Bube language

The Bube language or Bubi, Bohobé, Bube–Benga or Fernandian (Bobe) is a Bantu language spoken predominately by the Bubi, a Bantu people native to, and once the primary inhabitants of Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea. The language was brought to Bioko from continental Africa more than three thousand years ago when the Bubi began settling on the island.

It has around 50,000 speakers, with three variants: North, South and Central-East. It is noted for its tonal character and the divergence of words by gender. The language is also spoken by the Bubi native to Gabon and Cameroon.

The Bube language is divided into six different dialects that vary in the northern and southern regions of Bioko Island. For example, in the North, people speak Rebola and its variations: Basile, Banapa and Basupa. However, in the North-East, Bakake is spoken.

Bube is also spoken in a small area on the mainland closest to the island, where speakers are shifting to Wumboko. This has been reported as "Bube", "Bubia" or "Wovea" (see Wovea people).

The first works on the Bube language were those of the Baptist missionary John Clarke, published in 1846 and 1848. A later Bube-to-English primer was authored in 1875 by William Barleycorn, a colonial era Primitive Methodist missionary of Igbo and Fernandino descent, while he was serving in the Bubi village of Basupu. An official language dictionary and grammar guide was published by the ethnic Bubi scholar Justo Bolekia Boleká.

Other names

Other names and forms of the name include Bubé, eVoové, eBubée, Bhubhi, Bubi, Ibubi, Ibhubhi, Pove and Eviia.

Phonology

Vowels

Bube has 7 vowels that can be either short or long:

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link)
Close-mid	Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link)
Open-mid	Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link)
Open	Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link)

The nasal vowels are allophones of respective oral vowels.

Consonants

Bube has 29 consonants. Some of them are prenasalized:

Consonant Phonemes

			Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
		voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Stop	plain	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
		voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	prenasal	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
		voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Fricative		voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink
		voiced	Template:IPAlink
		prenasal		Template:IPAlink
Approximant				Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Rhotic				Template:IPAlink

Numbers

The numbers one through ten in Bube are as follows:

Number	Northern Bube	Northwestern Bube	Southern Bube
1	buule		muule
2	eppa		memba
3	betta		metta
4	yeele		myeeme
5	betto		metto
6	ra'a 6		metto na muule 5+1
7	ra'a la buule 6+1		metto na memba 5+2
8	yeele ketoppa 4x2	ra'a la eppa 6+2	metto na metta 5+3
9	yeele ketoppa la buule 4x2+1	baa buule ka yo 10-1	metto na myeene 5+4
10	yo		myo

Bibliography

• Biddulph, Joseph, Fernandian (1988). The Bubi Bantu language of Bioco/Fernando Po. Pontypridd, Wales: Languages Information Centre, WorldCat no. 17838738.
• Bolekia, Justo Bolekia (1991). Curso de lengua bubi. (Coleccion ensayos, 8.) Malabo: Centro Cultural Hispano-Guineano.
• Bolekia, Justo (2009). Diccionario español-bubi. Madrid: Ediciones AKAL. 544pp.
• Clarke, John (1846). Sentences in the Fernandian Tongue. Dunfermline Press, Bimbia.
• Clarke, John (1848). Introduction To The Fernandian Tongue, Part 1. Berwick-on-Tweed.