Wobé (Ouobe) is an indigenous Kru language spoken in Ivory Coast. It is one of several languages in a dialect continuum called Wèè (Wɛɛ).
Phonology Typical of Western Kru languages, Wobé has sixteen vowel phonemes, with nine oral vowels and seven nasal vowels, and seventeen consonant phonemes. Wobé words tend not to have diphthongs, but rather the (up to) three vowels in a native non-compound word are pronounced separately. +Consonant phonemesLabialAlveolarPalatalVelarLabial-velarPlosivesVoicelessVoicedFricativesNasalsApproximants +Vowel phonemesOralNasalFrontBackFrontBackCloseNear-closeMid-closeMid-openOpen
Tone Wobé is known for claims that it has the largest number of tones (fourteen) of any language in the world. (see also abstract However, other researchers have not confirmed this, and many of them believe that some of these will turn out to be sequences of tones or prosodic effects,Newman believes Singler is a valuable counterweight to Bearth & Link, but does not accept all his criticism; he accept the Wobe 43 toneme, for example, but believes it should be analyzed as /32/ (all tones being off by 1 compared to related dialects). though the Wèè languages in general do have extraordinarily large tone systems.
The fourteen posited tones are:
IPA B&L tone numbers1 2 3 4 31 32 41 42 43 15 25 35 45 435Newman adjustment0 1 2 3 20 21 30 31 32 04 14 24 34 324
Numerals
Wobe has a quinary, decimal system, and it is one of the only two Kru languages which have adopted the decimal system.Hofer, Verena, Numerals in Wobé language .
External links
Wobé language and alphabet A brief description of the Northern Wè/Wobé language
References