Kerewe, or Kerebe, 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 ...
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 ...
, spoken on
Ukerewe Island
Ukerewe Island (''Kisiwa cha Ukerewe'', in Swahili) is a freshwater island located in Lake Victoria. The island is administratively part of Ukerewe District in Mwanza Region, Tanzania. The island fifth-largest lake island in the world. With an ar ...
in
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 ...
, the largest inland island in Africa.
Kerewe phonology prohibits
vowel sequence
In phonology, hiatus ( ) or diaeresis ( ; also spelled dieresis or diæresis) describes the occurrence of two separate vowel sounds in adjacent syllables with no intervening consonant. When two vowel sounds instead occur together as part of a si ...
s: if a vowel sequence arises in the
underlying representation
In some models of phonology as well as morphophonology in the field of linguistics, the underlying representation (UR) or underlying form (UF) of a word or morpheme is the abstract form that a word or morpheme is postulated to have before any ph ...
of a phrase, the sequence becomes either a
long vowel
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels.
On one hand, many languages do not d ...
or a
glide followed by a long vowel in the surface representation.
Literature
The first attempts at Bible translation into Kerewe were some Bible stories in 1899, liturgical Gospels in 1921 and 1937 and a
Gospel harmony
A gospel harmony is an attempt to compile the canonical gospels of the Christian New Testament into a single account. This may take the form either of a single, merged narrative, or a tabular format with one column for each gospel, technically kn ...
in 1930. The New Testament was translated into Kerewe by French Canadian Padri Almas Simard (1907-1954) from the White Fathers, working with several native speakers. The translation received the
imprimatur
An imprimatur (sometimes abbreviated as ''impr.'', from Latin, "let it be printed") is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the Catho ...
on 4 October 1945. It was published as Omulago Muhya, (Kikahindurwa mu Kikerewe) at the White Fathers Mission Press in Bukerewe.
See also
*
Kerewe people
The Kerewe (locally: Wakerewe) are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group based on Ukerewe Island in the Tanzanian section of Lake Victoria. They speak the Kerewe language.
Population
In 2012, the population of the Kerewe people was 345,147.
Arts
The ...
References
* See My Language: A History of Bible Translation in East Africa by Aloo Osotsi Mojola published in 1999
Languages of Tanzania
Great Lakes Bantu languages
{{Bantu-lang-stub