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.

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