Myene language

Myene is a cluster of closely related Bantu varieties spoken in Gabon by about 46,000 people. It is perhaps the most divergent of the Narrow Bantu languages,^[3] though Nurse & Philippson (2003) place it in with the Tsogo languages (B.30). The more distinctive varieties are Mpongwe (Pongoué), Galwa (Galloa), and Nkomi.

Myene
Omyene
Native to	Gabon
Region	Ogooue-Maritime Province, Middle Ogooue Province
Ethnicity	Myene (Mpongwe, Adyumba, Nkomi, Galwa), Bongo
Native speakers	45,000 (2007)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu (Zone B) Kele–Tsogo? Tsogo? Myene
Dialects	Mpongwe Orungu Galwa Nkomi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mye
Glottolog	myen1241
Guthrie code	B.11[2]

Phonology

Consonants^[4][5][6]

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p		t	tʃ	k
	voiced	b		d	dʒ	ɡ
	prenasal vl.	ᵐp		ⁿt	ᶮtʃ	ᵑk
	prenasal vd.	ᵐb		ⁿd	ᶮdʒ	ᵑg
Fricative	voiceless		f	s	ʃ
	voiced	β	v	z		(ɣ)
Approximant				l	j	w
Trill				r

• /ɡ/ is also heard as [ɣ] in free variation when preceding vowels or semivowels depending on articulation.
• Voiced sounds /b, d, dʒ/ may also be heard as implosives [ɓ, ɗ, ɗ̠ʲ] in free variation across dialects.
• In the Adyumba dialect /dʒ/ may also be heard as [dz] in free variation.
• Sounds /ᶮtʃ, ᶮdʒ/ may also be heard as prenasal alveolar affricates [ⁿts, ⁿdz] across dialects.
• /w/ may be heard as more palatal [ɥ] when before front vowel sounds.
• A nasalized labio-velar sound /w̃/ may also be attested in the Mpongwe dialect.

Vowels^[4]

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a