Mbe language

This article is about the language of Nigeria; it is not to be confused with the Mbe' language of Cameroon.

Mbe
M̀bè
Pronunciation	[m̀bè]
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Ogoja, Cross River State
Ethnicity	Mbube people
Native speakers	65,000 (2011)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Ekoid–Mbe Mbe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mfo
Glottolog	mbee1249
ELP

People	Mbube
Language	M̀bè

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. As the closest relative of the Ekoid family of the Southern Bantoid languages, 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

• Roger Blench, 'Ekoid' (with Mbe)

External links

• Global Recordings Network: Mbe