Kwʼadza (Qwadza), or Ngomvia, is an extinct

Afroasiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

language formerly spoken in

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 ...

in the

Mbulu District Mbulu District is one of the six districts of the Manyara Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the north by the Arusha Region and Lake Eyasi, to the east by the Babati Rural District, to the south by the Hanang District, and to the west by the ...

. The last speaker died sometime between 1976 and 1999.Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World''. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Classification

Kwʼadza is poorly attested, and apart from perhaps being close to

Aasax The Asa (Aasá) language, commonly rendered Aasax (also rendered as Aasá, Aasáx, Aramanik, Asak, Asax, Assa, Asá), was spoken by the Asa people of Tanzania. The language is extinct; ethnic Assa in northern Tanzania remember only a few words t ...

, its classification is not certain. Although it has a large number of identifiably Cushitic roots, the non-Cushitic numerals ''itame'' 'one' and ''beʼa ~ mbɛa'' 'two' suggest a connection with Hadza, while ''haka'' 'four' suggests a connection with Sandawe. It is possible that Kwʼadza borrowed e.g. 'four' from Sandawe, but also that it was a non-Cushitic language whose speakers were undergoing

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are percei ...

to Cushitic when it was recorded.

Phonology

The phonology is not certain, but the following has been suggested (Ehret 1980):

Consonants

and have the allophones and before front vowels. is 'mildly' ejective. Ehret reports that and are voiced if a preceding consonant is voiced.

Vowels

Notes

References

* Christopher Ehret, 1980. "Kwʼadza vocabulary". ms. {{AfroAsiatic-lang-stub South Cushitic languages Languages of Tanzania Extinct languages of Africa Unclassified languages of Africa Languages extinct in the 20th century