Luchazi (Lucazi, ''Chiluchazi'') 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 ...
of
Angola
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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 ...
. Luchazi is the principal language of the Ngangela Group.
[Emil Pearson, "Luchazi Grammar", pp. 5] Ngangela is a term coined by the Vimbundu traders and missionaries in 18th century to describe the tribes occupying the area of eastern-central Angola.
Phonology
Consonants
The following table displays all the consonants in Luchazi:
[Gerhard Kubik, 2006, ''Tusona: Luchazi Ideographs : a Graphic Tradition of West-Central Africa'', pp. 300, 303]
: Occur rarely, may only exist in loanwords.
The position of the speech-organs in producing the consonants is different from the positions taken in producing the similar sounds in European languages. T and D, for example, are lower than in English but higher than in Portuguese. L is flatter-tongued than in either English or Portuguese. The language contains many consonantal glides, including the prenasalized plosives and the voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate (the ts sound).
Vowels
The close front vowel (i), when occurring before another vowel, becomes a
semi-consonant
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the ...
and is written y, unless it is immediately preceded by a consonant, when it remains i. Examples: yange, viange.
The vowels have the Continental or Italian values. They are shorter when unstressed and are prolonged when doubled or when stressed at the end of a word.
* The vowel a is Long when accented, as ''a'' in ''tata, nana''.
Short when unstressed or before two consonants or ''y'' or ''s'' and in monosyllabic adverbs, as ''a'' in ''tata, paya, asa, hanga''. Prolonged when doubled or stressed at the end of a word or syllable. Example: ''ku laako''.
* The vowel e is Long when accented, as ''a'' in ''heta, seza''.
Short when unstressed, as ''a'' in ''hete, seze''.
Short with the value of ''e'' in ''henga, lenda'' before two consonants. Exceptions are hembo and membo (due to coalescence of vowels). Many words derived from Portuguese have the short vowel though not followed by two consonants. Examples: ''pena, papelo, luneta, ngehena,'' etc. Prolonged when stressed at the end of a word.
* The vowel i is Long when accented, as ''e'' in ''tina, sika''.
Short when unstressed or before two consonants, as ''e'' in ''citi, linga''. In monosyllabics it is short, as ''i'' in ''it''. Examples: ni, ndi. Prolonged when stressed. Examples: ti, fui.
* The vowel o is Long when accented, as ''o'' in ''sota, koka''.
Short when unstressed, as ''o'' in ''soko, loto''.
Short, with value of ''o'' in ''onga, yoya, kosa, luozi, ndo'', before two consonants or y or s, and sometimes before z and in some monosyllables. The o is long in ''zoza'' and ''ngozi''. Sometimes prolonged when stressed at the end of a word. Example: ''to''.
* The vowel u is Long when accented, as ''u'' in ''tuta, fula''.
Short, when unstressed or before two consonants or before s, as ''u'' in ''futuka, mbunga, kusa''.
Orthography
Luchazi is written using 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 ...
, with most characters representing the same sound as in English, with some exceptions. c is pronounced like ''ch'' in ''church'', n followed by k or g is always nasal like ''ng'' in ''ring'', the sound of v is bilabial instead of labiodental.
[Emil Pearson, "Luchazi Grammar", pp. 5]
Alphabet
* A -
/aː* B -
* C/Ch -
͡ʃ/t͡ʃʰ* D -
/d̪/ð* E -
/e/ɛː* F -
* G -
* H -
/x* I -
/iː* J -
͡ʒ* K -
* L -
/ɭ* M -
* N -
* Ny -
* O -
/ɔː* P -
* R -
* S -
* Sh -
* T -
/t̪/θ ʲ~t͡sbefore
* U -
/uː* W -
* Y -
* Z -
D, G, J, R, and Sh only exist in loanwords.
Other letters
* ai -
ɪ̯* au -
ʊ̯* ei -
ɪ̯* ia -
̯a* ie -
̯e* io -
̯o* iu -
̯u* kh -
ʰ* mb -
b* mph -
pʰ
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with th ...
* nch -
t͡ʃʰ* nd -
d* ng -
g/ŋ* nj -
d͡ʒ* nk -
kʰ* nt -
tʰ* ph -
ʰ* th -
ʰ* ua -
̯a* ue -
̯e* ui -
̯i* uo -
̯o
References
{{Authority control
Chokwe-Luchazi languages
Languages of Angola