In Gbaya, the notion of “a nation far away” and “a people at the ends of the earth” that “come swiftly and speedily” in Isaiah 5:26 is emphasized with mɛtɛ̧ɛ̧-mɛtɛ̧ɛ̧, an ideophone used to describe a large number leaving a place in groups.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)