Kwanyama dialect

Kwanyama
Oshikwanyama
Native to Namibia and Angola
Region Ovamboland
Native speakers
 (250,000 in Namibia (2006);
420,000 in Angola cited 1993)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-1 kj
ISO 639-2 kua
ISO 639-3 kua
Glottolog kuan1247[2]
R.21[3]
Linguasphere 05-PEA-aa

Kwanyama or Oshikwanyama is a national language of Angola and Namibia. It is a standardized dialect of the Oshiwambo language, and is mutually intelligible with Oshindonga, the other Oshiwambo dialect with a standard written form.

The entire Christian Bible has been translated into Kwanyama and was first published in 1974 under the name Ombibeli by the South African Bible Society.[4]

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t~t̪ tʃ k
voiced b d~d̪ dʒ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ⁿdʒ ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless f (s) ʃ x h
voiced v
Nasal voiced m n ɲ
voiceless m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊
Approximant w l j

/t/ and /d/ are dentalized when followed by a front vowel /i/. An /s/ sound can only occur in loanwords.

Vowels
Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

References

  • Crane, Thera; Lindgren-Streicher, Karl; Wingo, Andy (2004). Hai ti! A Beginner's Guide to Oshikwanyama (PDF).
  • Halme, Riikka (2004). A Tonal Grammar of Kwanyama. pp. 12–18.
  • Zimmerman, W.; Hasheela, P. (1998). Oshikwanyama Grammar. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan.
  1. ↑ Kwanyama at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kuanyama". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  4. ↑ Ombibeli, 1974, front page


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