Zemba or Dhimba is a

Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

spoken mainly in Angola where the language has about 18,000 speakers, and also in Namibia with some 7,000. It is closely related to

Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Namaqua Genocide * Herero chat, a species of b ...

, and is often considered a dialect of that language, especially as the Zemba are ethnically Herero. There are various spellings and pronunciations of the name: ''Zimba, Dhimba, Tjimba, Chimba,'' etc. However, when spelled ''Tjimba'' or ''Chimba'' in English, it generally refers to the Tjimba people, non-Herero hunter-gatherers who speak Zemba. The spelling ''Himba'' should be distinguished from the Himba people and their dialect of Herero. ''Ethnologue'' separates Zemba as a distinct language from Himba (Otjihimba, Ovahimba), classified as a dialect of Herero proper. Maho (2009), however, sets up a Northwest Herero language, which includes Zemba; from the map, it would appear to include Himba and Hakaona as well.

References

Herero language Languages of Angola Languages of Namibia {{Bantu-lang-stub