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Wobé is known for claims that it has the largest number of tones (fourteen) of any language in the world (Bearth & Link). However, this has not been confirmed by other researchers, many of whom believe that some of these will turn out to be sequences of tones or prosodic effects (Singler 1984, Newman 1986), though the Wèè languages in general do have extraordinarily large tone systems.
The 14 tones posited by Bearth & Link (1980) are:
IPA
˥
˦
˧
˨
˧˥
˧˦
˨˥
˨˦
˨˧
˥˩
˦˩
˧˩
˨˩
˨˧˩
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
Asian convention
5
4
3
2
35
34
25
24
23
51
41
31
21
231
References
Wobé at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
