The language's presence on the southeastern edge of the Mbum family is thought to reflect early 19th-century migrations from the Adamawa Plateau, fleeing Fulani raids.
Ethnologue lists Tale (Tali) as a dialect, but Blench (2004) leaves it unclassified within the Mbum languages.
Kare has the following consonantal phonemes:[4] It has the following vowel phonemes:[5] There is a phonological contrast between high and low tone (e.g. sá 'say' vs. sà 'laugh'), and a rarer phonetic mid tone whose phonological status is not established.
[11] Determiners (hánà 'other', kɛ́ 'the', yɛ̀í 'this', yɔ̀ɔ́ 'that', nɛ̄ 'that yonder') follow the noun, and are followed by the plural marker rì: nzùpersonkɛ́DEFríPLpíalsonzù kɛ́ rí píperson DEF PL also'the people too'[12]Numerals and quantifiers come at the end, following the (optional) plural marker: nzùpersonndíɓífivenzù ndíɓíperson five'five people'nzùpersonrìPLsérètwonzù rì sérèperson PL two'two people'[13]Direct genitives are formed by juxtaposition sã̀ũ̀rootlìàstorysã̀ũ̀ lìàroot story'the story's basis'[14]analytic genitives use the particle ʔà vùnhouseʔàGENbáfathervùn ʔà báhouse GEN father'the father's house'[15]Relative clauses are formed with a demonstrative followed (not always immediately) by the relative marker ɗá nzùpersonyɛ̀íthisɗáRELrírobmímeléóɗáàyesterdaynzù yɛ̀í ɗá rí mí léóɗáàperson this REL rob me yesterday'the person who robbed me yesterday'All adpositions in Kare precede their complement.
There are four primary (pure) prepositions: kà 'with (instrumental)', té 'with (comitative)', ʔá 'in', báŋ 'like',[16] kɛ́3SGɡícometéwithbáfathernɛ̄3SG.POSSkɛ́ ɡí té bá nɛ̄3SG come with father 3SG.POSS'he came with his father'Alongside these there are a number of secondary postpositions transparently derived from nouns (often body parts), e.g. tûl 'head' > túl 'on top of'.