Kamba, or Kikamba, 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 millions of

Kamba people The Kamba or Akamba (sometimes called Wakamba) people are a Bantu ethnic group who predominantly live in the area of Kenya stretching from Nairobi to Tsavo and north to Embu, in the southern part of the former Eastern Province. This land i ...

, primarily in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, as well as thousands of people in

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 the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...

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 elsewhere. In Kenya, Kamba is generally spoken in four

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Machakos Machakos, also called Masaku is a town in Kenya, southeast of Nairobi. It is the capital of the Machakos County, Kenya. Its population is rapidly growing and was 150,041 as of 2009 and Machakos County had a population of 1,421,932 as of 201 ...

Kitui Kitui is a town and capital of Kitui County in Kenya, 180 kilometres east of Nairobi and 105 kilometres east of Machakos. it covers an area approximately 30,496.4 km squares and lies between latitudes 0°10 South and 3°0 South and longitudes ...

, Makueni, and

Kwale Kwale is a small town in and the capital of Kwale County, Kenya. It is located at around ; 30 km southwest of Mombasa and 15 km inland. The town has an urban population of 10,063 (2019 census). It is next to the Shimba Hills National ...

. The Machakos dialect is considered the

standard variety A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that includ ...

and has been used in translation. The other major dialect is Kitui. Kamba has lexical similarities to other Bantu languages such as

Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language. It may also refer to: *Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya *Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people *Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Centr ...

Meru Meru may refer to: Geography Kenya * Meru, Kenya, a city in Meru County, Kenya ** Meru County, created by the merger of *** Meru Central District *** Meru North District *** Meru South District * Meru National Park, a Kenyan wildlife park Tanz ...

, and

Embu Embu may refer to: Places ; in Brazil * Embu das Artes * Embu-Guaçu ; in Kenya * Embu, Kenya * Embu County Other *Embu people of Kenya *Embu language Embu, also known as Kîembu, is a Bantu language of Kenya. It is spoken by the Embu peopl ...

. The

Swedish National Museums of World Culture Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

holds field recordings of kamba language made by Swedish ethnographer

Gerhard Lindblom Karl Gerhard Lindblom (26 August 1887 – 8 June 1969) was an ethnographer from Sweden who worked in East Africa in the 1910s. He was the principal author of materials on the Akamba peoples. Additionally, he worked as the Director of the Museum ...

in 1911–12. Lindblom used phonograph cylinders to record songs along with other means of documentation in writing and photography. He also gathered objects, and later presented his work in ''The Akamba in British East Africa'' (1916)''.''

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

* /tʃ/ occurs as a result of palatalization among /k/ before /j/. * In post-nasal positions, sounds /t, k, s, tʃ/ then become voiced as , ɡ, z, dʒ The voiced fricative /β/ then becomes a voiced stop in post-nasal position. * The palatal glide sound /j/ is typically articulated to the front of the mouth, so that is interdental as �̞or alveolo-palatal as ̟ When preceding a consonant however, it is always heard as a regular palatal glide

References

Sources

* Mwau, John Harun (2006). ''Kikamba Dictionary: Kikamba-English, Kikamba-Kikamba, English-Kikamba''. .

External links

PanAfriL10n page on KambaĨvuku ya Mboya kwa andũ Onthe
Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Kamba, digitized by Richard Mammana Northeast Bantu languages Languages of Kenya {{Bantu-lang-stub