Tongwe language
Tongwe and Bende constitute a clade of Bantu languages coded Zone F.10 in Guthrie's classification. According to Nurse & Philippson, they form a valid node. Indeed, at 90% lexical similarity they may be dialects of a single language.
Phonology
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | |||
| Mid | |||
| Low |
Additionally, Bende has four tones; high, low, rising, and falling.