| Wobé | |
| Also Known As: | Northern Wèè |
| States: | Ivory Coast |
| Date: | 1993 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Kru |
| Fam4: | Western Kru |
| Fam5: | Wee |
| Iso3: | wob |
| Glotto: | weno1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Wobe-Wè Northern |
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.[1] 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,[2] [3] [4] though the Wèè languages in general do have extraordinarily large tone systems.
The fourteen posited tones are:
| IPA | pronounced as /˥/ | pronounced as /˦/ | pronounced as /˧/ | pronounced as /˨/ | pronounced as /˧˥/ | pronounced as /˧˦/ | pronounced as /˨˥/ | pronounced as /˨˦/ | pronounced as /˨˧/ | pronounced as /˥˩/ | pronounced as /˦˩/ | pronounced as /˧˩/ | pronounced as /˨˩/ | pronounced as /˨˧˩/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.[5]