Bena | |
---|---|
Ekibena | |
Native to | Tanzania |
Ethnicity | Bena |
Native speakers | 590,000 (2009) [1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:
bez – Bena
egm – Benemanga (include Kidugala and Lupembe dialects) |
Glottolog |
bena1262 |
G.63
[2] | |
Linguasphere |
99-AUS-ub incl. varieties 99-AUS-uba...-ubg |
Bena is a Bantu language spoken by the Bena people of the Iringa region of Tanzania.
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | |||
Affricate | ts | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | ||
voiced | v | |||||
prenasal | ⁿs | |||||
Approximant | l | j | w |
Voiceless sounds almost always occur as aspirated stops; [ pʰ, tʰ, kʰ].
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i iː | u uː | |
Mid | ɛ eː | o oː | |
Low | a aː |