Mbukushu language
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Bantu language spoken in southern Africa
| Mbukushu | |
|---|---|
| Thimbukushu | |
| Native to | Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zambia |
| Region | Kavango East |
Native speakers | 95,000 (2020)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mhw |
| Glottolog | mbuk1240 |
K.333[1] [2] | |
Mbukushu or Thimbukushu is a Bantu language spoken by 45,000 people along the Kavango East Region in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Botswana, Angola and Zambia.
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 consonants; Mbukushu has three: tenuis c, voiced gc, and nasalized nc, as well as prenasalized ngc, which vary between speakers as dental, palatal, and postalveolar.[3] It also has a nasal glottal approximant.
Phonology
[edit ]Consonants
[edit ]| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Click | voiceless | kǀ | ||||
| voiced | ɡǀ | |||||
| prenasal vl. | ŋǀk | |||||
| prenasal vd. | ŋǀɡ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t̪ | t | tʃ | k |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| prenasal | mb | nd̪ | nd | ndʒ | ŋɡ | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | θ | (s ) | ʃ | h |
| voiced | v | ð | (z ) | [ʝ ] | ɣ | |
| nasal | ɱv | nð | h̃ | |||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||
| Trill | r | |||||
- Sounds /s,z/ are only heard from loanwords.
- /j/ may also be heard as a palatal fricative [ʝ].[4]
- Click sounds may also range to being alveolar [kǃ,ɡǃ,ŋǃk,ŋǃɡ] or palatal [kǂ,ɡǂ,ŋǂk,ŋǂɡ].[5]
Vowels
[edit ]| Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Low | a |
References
[edit ]- ^ a b Mbukushu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gérard (2003). The Bantu Languages. Routledge. p. 37. ISBN 0700711341.
- ^ Wynne, Ronald C. (1980). English-Mbukushu dictionary. Avebury Publishing Co.
- ^ Fisch, Maria (1998). Thimbukushu grammar. Windhoek: Out of Africa Publ.
External links
[edit ]
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