Mbukushu or Thimbukushu 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 ...
spoken by 45,000 people along the
Kavango East Region in
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...
, where it is a national language, and in
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
,
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...
and
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 ...
.
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 Kavango which have
click consonant
Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the '' tut-tut'' (British spelling) or '' tsk! tsk!' ...
s; Mbukushu has three:
tenuis ''c,'' voiced ''gc,'' and nasalized ''nc,'' as well as prenasalized ''ngc,'' which vary between speakers as
dental,
palatal
The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...
, and
postalveolar
Postalveolar (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 n ...
. It also has a
nasal glottal approximant.
Common phrase used by Mbukushu;
TUYEREKE-:or TU-YE-RE-KE-SHII-(verb)meaning; To improvise or trying in action or speech. This word is commonly used in mbukushu language.
Phonology
Consonants
* Sounds are only heard from loanwords.
* may also be heard as a palatal fricative
�
* Click sounds may also range to being alveolar or palatal .
Vowels
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