Haya (''Oruhaya'') is a
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
spoken by the
Haya people
The Haya (or Bahaya) are a Bantu ethnic group based in Kagera Region, northwestern Tanzania, on the western side of Lake Victoria. With over one million people, it is estimated that Haya make up approximately 4% of the population of Tanzania. H ...
of
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
, in the south and southwest coast of
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...
. In 1991, the population of Haya speakers was estimated at 1,200,000 peopl
Its closest relative is the
Nyambo language and it is also closely related to the languages of western Uganda such as
Nyoro-Tooro and
Nkore-Kiga which all form a group called
Rutara.
Maho (2009) classifies JE221 Rashi as closest to Haya.
[ It has no ISO code, but is covered by the ]ISO 639-3
ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...
code hay.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
When a high vowel precedes a non-high vowel, it is realized as an approximant sound .
Tones
Two tones are present in Haya; high /v́/ and low /v̀/.
Grammar
Tense
Haya has nine tenses. These are the present progressive
The present continuous, also called the present progressive or present imperfect, is a verb form used in modern English that combines the present tense with the continuous aspect. It is formed by the present tense form of be and the present par ...
, the present habitual, the past habitual and the perfect
Perfect commonly refers to:
* Perfection; completeness, and excellence
* Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages
Perfect may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama
* ''Perfect'' (20 ...
, alongside two future tenses and three past tenses. The future tense F2 refers to the distant future whilst F1 refers to the near future. P1 refers to the most recent past - events that have occurred earlier in the day, P2 refers to events that happened yesterday and P3, the most distant past, refers to events that happened before yesterday.
See also
*Betbeder, Paul; Jones, John. 1949. A handbook of the Haya language. Bukoba (Tanganyika): White Fathers Printing Press.
*Byarushengo, Ernest Rugwa; Duranti, Alessandro; Hyman, Larry M chael (Eds.) 1977. Haya grammatical structure: phonology, grammar, discourse. (Southern California occasional papers in linguistics (SCOPIL), no 6.) Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California. Pp 213.
*Herrmann, apitänC. 1904. Lusíba, die Sprache der Länder Kisíba, Bugábu, Kjamtwára, Kjánja und Ihángiro. Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen, 7 (III. Abt.), pp. 150–200.
* Kaji, Shigeki. (Ed.) 1998. Haya. (Textbooks for language training.) Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
*Kaji, Shigeki. 2000. Haya vocabulary. (Asian and African lexicon series, no 37.) Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Pp 532.
*Kuijpers, Em. 1922. Grammaire de la langue haya. Boxtel (Hollande): Prokuur van de Witte Paters. Pp 294.
*Maho, Jouni & Bonny Sands. 2002. ''The languages of Tanzania: a bibliography''. (Orientalia et africana gothoburgensia, no 17.) Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Pp ix, 428.
*Rehse, Hermann. 1912/13. Die Sprache der Baziba in Deutsch-Ostafrika. Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen, 3, pp. 1–33, 81–123, 201–229.
References
External links
*https://web.archive.org/web/20061004195910/http://www.african.gu.se/tanzania/weblinks.html
*http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/CBOLD/Docs/TLS.html (This webpage contains a Haya wordlist.)
Great Lakes Bantu languages
{{Bantu-lang-stub