Kisi 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 ...
. Though only half or so of the
Kisi people
The Kisi are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnolinguistic group from Makete District of Njombe Region, Tanzania, on the northwestern shore of Lake Malawi.
Description
Population
In 2001 the Kisi population was estimated to number 18,000, of whom ...
speak the language, use is vigorous where it is still spoken.
Phonology
Other phonemes:
*
and
are in a free variation.
*
and
are not included in a phoneme chart in Kisi because they only occur as glide insertion between historically or morphologically adjacent vowels.
does not occur otherwise. For some speakers,
occurs as a free variant of
which is considered incorrect by other speakers.
Contrastive and obligatory length is marked with /:/. This does not necessarily reflect a difference in the length of production.
Swahili: bei, and Swahili: ngao - These Swahili words have been borrowed into Kisi and pronounced with a diphthong in Kisi
#
References
Bibliography
*
* Ngonyani, Deogratias S. "Aspects of Non-Concatenative Morphology in Kikisi." ''Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics'', 6(1): 40-59.
Languages of Tanzania
Northeast Bantu languages
{{Bantu-lang-stub