Mbukushu or Thimbukushu is a
Bantu language spoken by 45,000 people along the
Okavango River in
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...
, where it is a national language, and in
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...
,
Angola
, national_anthem = "Angola Avante"()
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, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
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, coordina ...
and
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are ...
.
In 2022 it was selected among a variety of Mother Tongue languages to be taught in Botswana Primary Schools in the year 2023.
Mbukushu is one of several Bantu languages of the Okavango which have
click consonants; Mbukushu has three:
tenuis ''c,'' voiced ''gc,'' and nasalized ''nc,'' as well as prenasalized ''ngc,'' which vary between speakers as
dental,
palatal, and
postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
.
It also has a
nasal glottal approximant.
References
External links
Mbukushu sound files at UCLA
Bantu languages
Languages of Angola
Languages of Botswana
Languages of Namibia
Languages of Zambia
Click languages
{{Bantu-lang-stub