Bena language

Not to be confused with Bena language (Adamawa).

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	590,000 (2009)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Bena–Kinga (G60) Bena
Dialects	Bena Benamanga
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: bez – Bena egm – Benemanga (includes Kidugala and Lupembe dialects)
Glottolog	bena1262
Guthrie code	G.63[2]
Linguasphere	99-AUS-ub incl. varieties 99-AUS-uba...-ubg

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]