Bena language

Bena is a Bantu language spoken by the Bena people of the Iringa region of Tanzania.

Not to be confused with Bena language (Adamawa).
Bena
Ekibena
Native toTanzania
EthnicityBena
Native speakers
670,000 (2001)[1]
Niger–Congo
Language codes
ISO 639-3bez
Glottologbena1262[2]
G.63[3]
Linguasphere99-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]).

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].[4]
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References
  1. Bena at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Bena (Tanzania)". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  4. Morrison (2011)


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