Bena language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Palilo11 (talk | contribs) at 12:17, 18 July 2023. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Bantu language spoken in Tanzania
Not to be confused with Bena language (Adamawa).
| Bena | |
|---|---|
| Ekibena | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Bena |
Native speakers | 670,000 (2001)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:bez – Benaegm – Kidugalaegm – Lupembeegm – Benemanga |
| 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.
Phonology
Consonants
| 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].
- /v/ can be realized as [ʋ] intervocalically.
- [ɖ] can occur as an allophone of /d/ before long non high vowels.
- [x] can occur as an allophone of /k/, /h/ in the Maswamu dialect.
- [cç, tʃ] can occur as allophones of /ts/, in the Twangabita dialect.
- [ⁿz] can occur as an allophone of /ⁿs/.
- [ɟ] can occur as an allophone of /j/ in the Maswamu dialect.
- [β, ʋ] can occur as allophones of /w/ among some speakers.
- Prenasalised stops may be devoiced when occurring word-finally (ex. /ᵐb/ ~ [ᵐb̥]).
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid | ɛ eː | o oː | |
| Low | a aː |
- /i, u/ before non-rounded vowels are recognized as glides [j, w].[3]
References
- ^ Bena at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Kidugala at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Lupembe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Benemanga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Morrison (2011)
- Morrison, Michelle Elizabeth (2011). A Reference Grammar of Bena (Doctor of Philosophy thesis). Rice University. hdl:1911/70359.
| Official languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indigenous languages |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Narrow Bantu languages (Zones A–S) (by Guthrie classification) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | This Bantu language-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |