Luvale (also spelt Chiluvale, Lovale, Lubale, Luena, Lwena) 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 by the
Lovale people The Luvale people, also spelled Lovale, Balovale, Lubale, as well as Lwena or Luena in Angola, are a Bantu ethnic group found in northwestern Zambia and southeastern Angola. They are closely related to the Lunda and Ndembu to the northeast, but the ...
of
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
and
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
. It is recognized as a regional language for educational and administrative purposes in Zambia, where about 168,000 people speak it as of 2006. Luvale uses a modified form of the
latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
in its written form.
Luvale is closely related to
Chokwe.
Vocabulary
It contains many
loanwords
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
from
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
from colonial contact during 20th century,
such as:
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Speakers
*
Bernard K. Mbenga
*
Samba Yonga
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
*Moses C.B. Mulongesa,
Vishimo vya Kuuko'' Lubuto Library Special Collections, accessed May 3, 2014.
Luvale language books Lubuto Library Special Collections
OLAC resources in and about the Luvale language
Chokwe-Luchazi languages
Languages of Angola
Languages of Zambia
Library of Congress Africa Collection related
{{Bantu-lang-stub