| Wobé | |
|---|---|
| Northern Wèè | |
| Native to | Ivory Coast |
Native speakers | (160,000 cited 1993)[1] |
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wob |
| Glottolog | weno1238 |
Wobé (Ouobe) is a Kru language spoken in Ivory Coast. It is one of several languages in a dialect continuum called Wèè (Wɛɛ).
Wobé is known for claims that it has the largest number of tones (fourteen) of any language in the world.[2] However, other researchers has not confirmed this, many of whom believe that some of these will turn out to be sequences of tones or prosodic effects,[3][4][5] though the Wèè languages in general do have extraordinarily large tone systems.
The fourteen posited tones are:[2]
| IPA | ˥ | ˦ | ˧ | ˨ | ˧˥ | ˧˦ | ˨˥ | ˨˦ | ˨˧ | ˥˩ | ˦˩ | ˧˩ | ˨˩ | ˨˧˩ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B&L tone numbers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 31 | 32 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 15 | 25 | 35 | 45 | 435 |
| Newman adjustment | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 20 | 21 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 04 | 14 | 24 | 34 | 324 |
Wobe has a quinary, decimal system, and it is one of the only two Kru languages which have adopted the decimal system.[6]
This article about Atlantic–Congo languages is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This Ivory Coast-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
