Gweno (kighonu, to its inhabitants) 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.
T ...
spoken in the
North Pare Mountains in the
Kilimanjaro Region
Kilimanjaro Region (''Mkoa wa Kilimanjaro'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital and largest city is the municipality of Moshi. With a HDI of 0.613, Kilimajaro is one among the most developed regions ...
of
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 ...
. The people known as the Gweno (or more properly ''Asu''
) are a
Chaga
The Chaga or Chagga (Swahili language: WaChaga) are Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous Africans and the third-largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They traditionally live on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro ...
ethnic and linguistic group. Since the Chaga people are
Bantu
Bantu may refer to:
*Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages
*Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language
*Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle
*Black Association for Nationali ...
speakers, the adopted language contains dialects similar to that of the Kenyan language
Kamba
Kamba may refer to:
*Kamba people of Kenya
*Bena-Kamba, a community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
*Khampa, also spelled Kamba, Tibetan people of Kham
See also
*Kamba language (disambiguation)
Kamba language (Kenya)
Kamba may also refer ...
. Gweno shares about 54% to 56% of its vocabulary with other Chaga dialects and 46% with Taita dialects. However, a large percentage of its vocabulary is not seen in the other dialects.
Also at the start of the 11th century, the Chaga people descended and migrated from the Bantu group in which they migrated to the foothills of mount Kilimanjaro. The Gweno language is today spoken mostly by older adults, with younger generations having shifted to
Asu and
Swahili
Swahili may refer to:
* Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes
* Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa
* Swahili culture
Swahili culture is the culture of ...
.
''Ethnologue'' considers Gweno to be moribund;
the language is not being passed down because children have not been exposed to Gweno since the 1970s.
The generational shift from Gweno to either Asu or Swahili has certainly created shifts in dialect, however Gweno speakers do not see this as a threat.
References
Further reading
*Sewangi, Seleman S. (2008). ''Kigweno: Msamiati wa Kigweno–Kiswahili–Kiingereza / Gweno–Swahili–English Lexicon''. .
External links
Gweno Languageat The Endangered Languages Project
found at LingWeb
Gweno, a little known Bantu language of Northern Tanzania
{{Narrow Bantu languages, E-H
Endangered languages of Africa
Languages of Tanzania
Chaga languages