Mbe language
Encyclopedia
Mbe is a language spoken by the Mbube people of the Ogoja
, Cross River State
, region of Nigeria
, numbering about 14,300 people in 1973. 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.
Mbe has a rather elaborate consonant inventory compared to the Ekoid languages, presumably due to contact from neighboring Upper Cross River languages.
All Mbe consonants apart from the labial–velars (kp ɡb w) and n have labialized counterparts. (/jʷ/ is presumably ɥ.) In addition, the non-labialized peripheral
stops (m p b k g; palatalized ŋ would be ɲ) and the liquids
(l r) have palatalized counterparts.
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)
Ogoja
Ogoja is a Local Government Area in Cross River State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is Ogoja town in the northeast of the area near the A4 highway at.It has an area of 972 km² and a population of 171,901 at the 2006 census....
, Cross River State
Cross River State
Cross River State is a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria, bordering Cameroon to the east. Its capital is at Calabar, and it is named for the Cross River , which passes through the state...
, region of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, numbering about 14,300 people in 1973. As the closest relative of the Ekoid
Ekoid languages
The Ekoid languages are a dialect cluster, such as Ekajuk and Ejagham , spoken principally in southeastern Nigeria and in adjacent regions of Cameroon. They have long been associated with the Bantu languages, without their status being precisely defined...
family of the Southern Bantoid languages
Southern Bantoid languages
In the classification of African languages, Southern Bantoid , also known as Wide Bantu or Bin, is a branch of the Bantoid languages of the Niger–Congo phylum...
, Mbe is fairly close to the Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
. It is tonal
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
and has a typical Niger–Congo noun-class system.
Phonology
Vowels are i e ɛ a ɔ o u. Tones are high, low, rising, falling, and a downstep; rising and falling may be tone sequences.Mbe has a rather elaborate consonant inventory compared to the Ekoid languages, presumably due to contact from neighboring Upper Cross River languages.
All Mbe consonants apart from the labial–velars (kp ɡb w) and n have labialized counterparts. (/jʷ/ is presumably ɥ.) In addition, the non-labialized peripheral
Peripheral consonant
In Australian linguistics, the peripheral consonants are a natural class encompassing consonants articulated at the extremes of the mouth: bilabials and velars. That is, they are the non-coronal consonants...
stops (m p b k g; palatalized ŋ would be ɲ) and the liquids
Liquid consonant
In phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:...
(l r) have palatalized 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
Fortis and lenis
In linguistics, fortis and lenis are terms generally used to refer to groups of consonants that are produced with greater and lesser energy, respectively, such as in energy applied, articulation, etc....
/kʷ/. Fortis (long?) /kʷ̹/ half-rounds a following vowel such as /e/, whereas lenis /kʷ̜/ does not. This distinction may be being lost. (Blench)