| Mbato | |
| States: | Ivory Coast |
| Region: | La Mé |
| Ethnicity: | M'Bato |
| Speakers: | 25,000 |
| Date: | 1993 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Kwa |
| Fam4: | Potou–Tano |
| Fam5: | Potou |
| Iso3: | gwa |
| Glotto: | mbat1247 |
| Glottorefname: | Mbato |
Mbato, also known as Mbatto, Nghlwa, Potu or Gwa, is a Kwa language spoken in Ivory Coast and in Ghana. It is one of two Potou languages, along with Ebrié. The Mbato people primarily live in the La Mé region of Ivory Coast, particularly in the sub-prefecture of Oghlwapo in the Alépé department.[1]
| Plosives | p | t | c | k | ||
| Plosives: fortis, voiced | (b) | d | ɟ [ɟ, dʒ] | g | gb [g͡b] | |
| Plosives: lenis, voiced | ɓ¹ | ʄ | ɠ | gɓ [g͡ɓ] | ||
| Sonorants lenis | ɓ² [ɓ, m] | j [j, ɲ] | w [w, ŋʷ, ŋ͡m] | |||
| Fricatives | f/(v) | s/(z) | h [x, h] |
There are two bilabial implosive phonemes, /ɓ¹/ and /ɓ²/. The first is always pronounced as [ɓ], while the second is pronounced [m] in the context of a nasal vowel.[4]
The sounds [b, v, z] are marginal and occur only in loanwords.
| Nasal | ||||||
| Close | i | u | ɪ̃ | ʊ̃ | ||
| Mid | e [e, ɪ] | o [o, ʊ] | ||||
| Open | ɛ | a | ɔ | ɛ̃ | ɔ̃ [ɔ̃, ã] |
Mbato has a tonal system consisting of three level tones.
The noun class prefixes in Mbato serve to distinguish between certain homophones and between singular and plural forms. Originally, this system would have been more robust, as seen in other Niger-Congo languages.
The four nominal prefixes are ó-, à-, ʊ́̃-, and ʊ̃̀-. The latter two, which are nasal vowels, can also be realized as syllabic nasals, transcribed as ɴ́- and ɴ̀-.
| Prefix | Word | Gloss | |
| ó- | óbū | stone | |
| à- | àwɔ́ | cat | |
| ʊ̃́-, ɴ́- | ɴ́nē | yam | |
| ʊ̃̀-, ɴ̀- | ʊ̃́mɛ̄ | rope.pl |