Songe language

Songe
Native to	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region	Kasai-Oriental province
Native speakers	(1 million cited 1991)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Luban Songe–Binji Songe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sop
Glottolog	song1303
Guthrie code	L.23

Songe, also known as Songye, Kisonge, Lusonge, Yembe, and Northeast Luba, is a Bantu language spoken by the Songye people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ethnologue notes that Songe is "related" to Mbagani, which they do not include in their database. Maho (2009) labels as "Mbagani (Binji)" one of the two geographic areas Ethnologue assigns to Songe, but says that it is closer to Lwalu; he says that it is a different language, Binji, that is close to Songe.

Phonology

Vowels

A five vowel system with vowel length is present:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Open		a aː

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k
	vl. prenasal	ᵐp	ⁿt	ⁿtʃ	ᵑk
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	vd. prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ
	vl. prenasal	ᶬf	ⁿs	ⁿʃ
	voiced	v	z	ʒ
	vd. prenasal	ᶬv	ⁿz	ⁿʒ
Approximant			l	j	w

• Palatalization [ʲ] and labialization [ʷ] is also present among consonant sounds.