Kwanyama or Cuanhama is a national language of Angola and Namibia. It is a standardized dialect of the Ovambo language, and is mutually intelligible with Oshindonga, the other Ovambo dialect with a standard written form.
| Kwanyama | |
|---|---|
| Oshikwanyama | |
| Native to | Namibia and Angola |
| Region | Ovamboland |
Native speakers | (250,000 in Namibia (2006); 420,000 in Angola cited 1993)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | kj |
| ISO 639-2 | kua |
| ISO 639-3 | kua |
| Glottolog | kuan1247 |
R.21[2] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUR-la |
The entire Christian Bible has been translated into Kwanyama and was first published in 1974 under the name Ombibeli by the South African Bible Society.[3] Jehovah’s Witnesses released the modern translation of the new testament, the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in Kwanyama in 2019,[4] both printed and electronic online version.
Phonology
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t~t̪ | tʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d~d̪ | dʒ | |||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ⁿdʒ | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | (s) | ʃ | x | h |
| voiced | v | |||||
| Nasal | voiced | m | n | ɲ | ||
| voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ɲ̊ | ŋ̊ | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
/t/ and /d/ are dentalized when followed by a front vowel /i/. An /s/ sound can only occur in loanwords.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
References
Bibliography
- Crane, Thera; Lindgren-Streicher, Karl; Wingo, Andy (2004). Hai ti! A Beginner's Guide to Oshikwanyama (PDF).
- Halme, Riikka (2004). A Tonal Grammar of Kwanyama. pp. 12-18.
- Zimmerman, W.; Hasheela, P. (1998). Oshikwanyama Grammar. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan.
Further reading
- Turvey, B. H. C. (1977) Kwanyama-English Dictionary; compiled by B. H. C. Turvey; edited by W. Zimmermann and G. B. Taapopi. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press ISBN 0854943153 (based on the work compiled by George Tobias & Basil Henry Capes Turvey, 1954)
