Kamba, or Kikamba, is a
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantÊŠÌ€) 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 by millions of
Kamba people
The Kamba or Akamba (sometimes called Wakamba) people are a Bantu ethnic group who predominantly live in the area of Kenya stretching from Nairobi to Tsavo and north to Embu, in the southern part of the former Eastern Province. This land is ...
, primarily in
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
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, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
, as well as thousands of people in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
,
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
, and elsewhere. In Kenya, Kamba is generally spoken in four
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
:
Machakos,
Kitui
Kitui is a town and capital of Kitui County in Kenya, 180 kilometres east of Nairobi and 105 kilometres east of Machakos. it covers an area approximately 30,496.4 km squares and lies between latitudes 0°10 South and 3°0 South and longitudes ...
,
Makueni, and
Kwale
Kwale is a small town in and the capital of Kwale County, Kenya. It is located at around ; 30 km southwest of Mombasa and 15 km inland. The town has an urban population of 10,063 (2019 census). It is next to the Shimba Hills National ...
. The Machakos dialect is considered the
standard variety and has been used in translation. The other major dialect is Kitui.
Kamba has lexical similarities to other Bantu languages such as
Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language.
It may also refer to:
* Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya
*Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people
*Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cent ...
,
Meru
Meru may refer to:
Geography Kenya
* Meru, Kenya, a city in Meru County, Kenya
** Meru County, created by the merger of
*** Meru Central District
*** Meru North District
*** Meru South District
* Meru National Park, a Kenyan wildlife park
T ...
, and
Embu.
The
Swedish National Museums of World Culture holds field recordings of kamba language made by Swedish ethnographer
Gerhard Lindblom
Karl Gerhard Lindblom (26 August 1887 – 8 June 1969) was an ethnographer from Sweden who worked in East Africa in the 1910s. He was the principal author of materials on the Akamba peoples. Additionally, he worked as the Director of the Museum ...
in 1911–12. Lindblom used phonograph cylinders to record songs along with other means of documentation in writing and photography. He also gathered objects, and later presented his work in ''The Akamba in British East Africa'' (1916)''.''
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
* /tʃ/ occurs as a result of palatalization among /k/ before /j/.
* In post-nasal positions, sounds /t, k, s, tʃ/ then become voiced as
, ɡ, z, dʒ The voiced fricative /β/ then becomes a voiced stop
in post-nasal position.
* The palatal glide sound /j/ is typically articulated to the front of the mouth, so that is interdental as
°Ìžor alveolo-palatal as
ÌŸ When preceding a consonant however, it is always heard as a regular palatal glide
References
Sources
* Mwau, John Harun (2006). ''Kikamba Dictionary: Kikamba-English, Kikamba-Kikamba, English-Kikamba''. .
External links
PanAfriL10n page on KambaĨvuku ya Mboya kwa andũ OnthePortions of the Book of Common Prayer in Kamba, digitized by Richard Mammana
Northeast Bantu languages
Languages of Kenya
{{Bantu-lang-stub