Mbe language
Ekoid language of Nigeria
title: "Mbe language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ekoid-languages", "languages-of-nigeria", "southern-bantoid-languages"] description: "Ekoid language of Nigeria" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbe_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Ekoid language of Nigeria ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Mbe |
| nativename | M̀bè |
| pronunciation | |
| states | Nigeria |
| region | Ogoja, Cross River State |
| ethnicity | Mbube people |
| speakers | 65,000 |
| date | 2011 |
| ref | e25 |
| familycolor | Niger-Congo |
| fam2 | Atlantic-Congo |
| fam3 | Volta-Congo |
| fam4 | Benue-Congo |
| fam5 | Bantoid |
| fam6 | Southern Bantoid |
| fam7 | Ekoid–Mbe |
| iso3 | mfo |
| glotto | mbee1249 |
| glottorefname | Mbe |
| :: |
::callout[type=note] the language of Nigeria ::
|name=Mbe |nativename=M̀bè |pronunciation= |states=Nigeria |region=Ogoja, Cross River State |ethnicity=Mbube people |speakers=65,000 |date=2011 |ref=e25 |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=Atlantic-Congo |fam3=Volta-Congo |fam4=Benue-Congo |fam5=Bantoid |fam6=Southern Bantoid |fam7=Ekoid–Mbe |iso3=mfo |glotto=mbee1249 |glottorefname=Mbe
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. Mbe is fairly close to the Bantu languages. It is tonal and has a typical Niger–Congo noun-class 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 stops (; palatalised would be ) and the liquids () have palatalised counterparts.
::data[format=table]
| l lʷ lʲ | j jʷ | w | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
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)
References
- Blench, Roger. (2019). "An Atlas of Nigerian Languages". Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
- As the closest relative of the [[Ekoid languages. Ekoid]] family of the [[Southern Bantoid languages]],{{glotto. ekoi1237. Ekoid–Mbe
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::