ChiTonga
| ChiTonga (Bantu group M) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Zambia , Zimbabwe , Mozambique , Malawi | |
| speaker | 1.5 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | Zambia, Zimbabwe | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
bnt |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
ChiTonga (means Tonga language , hence also: Tonga ) is a Bantu language of the Tonga people on the central reaches of the Zambezi in Zambia , Zimbabwe and Mozambique as well as in Malawi and Tanzania on the northern Lake Malawi .
The languages of the two areas differ considerably, even if they have the same name.
1.38 million speak Chitonga in Zambia, 300,000 in Zimbabwe, and very few in Mozambique. In Malawi there are 170,000 and in Tanzania this number is unknown. In Zambia, ChiTonga is one of the most widely spoken languages alongside Bemba and Nyanja ( Chichewa ).