Kwanyama
Oshikwanyama
Native toNamibia and Angola
RegionOvamboland
Native speakers
(250,000 in Namibia (2006);
420,000 in Angola cited 1993)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-1kj
ISO 639-2kua
ISO 639-3kua
Glottologkuan1247
R.21[2]
Linguasphere99-AUR-la

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.

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

Consonants
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.

Vowels
Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

References

  1. ^ Kwanyama at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ Ombibeli, 1974, front page
  4. ^ "Jehovah's Witnesses Release the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in Kwanyama". Jw.org. 20 August 2019.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Kwanyama dialect test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
Languages of Angola
Languages of Namibia
Narrow Bantu languages (by Guthrie classification)
Authority control databases
Categories