Kaonde (''kiiKaonde'') 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 primarily in

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

but also in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. Kaonde and its dialects are spoken and understood by perhaps 350,000 people or more. It is estimated that approximately 2.3% of Zambians are native Kaonde speakers. Kaonde speakers overwhelmingly live in the Northwestern and parts of Central regions of Zambia. Fewer numbers of Kaonde speakers live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, they are not known or identified by the term Kaonde but rather by the term Luba. In Zambia, Kaonde people occupying the following districts: Solwezi,Mufumbwe,Kasempa,Kalumbila and Mushindamo in the North-Western province, and Mumbwa in the Central province. Kaonde villages can also be found in the northern parts of Kaoma District in the Western Province. Just like any other

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

in Zambia, Kaondes are ruled by the traditional leaders. The following are the chiefs of the Kaonde people recognised by the government of Zambia: Senior Chief Kapiji Kasongo Kamuyange Mujimanzovu, Senior Chief Kasempa, Chief Kapiji Mpanga, Chief Mumena, Chief Matebo, Chief Ingwe, Chief Mukumbi Kizela, Chief Mushima Mubambe, Chief Mulendema, Chief Mumba, Chief Kaindu, Chief Mukumbi Katotola and Senior Chief Mukumbi Ibaloli ( Originally, Mukumbi Ibaloli is a Lunda) Strictly speaking, the term "Kaonde" refers to a group of people who are identified by a common language known as kiiKaonde. This group of people, like many others in Zambia, was originally part of the Luba Kingdom. They migrated south to area surrounding a stream called Kaonde in river

Congo Basin The Congo Basin (french: Bassin du Congo) is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It con ...

. From there, the people migrated into what is now Northwestern Zambia. This group of people called their language kiiKaonde. Speakers of other Bantu languages use the prefix "chi" other than "kii" to refer to this language.

Grammar

Nouns

Like other Bantu languages, Kaonde nouns are grouped into several

semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

classes, ranging from those that denote human beings to those that denote things. The concord or agreement markers for each class is a prefix attached to verbs and adjectives related to the noun. Tense markers may modify the concord.

Pronouns

Kaonde has personal, demonstrative and relative pronouns. The first and second person pronouns are independent of the noun class system. Third person pronouns are formed using the demonstrative pronouns for the ba noun class. Demonstrative are arranged by noun class and by

deixis In linguistics, deixis (, ) is the use of general words and phrases to refer to a specific time, place, or person in context, e.g., the words ''tomorrow'', ''there'', and ''they''. Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed but their de ...

. Sample text in Kaonde ''Mu byambo byanji byalamata bantu bonse, Lesa waambile ne byambo bikwabo pa byo anemeka bumi ne mashi''. Transelation In a declaration applying to all humans, God revealed more about his evaluation of life and blood

References

External links

A sample paragraph in Kaonde
* *Lubuto Libraries,
Kiikaonde Reading Lessons
'' Lubuto Library Special Collections, accessed May 3, 2014.
Kiikaonde language stories
Lubuto Library Special Collections
OLAC resources in and about the Kaonde language
{{Authority control Luban languages Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Languages of Zambia Library of Congress Africa Collection related