Havu (or Haavu or Kihavu) is a
Bantu language of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. It is spoken mainly in the
Idjwi
Idjwi, or Ijwi, is an inland island in Lake Kivu which forms part of South Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At in length and with an area of , it is the second-largest lake island in Africa and the tenth largest in the wo ...
and
Kalehe territories of
Sud-Kivu Province, in the east of the DRC. It is closely related to the
Shi language
Shi, or Nyabungu, is a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Nyindu variety is heavily influenced by Lega, and speakers consider it a dialect of Lega rather than Shi, as Shi speakers see it. Maho (2009) leaves it unclassif ...
.
The Havu language is also spoken in the city of
Goma
Goma is the capital of North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, next to the Rwandan city of Gisenyi. The lake and the two cities are in the Albertine Rift, the ...
, north of the island. However, ethnic Havu in Goma are not using the language as much as those on the island of Idjwi.
[DeWitt, Stephanie. 2019. ''Language Choice among the Havu of the Democratic Republic of Congo: Comparing two speech communities an urban center and an isolated island.'' ]Dallas International University
Dallas International University (DIU) is an undergraduate school and graduate school located in the southwest corner of Dallas, Texas, formerly called the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. From its beginning in 1998, DIU provided educati ...
: MA thesis.
References
Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Great Lakes Bantu languages
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