Ngoni 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 Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. There is a 'hard break' across the Tanzanian–Mozambican border, with marginal mutual intelligibility. It is one of several languages of the
Ngoni people
The Ngoni people are an ethnic group living in the present-day Southern African countries of Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The Ngoni trace their origins to the Nguni and Zulu people of kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The di ...
, who descend from the
Nguni people
The Nguni people are a Bantu ethnic group from South Africa, with off-shoots in neighbouring countries in Southern Africa. Swazi (or Swati) people live in both South Africa and Eswatini, while Northern Ndebele people live in both South Africa (a ...
of southern Africa, and the language is a member of the
Nguni subgroup, with the variety spoken in Malawi sometimes referred to as a dialect of
Zulu.
[Gowlett, D. (2003) "Zone S" in ''The Bantu Languages'' (eds. Derek Nurse and Gerard Phillippson), p. 735.] Other languages spoken by the Ngoni may also be referred to as "Chingoni"; many Ngoni in Malawi, for instance, speak
Chewa
Chewa may refer to:
*the Chewa people
*the Chewa language
Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambiq ...
, and other Ngoni speak
Tumbuka or
Nsenga.
References
{{Authority control
Languages of Tanzania
Ngoni language