Tongwe language

Tongwe
Tongwe
Bende
Native to	Tanzania
Native speakers	(40,000 cited 1999–2001)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone F.10) Tongwe; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Tongwe; Bende;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; tny – Tongwe; bdp – Bende
Glottolog	tong1320 Tongwe; bend1258 Bende
Guthrie code	F.10 (F.11–12)
ELP	Bende

Tongwe (Sitongwe) and Bende (Sibende) constitute a clade of Bantu languages coded Zone F.10 in Guthrie's classification. According to Nurse & Philippson (2003),^[3] they form a valid node. Indeed, at 90% lexical similarity they may be dialects of a single language.

Phonology

Consonants^[4]
	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b	t d	c ɟ	k g
Fricative	f	s z			h
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Approximant	w		j

Vowels^[4]
	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Low		a ã aː

Additionally, Bende has four tones;^[4] high, low, rising, and falling.

References

^[1]

[3]

[1]

[2]

[4]

[1]

Tongwe
Bende
Native to	Tanzania
Native speakers	(40,000 cited 1999–2001)^[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone F.10) Tongwe
Dialects	Tongwe Bende
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: `tny` – Tongwe `bdp` – Bende
Glottolog	`tong1320` Tongwe `bend1258` Bende
Guthrie code	`F.10 (F.11–12)`^[2]
ELP	Bende