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 languages family of the Southern Bantoid languages,]
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 stops (; palatalised would be ) and the liquid consonant () 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.
External links
