Kwangali language

Kwangali, or RuKwangali, is a Bantu language spoken by 85,000 people along the Okavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Angola. It is one of several Bantu languages of the Okavango which have click consonants; these are the dental clicks c and gc, along with prenasalization and aspiration.

Kwangali
Rukwangali
Native toNamibia, Angola
RegionOkavango River
Native speakers
152,000 (2018)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3kwn
Glottologkwan1273
K.33[2]

Maho (2009) includes Mbundza as a dialect, but excludes Sambyu, which he includes in Manyo.

Phonology

Consonants
Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t tʃ k
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
voiced b d dʒ ɡ
prenasal vl. ᵐpʰ ⁿtʰ ᵑkʰ
prenasal vd. ᵐb ⁿd ⁿdʒ ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced β v z
prenasal vl. ᶬf ⁿs
prenasal vd. ᶬv ⁿz
Nasal m n ɲ
Trill r
Lateral l
Approximant j w

A dental click type [ǀ] may also be heard, being adopted from the neighboring Khoisan languages. The clicks may also tend to be heard as alveolar [!].[3]

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i iː u uː
Mid e eː o oː
Low a aː

Short vowels of /i e o u/ may also be pronounced as [ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ].[4]

References
  1. "Kwangali". Ethnologue. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. Dammann (1957)
  4. Sommer, Gabi (2003). Western Savanna. Nurse, Derek and Philippson, Gérard (eds.), The Bantu languages: London & New York: Routledge. pp. 566–580.
  • Dammann, Ernst (1957). Studien zum Kwangali: Grammatik, Texte, Glossar. Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter
  • Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, The Bantu languages, 2003:569.

Books


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