Mijikenda is a
Bantu dialect cluster spoken along the coast of East Africa, mostly in
Kenya
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, where there are 1.9 million speakers (2009 census) but also in
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 ...
, where there are 100,000 speakers. The name ''Mijikenda'' means "the nine settlements" or "the nine communities" and refers to the multiple language communities that make up the group.
An older, derogatory term for the group is ''Nyika'' which refers to the "dry and bushy country" along the coast.
Varieties
The New Updated Guthrie List from 2009 lists the following varieties and Guthrie codes as part of the Mijikenda cluster:
* E72 – North Mijikenda (Nyika)
** E72a –
Giryama yf** E72b – Kauma
** E73c –
Chonyi oh** E73d –
Duruma
Duruma is a settlement in Kenya's Kwale County
Kwale County is a county in the former Coast Province of Kenya. Its capital is Kwale, although Ukunda is the largest town.
Kwale county has an estimated population of 649,931.
Kwale is mainly ...
ug** E73e – Rabai
** E73F – Jibana
** E72G – Kambe
** E72H – Ribe
* E73-732 – South Mijikenda
** E73 –
Digo ig** E731 –
Segeju
The Segeju ( Swahili: ''Wasegeju''; Mijikenda: ''Asagidzu'') are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group mostly based in Tanzania's Tanga Region (particularly Mkinga District) and Kenya's Kwale County. Most Segeju reside in the small coastal strip between ...
eg** E732 – Degere
The
Degere
The Degere are a Mijikenda-speaking group of former hunter-gatherers of Kenya and Tanzania, now settled along the Ramisi, Mwena and Umba rivers, with a few along the coast. They may number no more than a few hundred to at most a few thousand. ...
are former hunter-gatherers like the Cushitic
Waata
The Waata (Waat, Watha), or Sanye, are an Oromo language, Oromo-speaking people of Kenya and former hunter-gatherers. They share the name ''Sanye'' with the neighboring Dahalo language, Dahalo.
The current language of the Waata may be a dialect ...
, and are said to have once spoken a
Cushitic language
The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As ...
.
The Ethnologue
lists the following variety groupings:
*
coh.html"_;"title="Chonyi_language.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Chonyi_language">coh">Chonyi_language.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Chonyi_language">coh_–_Chonyi,_Jibana
*_[
Duruma_language.html" ;"title="Chonyi_language">coh.html" ;"title="Chonyi_language.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Chonyi language">coh">Chonyi_language.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Chonyi language">coh – Chonyi, Jibana
* [
Duruma language">dug] – Duruma
* [
Digo language, dig] – Digo
* [
Giryama language, nyf] – Giryama, Ribe, Kambe, Chwaka, Rabai, Kauma
* [
Segeju language, seg] – Segeju
''Ethnologue's'' 'Duruma' may refer to the same thing as Maho's 'Degere', as the Degere are variously reported to speak Duruma, Digo, or a similar dialect of their own.
Clicks
Clicks have been reported in
ideophone
Ideophone is a word class evoking ideas in sound imitation or onomatopoeia to express action, manner of property. Ideophone is the least common syntactic category cross-linguistically occurring mostly in African, Australian and Amerindian langua ...
s from two dialects of Mijikenda:
Digo and Duruma. (It is not known if they occur in the others.) These are ''tsya!'' 'scram!' and 'minute'. It is not known if these have any connection with the neighbouring Cushitic language
Dahalo.
References
* Walsh, M.T. (2006)
"A Click in Digo and its Historical Interpretation" ''Azania'', 41.
{{Authority control
Northeast Coast Bantu languages
Click languages