Kalanga language

Kalanga
Kalanga
TjiKalanga/Ikalanga
Native to	Zimbabwe, Botswana
Region	SouthWest parts of Zimbabwe Central, North Central and NorthEast Botswana
Ethnicity	Kalanga people;
Native speakers	700,000 in Zimbabwe,; 850,000 in Botswana (2012-2015)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantu Shona group (S.10) Kalanga; ; ; ; ; ;
Official status
Official language in	Zimbabwe (both Kalanga and Nambya) Botswana-recognized language nationally.
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; kck – Kalanga; nmq – Nambya
Glottolog	kala1405
Guthrie code	S.16
Linguasphere	99-AUT-ai

Kalanga^{[pronunciation?]}, or TjiKalanga (in Zimbabwe), is a Bantu language spoken by the Kalanga people in Botswana and Zimbabwe. It has an extensive phoneme inventory, which includes palatalised, velarised, aspirated and breathy-voiced consonants,^[3] as well as whistled sibilants.

Kalanga is recognised as an official language by the Zimbabwean Constitution of 2013 and is taught in schools in areas where its speakers predominate. The iKalanga language is closely related to the Nambya, TshiVenda, and KheLobedu languages of Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Classification and varieties

Linguists place Kalanga (S.16 in Guthrie's classification) and Nambya (in the Hwange region of Zimbabwe) as the western branch of the Shona group (or Shonic, or Shona-Nyai) group of languages, collectively coded as S.10.

Kalanga has a dialectal variation between its Botswana and Zimbabwean varieties and they use slightly different orthographies. Historically, Wentzel mentioned Kalanga proper in the east and Lilima (Tjililima, Humbe) on the west, as well as varieties that are now rare or extinct: Nyai (Rozvi), Lemba (Remba), Lembethu (Rembethu), Twamamba (Xwamamba), Pfumbi, Jaunda (Jawunda, Jahunda), and †Romwe, †Peri, †Talahundra (Talaunda).^[2]^[4]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	alveolar	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	Palatal	plain	lab.	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p		t̪			(tʷ)				k	kʷ
	voiced	b		d̪		d	dʷ				ɡ	ɡʷ
	prenasal	ᵐb				ⁿd					ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
	aspirated	pʰ		t̪ʰ		tʰ	tʰʷ				kʰ	kʰʷ
	breathy	pʱ				tʱ						kʷʱ
	ejective					(tʼ)
Affricate	voiceless		p͡s	t̪͡s̪				t͡ʃ
	voiced		b͡z	d̪͡z̪	d̪͡z̪ʷ			d͡ʒ				b͡ɡ
	prenasal							ⁿd͡ʒ
	aspirated			t̪͡s̪ʰ	t̪͡s̪ʰʷ							p͡kʰ
	breathy			t̪͡s̪ʱ				t͡ʃʱ
	ejective							t͡ʃʼ
Fricative	voiceless	f				s	sʷ	ʃ	ʃʷ		(x)	(xʷ)
Fricative	voiced	v				z	zʷ	ʒ					ɦ
Nasal		m				n				ɲ	ŋ	ŋʷ
Trill						r
Approximant	lateral					l
	central	β̞								j		w
	breathy											wʱ

Phonemes /tʰʷ, p͡s, b͡z, t͡ʃʼ/ occur only as marginal phonemes.
Sounds /tʼ, tʷ, x, xʷ/ are sounds that are borrowed from Tswana.^[3]

Vowels

Kalanga has a typical five-vowel system:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

References

^ "Kalanga". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
^ ^a ^b Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
^ ^a ^b Mathangwane, Joyce T. (1999). Ikalanga phonetics and phonology: a synchronic and diachronic study. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
^ Wentzel, Petrus Johannes (1981). The Relationship between Venda and Western Shona. Ph.D. Thesis. Univ. of South Africa.

External links

[1] "Kalanga". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-14.

[Guthrie-2] Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online

[:0-3] Mathangwane, Joyce T. (1999). Ikalanga phonetics and phonology: a synchronic and diachronic study. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

[4] Wentzel, Petrus Johannes (1981). The Relationship between Venda and Western Shona. Ph.D. Thesis. Univ. of South Africa.

[3]

[1]

[2]

[4]