Colonel William A. Phillips

Mangbai (Mamgbay, Mambai) is an Mbum language of northern Cameroon and southern Chad.

Distribution

In Cameroon, Mambay is spoken along the Mayo-Kebi River near the Chadian border, in the Djaloumé region (northern end of Bibemi commune, Bénoué department), where there is a massif called Hosséré Mambay. It is also spoken in the extreme southeast of Figuil commune, Mayo-Louti department. In Cameroon and Chad, there is a total of about 2,500 speakers, many of whom also speak Mundang.

Phonology

Consonants^[2]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k	kp	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ	gb
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s				h
Fricative	voiced	v	z
Nasal	plain	m	n		ŋ
Nasal	glottalized	ˀm	ˀn		ˀŋ
Flap/Trill		ⱱ̟	r
Approximant	plain		l	j		w
Approximant	glottalized			ˀj		ˀw

Vowels

Oral vowels
	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
High	i	iː			u	uː
Mid	e	eː			o	oː
Low			a	aː

/e, o/ are heard as [ɛ, ɔ] when in closed syllables.

Nasal vowels
	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
High	ĩ	ĩː			ũ	ũː
Low			ã	ãː

Glottalized

Oral vowels
	Front	Central	Back
High	iˀ		uˀ
Mid	eˀ		oˀ
Low		aˀ

Nasal vowels
	Front	Central	Back
High	ĩˀ		ũˀ
Low		ãˀ

Pharyngealized

Oral vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Mid	eˤ		oˤ
Low		aˤ

Nasal vowels
	Front	Central	Back
High	ĩˤ		ũˤ
Low		ãˤ

References

^ Mangbai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Anonby, Erik John (2008). "Phonology and Morphology of Mambay (Niger-Congo, Adamawa)". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2023-09-18.

[e18-1] Mangbai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Anonby, Erik John (2008). "Phonology and Morphology of Mambay (Niger-Congo, Adamawa)". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2023-09-18.

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