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Herero (, ''Otjiherero'') 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. Th ...
spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ...
and
Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalah ...
, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern
Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
. There were 211,700 speakers in 2014.


Distribution

Its linguistic distribution covers a zone called Hereroland, which is constituted of the region of Omaheke along with the Otjozondjupa and
Kunene Region Kunene is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Opuwo, its governor is Marius Sheya. The region's name comes from the Kunene River which forms the northern border with Angola. Besides the capital Opuwo, the region contains the ...
s. The
Himba people The Himba (singular: OmuHimba, plural: OvaHimba) are an indigenous people with an estimated population of about 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene Region (formerly Kaokoland) and on the other side of the Kunene River in sout ...
, who are related to the Herero and Mbanderu, speak a dialect very close to Otjiherero. Many Herero-speakers live in
Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 2 ...
, the capital of Namibia.


Phonology


Consonants

The sounds /f s l/ are found in loanwords.


Vowels


Script

Because of the translation of missionary Gottlieb Viehe (1839–1901) of the Bible into Herero, at the end of the 19th century, the spoken language was transcribed to an alphabet based on the Latin script. Father Peter Heinrich Brincker (1836–1904) translated several theological works and songs.


Orthography

* a - * b - * d - * ḓ - ̪* e - * f - * g - * h - * i - * j - * k - * l - * m - * mb - ��b* mw - ʷ* n - * ndj - ��dʒ* ng - ��ɡ* ngw - ��ɡʷ* nj - * ṋ - ̪* o - * p - * r - * s - * t - * tj - ͡ʃ* ṱ - ̪* u - /w* v - * w - * y - * z - Long vowels are doubled. f and l are only used in loanwords.


Grammar


Education

Otjiherero is taught in Namibian schools both as a native tongue and as a secondary language. It is included as a principal material at the
University of Namibia The University of Namibia (UNAM) is a multi-campus public research university in Namibia, as well as the largest university in the country. It was established by an act of Parliament on 31 August 1992. Background UNAM comprises the followi ...
. Otjiherero is also one of the six minority languages that are used by the Namibian State Radio (NBC). Gamsberg Macmillan, , has published the only dictionary in Otjiherero.


Varieties

The Hakaona variety is now considered a separate Bantu language, as sometimes is Zemba (''Otjizemba''). Maho (200) also removes Kuvale to Bantu Zone R.10, while differentiating North-West Herero (Kaokoland Herero, including Zemba and presumably Himba and Hakaona), R.311, and Botswana Herero (including Mahalapye Herero), R.312, as distinct from but closely related to Herero proper. Within Herero proper, he recognizes two dialects: Central Herero and Mbandero (East Herero). Northwest/Zemba is found on either side of the Namibian–Angolan border. Central Herero covers a large area in central Namibia, with East Herero a few islands to the east but still in Namibia. Botswana Herero consists of a few scattered islands in Botswana, with about 15% the population of Herero proper. ''Ethnologue'' separates Zimba as a distinct language but retains Himba, East Herero and Botswana Herero within the Herero language. However, it no longer recognizes Kuvale as a dialect but as a separate language.


Sources

*Brincker, Peter Heinrich (1886, 1964). ''Wörterbuch und kurzgefasste Grammatik des Otji-Herero.'' Leipzig (reprint 1964 Ridgwood, NJ: The Gregg Press). *Hahn, C. Hugo (1857). ''Grundzüge einer Grammatik des Hereró.'' Berlin: Verlag von Wilhelm Hertz. *Lutz, Marten (2006). "Locative inversion in Otjiherero: more on morpho-syntactic variation in Bantu." In: Laura Downing, Lutz Marten & Sabine Zerbian (eds.), ''Papers in Bantu Grammar, ZAS Papers in Linguistics'' 43, 97—122. *Marten, Lutz & Nancy C. Kula (2007). "Morphosyntactic co-variation in Bantu: two case studies." SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics 15.227-238. *Möhlig, Wilhelm, Lutz Marten & Jekura U. Kavari (2002). ''A Grammatical Sketch of Herero (Otjiherero).'' Köln: Köppe (Grammatische Analysen afrikanischer Sprachen; v.19).


References

Languages of Namibia Languages of Botswana


External links

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