Sena 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 in the four provinces of central
Mozambique (
Zambezi valley):
Tete,
Sofala,
Zambezia and
Manica. There were an estimated 900,000 native Sena speakers in Mozambique in 1997, with at least 1.5 million if including those who speak it as a
second language. It is one of the
Nyasa languages.
Sena is spoken in several dialects, of which Rue (also called Barwe or Cibalke) and Podzo are divergent. The Sena of
Malawi may be a distinct language. Barwe (Chibarwe) has official recognition in
Zimbabwe.
Some remarks on Sena tenses can be found in Funnell (2004), Barnes & Funnell (2005) and in Kiso (2012).
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
* Labialized sounds can also be heard as retroflex among different speakers.
* is heard as palatalized when followed by a .
* The following sounds occur as prenasalized when after a homorganic nasal; , .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sena language
Nyasa languages
Languages of Mozambique