Mbe is a language spoken by the
Mbube people of the
Ogoja,
Cross River State
)
, image_map = Nigeria - Cross River.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location of Cross River State in Nigeria
, coordinates =
, coor_pinpoint ...
region of
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...
, numbering about 65,000 people in 2011.
[ As the closest relative of the ]Ekoid
The Ekoid languages are a dialect cluster of Southern Bantoid languages 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 de ...
family of the Southern Bantoid languages
Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid) is a branch of the Bantoid language family. It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon (though the affiliation of some branch ...
,Bantu languages
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
T ...
. It is tonal and has a typical Niger–Congo noun-class
In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...
system.
Phonology
Vowels
Vowels are .
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 () and have labialised counterparts. ( is presumably .) In addition, the non-labialised peripheral
A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by th ...
stops (; palatalised would be ) and the liquids
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, ...
() have palatalised counterparts.
There are a few consonants that only occur in ideophones, such as .
An interesting additional contrast is between fortis and lenis . Fortis (long?) half-rounds a following vowel such as , whereas lenis 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
{{Languages of Nigeria
Ekoid languages
Languages of Nigeria
Southern Bantoid languages