Ha, also known with the Bantu language prefix as ''Giha, Igiha,'' or ''Kiha,'' is a
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
spoken by the
Ha people
__NOTOC__
The Ha, also called Abaha (''Waha'' in Swahili language, Swahili), are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group found in Kigoma Region in northwestern Tanzania bordering Lake Tanganyika.[Kigoma Region
Kigoma Region (''Mkoa wa Kigoma'' in Swahili language, Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative Regions of Tanzania, regions, with the city of Kigoma as the regional capital. Kigoma Region borders Kagera Region, Geita Region, Katavi Regio ...]
of
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
, spoken on the eastern side of
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...
up to the headwaters of the Mikonga. It is closely related to the languages of
Rwanda
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...
and
Burundi
Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...
; neighboring dialects are reported to be
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...
with
Kirundi
Kirundi (), also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language and the national language of Burundi. It is mutually intelligible with Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, and the two form parts of the Rwanda-Rundi dialect continuum spoken in Buru ...
.
Phonology
Consonants
* is heard as among different dialects in free variation.
* can be heard as either or in complementary distribution.
Vowels
Further reading
* Bichwa, Saul S. 2018. "The Role of Prosodic Units in the Study of Giha." ''Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics'', 1(1): 81-90.
References
External links
Bible recordings in HaBrief overview of Ha
Languages of Tanzania
Rwanda-Rundi languages
{{Bantu-lang-stub