Tumbuka (language)
| ChiTumbuka | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Tanzania , Malawi , Zambia | |
| speaker | 2 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | - | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
tum |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
ChiTumbuka , also Tumbuka , is a Bantu language spoken in parts of Malawi , Tanzania and Zambia .
The Tumbuka language is estimated to be spoken by around two million people. The prefix "Chi-" is a nominal class , as it is common in the Bantu languages, and means "language" analogous to "Ki-" in Kiswahili or "Se-" in Setswana .
In contrast to the rest of Malawi, where Chichewa is the main language, Chitumbuka can remain dominant and as a lingua franca in the north. The languages of Senga, Tumbuka, Fungwe and Yombe differ only in very small nuances.
See also
Web links
- Gregory Hankoni Kamwendo: “Your Chitumbuka is Shallow. It's not the Real Chitumbuka. “Linguistic Purism among Chitumbuka Speakers in Malawi. (PDF; 78 kB) Nordic Journal of African Studies, 13 (3) 2004, pp. 275–288