Mbe language

This article is about the language of Nigeria. Not to be confused with the Mbe' language of Cameroon.
Mbe
M̀bè
Pronunciation[m̀bè]
Native toNigeria
RegionOgoja, Cross River State
EthnicityMbube people
Native speakers
65,000 (2011)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3mfo
Glottologmbee1249
PeopleMbube[2]
LanguageM̀bè

Mbe is a language spoken by the Mbube people of the Ogoja, Cross River State region of Nigeria, numbering about 65,000 people in 2011.[1] As the closest relative of the Ekoid family of the Southern Bantoid languages,[3] Mbe is fairly close to the Bantu languages. It is tonal and has a typical Niger–Congo noun-class system.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels are i e ɛ a ɔ o u.

Consonants

Mbe has a rather elaborate consonant inventory compared to the Ekoid languages, presumably due to contact from neighbouring Upper Cross River languages.

All Mbe consonants apart from the labial–velars (kp ɡb w) and n have labialised counterparts. (/jʷ/ is presumably [ɥ].) In addition, the non-labialised peripheral stops (m p b k ɡ; palatalised ŋ would be ɲ) and the liquids (l r) have palatalised counterparts.

m mʷ mʲ n ɲ ɲʷ ŋ ŋʷ
p pʷ pʲ t tʷ k kʷ̜ kʷ̹ kʲ kp
b bʷ bʲ d dʷ ɡ ɡʷ ɡʲ ɡb
ts tsʷ tʃ tʃʷ
dz dzʷ dʒ dʒʷ
f fʷ s sʷ ʃ ʃʷ
r rʷ lʲ
l lʷ lʲ j jʷ w

There are a few consonants that only occur in ideophones, such as /fʲ hʲ/.

An interesting additional contrast is between fortis and lenis /kʷ/. Fortis (long?) /kʷ̹/ half-rounds a following vowel such as /e/, whereas lenis /kʷ̜/ does not. This distinction may be being lost. (Blench)

Tone

Tones are high, low, rising, falling and a downstep; rising and falling may be tone sequences.

References

  1. ^ a b Mbe at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
  3. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Ekoid–Mbe". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.