Mambila language

Mambila is a dialect chain stretching across Nigeria and Cameroon. It is one of the Mambiloid languages, a branch of Benue–Congo.

Mambila
Region	Nigeria and Cameroon
Native speakers	(130,000 cited 1993)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Northern Bantoid Mambiloid Mambila–Konja Mambila–Vute Mambila
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: mzk – Nigerian Mambila mcu – Camerounian Mambila
Glottolog	nige1255  Nigeria came1252  Cameroon

Notable dialects are Barup, Bang, Dorofi, Gembu, Hainari, Kabri, Mayo Ndaga, Mbamnga, Tamien, Warwar (in Nigeria); Sunu Torbi (Torbi), Ju Naare (Gembu), and in Cameroon, Ju Ba and Langa. Mambila goes by numerous names, which, besides the dialectical names, include Bea, Ble, Juli, Lagubi, Nor, Nor Tagbo, Tongbo, and the spellings Mabila, Mambere, Mambilla.

Tep is generally considered a dialect by those in Tep and by speakers of other varieties of Mambila, but though Tep speakers are ethnically Mambila, their speech is not intelligible to other varieties. In terms of linguistic classification it may be more accurate to call it a different Mambiloid language. See Connell references below.

Blacksmiths among the Mambila once spoke Somyev, a related Mambiloid language, though this is nearly extinct.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	ɯ	u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

• /i/ can also be heard as [ɪ] in different positions.

There is an occurrence of fricativized close vowel combinations when preceded by a number of consonants. An alveolo-palatal fricative with vowels /i, ɨ/ as [ʑ͜i, ʑ͜ɨ], and a labio-dental sound with /ɯ/ as [v͜ɯ]. The only consonants /b, f, t, d, n, l, ʃ, k/ are heard with the fricativized vowels [bʑ, ʃʑ, fv, tv, dv, nv, lv, kv].^[2]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Postalv./ Palatal	Velar		Glottal
					plain	lab.
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋʷ
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k	kʷ
	voiced	b	d		g	ɡʷ
	prenasal vl.	ᵐp	ⁿt		ᵑk	ᵑkʷ
	prenasal vd.	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	t͡ʃ
	voiced		d͡z	d͡ʒ
	prenasal vl.		ⁿt͡s
	prenasal vd.		ⁿd͡z	ⁿd͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	(x)		h
	voiced	v
	prenasal vl.	ᶬf	ⁿs
	prenasal vd.	ᶬv	ⁿz
Trill			(r)
Tap			ɺ
Approximant	lateral		l
	plain			j		w

• /d/ can have allophones of [ɾ, r, ɺ], among different speakers. /k/ can have an allophone of [x] when occurring in intervocalic or post-vocalic positions.^[2]