Aushi, known by native speakers as ''Ikyaushi'', 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 ...

primarily spoken in the Lwapula Province of

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

and the (Haut-)Katanga Province of the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. Although many scholars argue that it is a dialect of the closely related

Bemba Bemba may refer to: Languages and ethnic groups * Bemba language, or Chibemba, a Bantu language spoken in Zambia * Bemba people, or AbaBemba, of Zambia * Bemba, a dialect of the Buyu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo People * Jea ...

, native speakers insist that it is a distinct language. Nonetheless, speakers of both linguistic varieties enjoy extensive mutual intelligibility, particularly in the Lwapula Province.

Phonology

Aushi distinguishes consonants according to five manners and four places of articulation. Although nasal consonants are individually phonemic, prenasalized consonants also arise in conjunction with the voiced and voiceless counterparts of the plosives, affricates, and fricatives. Aushi has five canonical vowels that are distinguished segmentally according to vowel height and backness and suprasegmentally according to length (short/long) and tone (low/high). The front and central vowels are unrounded, while the back vowels are rounded. In environments where vowels arise before a nasal consonant, the vowels may adopt nasality, but this is not a distinctive feature, i.e. it is phonetic, not phonemic.

Grammar

References

* Bickmore, Lee. 2018. "Contrast Reemergence in the Aushi Subjunctive." ''Africana Linguistica,'' 24: 123-138. * Doke, Clement Martyn. 1933. "A Short Aushi Vocabulary." Bantu Studies 7(1): 284-295. * Ilunga, Nkimba Kafituka. 1994. ''Les Formes Verbales de l’Ikyaushi, M42b.'' Unpublished MA thesis. Institute Supérieur Pédagogique de Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. * Kankomba and Twilingiyimana. 1986. "M421 Aushi." Tervuren, Belgium: ''Annales, Sciences Humaines,'' Royal Museum for Central Africa. * Spier, Troy E. 2016. "A Survey of the IcAushi Language and Nominal Class System." ''Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States (LACUS)''. * ———. 2020. ''A Descriptive Grammar of Ikyaushi.'' Ph.D. dissertation, Tulane University, USA. * ———. 2021. "Four Trickster Tales in Ikyaushi." ''World Literature Today'', Autumn: 68-71. * ———. 2022. "Nominal Phrase Structure in Ikyaushi (M.402)." ''Studies in African Languages and Cultures'', 56: 31-47. {{authority control Sabi languages Languages of Zambia Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Phonology

Grammar

References

Further reading