The Rutara or Runyakitara languages (endonym: ''Orutara'', ''Orunyakitara'') are a group of closely related

Bantu languages 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 in the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the ...

region. They include languages such as

Runyoro The Nyoro language (autonym: ''Runyoro'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Nyoro people of Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by th ...

Runyankore Nkore (also called Nkole, Nyankore, Nyankole, Orunyankore, Orunyankole, Runyankore and Runyankole) is a Bantu language spoken by the Nkore ("Banyankore") of south-western Uganda in the former province of Ankole, as well as in Tanzania, the DR C ...

and Ruhaya. The language group takes its name from the

Empire of Kitara The Kingdom of the Banyakitara, also known as Union of Kitara (Union of Chwezi) or Chwezi Union, and better known as the Kitara Empire, was an empire in East Africa. It existed in the region from around the early bronze age to about 500 C.E. ...

Classification

Rutara is divided into two branches, North and South Rutara, and two independent languages that have more particular features. The languages are:

North Rutara languages

* Nyoro- Tooro (Runyoro-Rutooro) *

Nkore-Kiga Nkore-Kiga is a language spoken by around 5,800,000 people living in the extreme southwest of Uganda. It is often defined as two separate languages: Nkore and Kiga. It is closely related to Runyoro-Rutooro. History Archibald Norman Tucker wa ...

(Runyankore-Rukiga) * Ruuli (Ruruuli) * Talinga-Bwisi (Lutalinga/Lubwisi) * Hema (Ruhema)

South Rutara languages

* Haya (Ruhaya) * Nyambo (Runyambo)

Zinza and Kerewe (independent)

* Zinza (Ruzinza) * Kerewe (Rukerebe/Kikerebe)

History

According to

glottochronological Glottochronology (from Attic Greek γλῶττα ''tongue, language'' and χρόνος ''time'') is the part of lexicostatistics which involves comparative linguistics and deals with the chronological relationship between languages.Sheila Embleton ...

calculations, Proto-Rutara emerged in the year 700AD. Proto-Rutara was first spoken in the

Kagera Region Kagera Region (''Mkoa wa Kagera'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Netherlands. Kagera Region is borde ...

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 ...

near

Bukoba Bukoba is a city with a population of 128,796 (2012 census), situated in the north west of Tanzania on the south western shores of Lake Victoria. It is the capital of the Kagera region, and the administrative seat for Bukoba Urban District. T ...

before spreading northwards into uganda and the

DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

References

{{reflist Great Lakes Bantu languages