Bena language
Bena is a Bantu language spoken by the Bena people of the Iringa region of Tanzania.
| Bena | |
|---|---|
| Ekibena | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Bena |
Native speakers | 670,000 (2001)[1] |
Niger–Congo
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bez |
| Glottolog | bena1262 |
G.63[2] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUS-ub incl. varieties 99-AUS-uba...-ubg |
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||||
| Affricate | ts | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | |||
| voiced | v | ||||||
| prenasal | ⁿs | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| 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]).
References
- Bena at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- 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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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