Ha, also known with the Bantu language prefix as ''Giha, Igiha,'' or ''Kiha,'' is a
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
The t ...
spoken by the
Ha people
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The Ha, also called (''Waha'' in Swahili) or Abaha, are a Bantu ethnic group found in Kigoma Region in northwestern Tanzania bordering Lake Tanganyika. of the
Kigoma Region of
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
, spoken on the eastern side of
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. T ...
up to the headwaters of the Mikonga. It is closely related to the languages of
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
and
Burundi
Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...
; neighboring dialects are reported to be
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as a ...
with
Kirundi
Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language spoken by some 9 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, as well as in Kenya. It is the official language of Burundi. ...
.
[Article by Spiridion Shyirambere in: ''Le Français hors de France'' sous la direction de A. Valdman, Editions Honoré Champion, 7 quai Mallasquai, Paris, 1979. The "zone of intercomprehension" is also reported to include KinyaRwanda, Hima and Luganda, and several other local languages.]
Further reading
* Bichwa, Saul S. 2018. "The Role of Prosodic Units in the Study of Giha." ''Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics'', 1(1): 81-90.
References
External links
Bible recordings in HaBrief overview of Ha
Languages of Tanzania
Rwanda-Rundi languages
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