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Kirundi
Kirundi (), also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language and the national language of Burundi. It is mutually intelligible with Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, and the two form parts of the Rwanda-Rundi dialect continuum spoken in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. Kirundi is natively spoken by the Hutu (including the Bakiga), Tutsi, Twa, and the Hima people; other related ethnicities have also adopted Kirundi as their mother tongue. Neighbouring dialects of Kirundi are mutually intelligible with Ha language, Ha, a language spoken in western Tanzania. Kirundi is one of the languages where Meeussen's rule, a rule describing a certain pattern of tonal change in Bantu languages, is active. In 2020, the Rundi Academy was established to help standardize and promote Kirundi. Phonology Consonants Although the literature on Rundi agrees on 5 vowels, the number of consonants can vary anywhere from 19 to 26 consonants. The table below is compiled from a survey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rwanda-Rundi
Rwanda-Rundi or West Highlands Kivu is a group of Bantu languages, specifically a dialect continuum, spoken in Central Africa. Two dialects, Kirundi and Kinyarwanda, have been standardized as the national languages of Burundi and Rwanda respectively. These neighbouring dialects are mutually intelligible, but other dialects which are more distant ones may not be. The other dialects are spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinyabwisha in North Kivu), Uganda (Rufumbira, spoken by the Bafumbira in Kisoro District), and Tanzania; Ha, with one million speakers, is the most widely spoken. Comparison of Kinyarwanda and Kirundi Kinyarwanda and Kirundi are very similar in many aspects, but differ in several ways as well. Tonal marking Both languages are tonal languages. High and low tones (or H and L) are the essential tones and, having a phonemic distinction on vowel length, when a long vowel changes from a low tone to a high tone it is marked as a rising tone and when a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burundi
Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million people. It is bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and southeast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west; Lake Tanganyika lies along its southwestern border. The political capital city is Gitega and the economic capital city is Bujumbura. The Great Lakes Twa, Twa, Hutu and Tutsi peoples have lived in Burundi for at least 500 years. For more than 200 of those years, Burundi was an independent Kingdom of Burundi, kingdom. In 1885, it became part of the German colony of German East Africa. After the First World War and German Revolution of 1918–19, Germany's defeat, the League of Nations mandated the territories of Burundi and neighboring Rwanda to Belgium in a combined territory called Rwanda-Urundi. After the Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinyarwanda
Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and the national language of Rwanda. It is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is also spoken in adjacent parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Uganda, where the dialect is known as Ikinyakore, Rufumbira, or ''Urufumbira''. Kinyarwanda is universal among the native population of Rwanda and is mutually intelligible with Kirundi, the national language of neighbouring Burundi. Kinyabwishya and Kinyamulenge are mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces of neighbouring DR Congo. In 2010, the Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture (RALC) was established to help promote and sustain Kinyarwanda. The organization attempted an orthographic reform in 2014, but it was met with pushback due to their perceived top-down and political nature, among other reasons. Geographic distribution Kinyarwanda is spoken in Rwanda, the Democratic Republi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bantu Languages
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, Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The total number of Bantu languages is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages, depending on the definition of Dialect#Dialect or language, "language" versus "dialect"."Guthrie (1967–71) names some 440 Bantu 'varieties', Grimes (2000) has 501 (minus a few 'extinct' or 'almost extinct'), Bastin ''et al.'' (1999) have 542, Maho (this volume) has some 660, and Mann ''et al.'' (1987) have ''c.'' 680." Derek Nurse, 2006, "Bantu Languages", in the ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', p. 2:Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid" lists a total of 535 languages. The count includes 13 Mbam languages, which are not always included under "Narrow Bantu". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hutu
The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great Lakes Twa. Demographics The Hutu is the largest of the three main population divisions in Burundi and Rwanda. Prior to 2017, the CIA World Factbook stated that 84% of Rwandans and 85% of Burundians are Hutu, with Tutsis being the second largest ethnic group at 15% and 14% of residents of Rwanda and Burundi, respectively. However, these figures were omitted in 2017 and no new figures have been published since then. The Twa pygmies, the smallest of the two countries' principal populations, share language and culture with the Hutu and Tutsi. They are distinguished by a considerably shorter stature. Etymology The idea that Hutu is etymologically derived from a word that signifies slave was advanced by Ernest Viaene (1910, p.1047) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The total number of Bantu languages is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages, depending on the definition of Dialect#Dialect or language, "language" versus "dialect"."Guthrie (1967–71) names some 440 Bantu 'varieties', Grimes (2000) has 501 (minus a few 'extinct' or 'almost extinct'), Bastin ''et al.'' (1999) have 542, Maho (this volume) has some 660, and Mann ''et al.'' (1987) have ''c.'' 680." Derek Nurse, 2006, "Bantu Languages", in the ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', p. 2:Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid" lists a total of 535 languages. The count includes 13 Mbam languages, which are not always included under "Narrow Bantu". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tutsi
The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group Hutu and the African Pygmies, Pygmy group of the Twa). Historically, the Tutsi were Pastoralism, pastoralists and filled the ranks of the warriors' caste. Before 1962, they regulated and controlled Rwandan society, which was composed of Tutsi aristocracy and Hutu commoners, utilizing a clientship structure. They occupied the dominant positions in the sharply stratified society and constituted the ruling class. Origins and classification The historian Christopher Ehret believes that the Tutsi mainly descend from speakers of an extinct branch of South Cushitic languages, South Cushitic he calls "Tale south Cushitic." The Tale southern cushites entered the Great Lakes region s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meeussen's Rule
Meeussen's rule is a special case of tone reduction. It was first described in Bantu languages, but occurs in analyses of other languages as well, such as Papuan languages. The tonal alternation that it describes is the lowering, in some contexts, of the last tone of a pattern of two adjacent high tones (HH), resulting in the pattern HL. The phenomenon is named after its first observer, the Belgian Bantu specialist A. E. Meeussen (1912–1978). In phonological terms, the phenomenon can be seen as a special case of the obligatory contour principle. The term "Meeussen's Rule" (the spelling with a capital ''R'' is more common) first appeared in a paper by John Goldsmith in 1981. It is based on an observation made by Meeussen in his 1963 article on the Tonga verb stating that "in a sequence of determinants, only the first is treated as a determinant". John Goldsmith reformulated that as the rule HH > HL (or, as he expressed it, H → L / H ), which later became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ha Language
Ha, also known with the Bantu language prefix as ''Giha, Igiha,'' or ''Kiha,'' is a Bantu language spoken by the Ha people of the Kigoma Region of Tanzania, spoken on the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika up to the headwaters of the Mikonga. It is closely related to the languages of Rwanda and Burundi; neighboring dialects are reported to be mutually intelligible with Kirundi. Phonology Consonants * is heard as among different dialects in free variation. * can be heard as either or in complementary distribution. Vowels 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 {{Bantu-lang-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Lakes Bantu Languages
The Great Lakes Bantu languages, also known as Lacustrine Bantu and Bantu zone J, are a group of Bantu languages of East Africa. They were recognized as a group by the ''Tervuren'' team, who posited them as an additional zone (zone J) to Guthrie classification of Bantu languages, Guthrie's largely geographic classification of Bantu. History By 500 BC, Proto-Great Lakes Bantu speakers initially settled between Lakes Kivu and Rweru in Rwanda. Languages The languages are, according to Bastin, Coupez, & Mann (1999), with Sumbwa added per Nurse (2003): *''Gungu language, Gungu'' (E10) *''Bwari language, Bwari (Kabwari)'' (D50) *Konzo (D40): Konjo language (Bantu), Konjo, Nande language, Nande, ? Kobo language, Kobo *Shi–Havu (D50): Hunde language, Hunde, Havu language, Havu, Shi language, Shi, Tembo (Kitembo) language, Tembo, Nyindu language, Nyindu, Fuliiru language, Fuliiru *Rwanda-Rundi (D60): Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Shubi language, Shubi, Hangaza language, Hangaza, Ha language, H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Lakes Bantu Languages
The Western Lakes Bantu languages form a subgroup of the Great Lakes Bantu languages spoken in Rwanda, Burundi the DRC, Uganda and Tanzania. Classification The Western Lakes Bantu languages are classified within the Glottolog database as follows: * Kabwari *Kivu **Forest Kivu ***Fuliiric ****Fuliiru-Vira ***** Fuliiru ***** Vira (also called Joba) **** Nyindu ****Nyindu ***Hunde-Havu **** Havu **** Hunde *** Shi *** Tembo **West Highlands Kivu ***Kinyarwanda ***Rundic **** Ha ****Hangaza-Shubi *****Hangaza ***** Shubi ****Kirundi *** Kitwa *** Vinza *Rwenzori **Konzo ** Nande History Proto-Western Lakes Bantu was developed in 400 AD by those who remained in the original Proto-Great Lakes Bantu homeland, which was in and on the hillsides of the Kivu Rift Valley. Similar to the Okiek people in Kenya, the Great Lakes Twa The Great Lakes Twa, also known as Batwa (singular Mutwa), Abatwa or Ge-Sera, are a Bantu speaking group native to the African Great Lakes region on the bord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
