari River, called Gori (lá), Damtar (ɓual), and Mailao.

According to former Summer Institute of Linguistics-Chad member David Faris, it is in danger of extinction, with most people under 25 shifting to the locally more widespread Bagirmi.

The language's speakers are mainly river fishermen and farmers, who also sell salt extracted from the ashes of doum palms and Vossia cuspidata.

Laal remains unclassified, although extensive Adamawa (specifically Bua) and to a lesser extent Chadic influence is found.

Boyeldieu (1982) summarizes his view as "Its classification remains problematic; while it shows certain lexical, and no doubt morphological, traits with the Bua languages (Adamawa-13, Niger–Congo family of Joseph H. Greenberg), it differs from them radically in many ways of which some, a priori, make one think of geographically nearby Chadic languages."

It is the last possibility which attracts particular interest; if this proves true, Laal may be the only remaining window on the linguistic state of Central Africa before the expansion of the main African language families—Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger–Congo—into it.

Pozdniakov (2010) believes Laal is a distinct branch of Niger–Congo with part of its pronominal system borrowed from a Chadic language like Kera.

Alternatively, it may be a language descending from a language of a group of Neolithic Near Eastern farmers who immigrated to Chad, since recent genetic studies have found that the Laal people have significant Eurasian admixture similar to Natufians and Neolithic Levantines.

For initial syllables, however, it is much more complicated, allowing length distinctions and distinguishing the following additional diphthongs: /ia/, /yo/, /ya/ (but the latter two appear only as morphologically conditioned forms of /e/ and /ia/ and so are perhaps better seen as allophonic).

In addition, /y/ may occur very occasionally; Boyeldieu quotes the example of mỳlùg "red (pl.)".

Nouns have plural and singular forms (the latter are perhaps better viewed as singulative in some cases), with plural formation hard to predict: kò:g "bone" > kuagmi "bones", tuà:r "chicken" > tò:rò "chickens", ɲaw "hunger" > ɲə̀wə́r "hungers".

The possessive is expressed in two ways: làgɨˋmhorsemáCONNmàr-dɨbman+of-forgelàgɨˋm má màr-dɨbhorse CONN man+of-forge"blacksmith's horse"However, if the possessor is a pronoun, it is suffixed with extensive vowel ablaut (in the first case) or prepositional forms with "at" and optionally the connector as well, are used (in the second case): na:ra ɟá ɗe: "my man" ("man CONN. at-me"), mùlù "her eye" ("eye-her", from mɨla "eye").

That is called obligatory possession and is found in many other language, usually for words referring to personal relationships.

Some singular and plural nouns in Laal (Blench (2017):[7] In the following tables, note the distinction between inclusive and exclusive we, found in many other languages but not English, and the gender differentiation of "I" in certain forms.

The verb has three basic forms: simple, "centripetal", and "participative" to calque Boyeldieu's terminology.

The "participative", generally formed like the centripetal but with final high tone, generally indicates an omitted object or instrument: ʔàhesátakeɗa:gcalabashʔàhesɨ̀rɨ́drink-PARTICIPsuwaterʔà sá ɗa:g ʔà sɨ̀rɨ́ suhe take calabash he drink-PARTICIP water"he takes a calabash and drinks water with it"Immediately before the verb, a particle may be placed to indicate forms other than a simple present tense; such particles include ná (pl.

mínì) expressing intention, kò marking habitual action, ɓə́l or ga (pl.

gi) marking incomplete action, and wó (always accompanied by ʔàle after the verb) meaning "maybe".

Adjectives do not seem to constitute an independent category in Laal; to all intents and purposes, they behave just like verbs: gò: ʔì:r "the goat is black".

"jàwithkàskàrswordsmàEMP.INANmùáŋpeopleláGorisə̀ɲə́fight-PARTICIPbe.battle.jà kàskàr mà mùáŋ lá sə̀ɲə́ be.with swords EMP.INAN people Gori fight-PARTICIP battle.