Kimbundu

Kimbundu, a Bantu language which has sometimes been called Mbundu [3] or 'North Mbundu' (see Umbundu), is the second-most widely spoken Bantu language in Angola.

Kimbundu
North Mbundu
Native toAngola
RegionLuanda Province, Bengo Province , Malanje Province
EthnicityAmbundu
Native speakers
2.1 million (2014)
Dialects
  • Kimbundu proper (Ngola)
  • Mbamba (Njinga)
Official status
Official language in
 Angola ("National language")
Language codes
ISO 639-2kmb
ISO 639-3kmb
Glottologkimb1241[1]
H.21[2]

Its speakers are concentrated in the north-west of the country, notably in the Luanda, Bengo, Malanje and the Cuanza Norte provinces. It is spoken by the Ambundu.[4]

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Velar Glottal
Stop plain p t k
voiced b
prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced v z ʒ
prenasalized ᶬv ⁿz ⁿʒ
Lateral l
Nasal m n ŋ

Allophones:

[ɸ] and [β] are allophones of /p/ and /b/, respectively, before /a/ and /u/. The phoneme /l/ is phonetically a flap [ɾ], the plosive [d] or its palatalized version [dʲ] before the front high vowel /i/. In the same way, the alveolars /s/, /z/ and /n/ are palatalized to [ʃ], [ʒ] and [ɲ], respectively, before [i]. There may be an epenthesis of [g] after /ŋ/ in word medial positions, thus creating a phonetic cluster [ŋg] in a process of fortition.

There is long distance nasal harmony, in which /l/ is realized as [n] if the previous morphemes contain /m/ or /n/, but not prenasalized stops.

Vowels
Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

There are two contrasting tones: a high (á) and a low tone (à). There is also a downstep in cases of tonal sandhi.

Vowel Harmony

There is vowel harmony in two groups (the high vowels /i, u/ and the mid and low vowels /e, o, a/) that applies only for verbal morphology. In some morphemes, vowels may be consistently deleted to avoid a hiatus.[5]

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kimbundu". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. A language name 'mbundu' was used by Guthrie in his 1948 classification, for his group R10 (the language is Umbundu, the Ovimbundu's language. Kimbundu is found as Ndongo-H21). This has become obsolete: In his 1971 classification, the group H20 is called the Kimbundu group, and the R10 group is called 'Umbundu group'. See: M. Guthrie, The Classification of the Bantu Languages (OUP, 1948), and M. Guthrie, Comparative Bantu, Vol 2 (Gregg Press, 1971). Glottolog classifies Kimbundu in a Mbundu group, which is in the Northern Njila group, and Umbundu (the Ovimbundu's language) in the Kunene group, which is itself in the Southern Njila group. see the Glottolog entry
  4. Ambundu is the short form for Akwa Mbundu, whee 'Akwa' means 'from', or 'of', or more originally 'originally from' and 'belonging to'. In Kimbundu language, the particle Akwa is shortened into simply A, so that instead of Akwa Mbndu, it becomes Ambundu; similarly the term Akwa Ngola becomes ANgola, then Angola. Ngola was the title for kings in the historic Northern Angolan kingdom, before the Portuguese invasion.
  5. Xavier, Francisco da Silva (2010). Fonologia segmental e supra-segmental do Quimbundo: variedades de Luanda, Bengo, Quanza Norte e Malange (Ph.D. thesis) (in Portuguese). University of São Paulo. doi:10.11606/t.8.2010.tde-20102010-091425.


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