Nambya language
| Nambya | |
|---|---|
| Nanzva | |
| Native to | Nambya people |
Native speakers | 100,000 (2000–2004)[1] |
?
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Zimbabwe (both Kalanga and Nambya) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nmq – Nambya |
| Glottolog | namb1291 |
| ELP | Nambya |
Nambya, or Nanzwa/Nanzva, is a
Nambya people. It is spoken in northwestern Zimbabwe, particularly in the town of Hwange,[2][3] with a few speakers in northeastern Botswana. It is either classified as a dialect of Kalanga or as a closely related language.[4] The Zimbabwean constitution, in particular the Education Act, as amended in 1990, recognises Nambya and Kalanga as separate indigenous languages.[4]
Phonology
Nambya is a tonal language. It has a simple 5 vowel system and a typical Bantu consonant-vowel (CV) syllable structure. The language has onsetless syllables, but these are restricted to the word-initial position, making Nambya typical of the Southern Bantu languages.[4]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Morphology
Like many Bantu languages, Nambya has a highly agglutinative morphology.[4]
References
- ^ Nambya at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ISBN 9783039119424.
- ISBN 9781134916887.
- ^ a b c d Kadenge, Maxwell, D.Phil. (March 2010). "Some Segmental Phonological Processes Involving Vowels in Nambya: A Preliminary Descriptive Account" (PDF).
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