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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 |
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.
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 |
Tones
Kwanyama has two tones : high and low.