Makhuwa (''Emakhuwa''; also spelt Makua and Macua) is the primary
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 northern
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
. It is spoken by 4 million
Makua people
The Makua people, also known as Makhuwa, are a Bantu ethnic group found in northern Mozambique and the southern border provinces of Tanzania such as the Mtwara Region. They are the largest ethnic group in Mozambique, and primarily concentrated in ...
, who live north of the
Zambezi River
The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...
, particularly in
Nampula Province, which is virtually entirely ethnically Makua.
[''Relatório do I Seminário sobre a Padronização da Ortografia de Línguas Moçambicanas''. NELIMO, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, 1989.] It is the most widely spoken indigenous language of Mozambique.
Apart from the languages in the same group, eMakhuwa is distinguished from other Bantu languages by the loss of consonant + vowel prefixes in favour of ''e''; compare ''epula'', "rain", with
Tswana ''pula''.
Long and short vowels distinguish five vowel qualities /i e a o u/, which is unusually sparse for a Bantu language:
*''omala'' - to finish
*''omaala'' - to paste, stick
*''omela'' - to sprout, bud
*''omeela'' - to share out
The consonants are more complex: postalveolar ''tt'' and ''tth'' exist, both ''p'' and ''ph'' are used. Both ''x'' (English "sh") and ''h'' exist while ''x'' varies with ''s''. Regionally, there are also ''θ'' (the "th" of English "thorn"), ''ð'' (the "th" of English "seethe"), ''z'' and ''ng''. For instance in
eLomwe, to which Makhuwa is closely related, the ''tt'' of eMakhuwa is represented by a "ch" as in English "church".
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Dialects
The names of the dialects vary in different sources. The shibboleth or distinctive variant in the dialects is the treatment of the ''s'':
* eSamgagi dialect: ''odhiva''
* eSangagi dialect: ''θtiva''
* eSaaka dialect: ''ociva''
* eNahara dialect: ''oziva'' - all meaning "agreeable, pleasant"
Maho (2009) lists the following dialects:
* Central Makhuwa (3.1 million)
* Meetto (Metto) (1.3 million, including Ruvuma)
* Chirima (Shirima) (1.5 million, including subdialects Kokola, Lolo, Manyawa, Marenje, Takwane)
* Marrevone (Coastal Makhuwa; 460,000 including eNahara)
* eNahara (Naharra)
* eSaka (Saka, 210,000)
* Ruvuma Makhuwa (Tanzanian Makhuwa, including subdialects Imithupi, Ikorovere)
Mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as ...
between these is limited. Central Makhuwa ("Makhuwa-Makhuwana") is the basis of the standard language. ''Ethnologue'' lists Central Makhuwa, Meetto–Ruvuma, Marrevone–Enahara, and Esaka as separate languages, and Chirima as six languages.
The population figures are from ''Ethnologue'' for 2006. They tally 3.1 million speakers of Central Makhuwa and 3.5 million of the other varieties, though the ''Ethnologue'' article for Central Makhuwa covers Marrevone and Enahara, so these might be double counted.
Reading material in eMakhuwa
''Muluku Onnalavuliha Àn'awe - Ipantte sikosolasiwe sa Biblia'' ("God speaks to his children" - extracts from the Scriptures for children) Aid to the Church in Need. Edição em Macúa / eMakhuwa) Editorial Verbo Divino, Estella, Navarra, 1997.
References
External links
*Oliver Kröger (2005),
Report on a Survey of Coastal Makua Dialects' (SIL International)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Makhuwa language
Makua languages
Languages of Mozambique
Languages of Tanzania