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Kinyarwanda
Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and the national language of Rwanda. It is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is also spoken in adjacent parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Uganda, where the dialect is known as Ikinyakore, Rufumbira, or ''Urufumbira''. Kinyarwanda is universal among the native population of Rwanda and is mutually intelligible with Kirundi, the national language of neighbouring Burundi. Kinyabwishya and Kinyamulenge are mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces of neighbouring DR Congo. In 2010, the Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture (RALC) was established to help promote and sustain Kinyarwanda. The organization attempted an orthographic reform in 2014, but it was met with pushback due to their perceived top-down and political nature, among other reasons. Geographic distribution Kinyarwanda is spoken in Rwanda, the Democratic Republi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rwanda-Rundi Language
Rwanda-Rundi or West Highlands Kivu is a group of Bantu languages, specifically a dialect continuum, spoken in Central Africa. Two dialects, Kirundi and Kinyarwanda, have been standardized as the national languages of Burundi and Rwanda respectively. These neighbouring dialects are mutually intelligible, but other dialects which are more distant ones may not be. The other dialects are spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinyabwisha in North Kivu), Uganda (Rufumbira, spoken by the Bafumbira in Kisoro District), and Tanzania; Ha, with one million speakers, is the most widely spoken. Comparison of Kinyarwanda and Kirundi Kinyarwanda and Kirundi are very similar in many aspects, but differ in several ways as well. Tonal marking Both languages are tonal languages. High and low tones (or H and L) are the essential tones and, having a phonemic distinction on vowel length, when a long vowel changes from a low tone to a high tone it is marked as a rising tone and when a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banyarwanda
The Banyarwanda (, plural; , singular) are a Bantu peoples, Bantu Ethnolinguistic group, ethnolinguistic supraethnicity native to the northern African Great Lakes region, primarily the modern countries of Rwanda and Burundi. The Banyarwanda are also ethnic minorities in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, DR Congo, Uganda and Tanzania. Although the ethnic make-up of Burundi is similar to that of Rwanda, ''Banyarwanda'' is a political neologism used solely in Rwanda since the 1990s in order to mitigate ethnic division within the country following the Rwandan Civil War and the Rwandan genocide, 1994 Rwandan genocide. In the 1930s the Belgian colonial authorities, who controlled both Congo, Rwanda and Burundi at the time, implemented programs to encourage large numbers of Banyarwanda to emigrate to the Belgian Congo from Rwanda and Burundi. The population of Banyarwanda has increased later by large numbers fleeing violence in those two countries especially in the 1960s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rwanda
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With a comparatively high elevation, Rwanda has been given the sobriquet "land of a thousand hills" (), with its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the southeast, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year. It is the most densely populated mainland African country; among countries larger than 10,000 km2, it is the third-most densely populated country in the world. Its Capital city, capital and largest city is Kigali. Hunter-gatherers settled the territory in the Stone Age, Stone and Iron Ages, followed later by Bantu peoples. The population coalesce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kirundi
Kirundi (), also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language and the national language of Burundi. It is mutually intelligible with Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, and the two form parts of the Rwanda-Rundi dialect continuum spoken in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. Kirundi is natively spoken by the Hutu (including the Bakiga), Tutsi, Twa, and the Hima people; other related ethnicities have also adopted Kirundi as their mother tongue. Neighbouring dialects of Kirundi are mutually intelligible with Ha language, Ha, a language spoken in western Tanzania. Kirundi is one of the languages where Meeussen's rule, a rule describing a certain pattern of tonal change in Bantu languages, is active. In 2020, the Rundi Academy was established to help standardize and promote Kirundi. Phonology Consonants Although the literature on Rundi agrees on 5 vowels, the number of consonants can vary anywhere from 19 to 26 consonants. The table below is compiled from a survey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bantu Language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The total number of Bantu languages is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages, depending on the definition of Dialect#Dialect or language, "language" versus "dialect"."Guthrie (1967–71) names some 440 Bantu 'varieties', Grimes (2000) has 501 (minus a few 'extinct' or 'almost extinct'), Bastin ''et al.'' (1999) have 542, Maho (this volume) has some 660, and Mann ''et al.'' (1987) have ''c.'' 680." Derek Nurse, 2006, "Bantu Languages", in the ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', p. 2:Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid" lists a total of 535 languages. The count includes 13 Mbam languages, which are not always included under "Narrow Bantu". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Lakes Bantu
The Great Lakes Bantu languages, also known as Lacustrine Bantu and Bantu zone J, are a group of Bantu languages of East Africa. They were recognized as a group by the ''Tervuren'' team, who posited them as an additional zone (zone J) to Guthrie's largely geographic classification of Bantu. History By 500 BC, Proto-Great Lakes Bantu speakers initially settled between Lakes Kivu and Rweru in Rwanda. Languages The languages are, according to Bastin, Coupez, & Mann (1999), with Sumbwa added per Nurse (2003): *'' Gungu'' (E10) *''Bwari (Kabwari)'' (D50) *Konzo (D40): Konjo, Nande, ? Kobo *Shi–Havu (D50): Hunde, Havu, Shi, Tembo, Nyindu, Fuliiru *Rwanda-Rundi (D60): Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Shubi, Hangaza, Ha, Vinza *Nyoro–Ganda (E10): Ganda, Nyankore, Nyoro, Tooro, Hema, Chiga, Soga, Gwere, West Nyala, Ruli ::(See also Rutara languages, Runyakitara language, Nkore-Kiga) *Haya–Jita (E20): Haya–Rashi, Talinga-Bwisi, Zinza, Kerebe (Kerewe), Jita–K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Lakes Bantu Languages
The Western Lakes Bantu languages form a subgroup of the Great Lakes Bantu languages spoken in Rwanda, Burundi the DRC, Uganda and Tanzania. Classification The Western Lakes Bantu languages are classified within the Glottolog database as follows: * Kabwari *Kivu **Forest Kivu ***Fuliiric ****Fuliiru-Vira ***** Fuliiru ***** Vira (also called Joba) **** Nyindu ****Nyindu ***Hunde-Havu **** Havu **** Hunde *** Shi *** Tembo **West Highlands Kivu ***Kinyarwanda ***Rundic **** Ha ****Hangaza-Shubi *****Hangaza ***** Shubi ****Kirundi *** Kitwa *** Vinza *Rwenzori **Konzo ** Nande History Proto-Western Lakes Bantu was developed in 400 AD by those who remained in the original Proto-Great Lakes Bantu homeland, which was in and on the hillsides of the Kivu Rift Valley. Similar to the Okiek people in Kenya, the Great Lakes Twa The Great Lakes Twa, also known as Batwa (singular Mutwa), Abatwa or Ge-Sera, are a Bantu speaking group native to the African Great Lakes region on the bord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nasal Consonant
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majority of consonants are oral consonants. Examples of nasals in English are , and , in words such as ''nose'', ''bring'' and ''mouth''. Nasal occlusives are nearly universal in human languages. There are also other kinds of nasal consonants in some languages. Definition Nearly all nasal consonants are nasal occlusives, in which air escapes through the nose but not through the mouth, as it is blocked (occluded) by the lips or tongue. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound. Rarely, non-occlusive consonants may be nasalized. Most nasals are voiced, and in fact, the nasal sounds and are among the most common sounds cross-linguistically. Voiceless nasals occur in a few languages such as Burmese, Welsh, Icelan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glottal Consonant
Glottal consonants are consonants using the glottis as their primary articulation. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the glottal fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have, while some do not consider them to be consonants at all. However, glottal consonants behave as typical consonants in many languages. For example, in Literary Arabic, most words are formed from a root ''C-C-C'' consisting of three consonants, which are inserted into templates such as or . The glottal consonants and can occupy any of the three root consonant slots, just like "normal" consonants such as or . The glottal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet are as follows: Characteristics In many languages, the "fricatives" are not true fricatives. This is a historical usage of the word. They instead represent transitional states of the glottis (phonation) without a specific place of articulation, and may behave as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Velar Consonant
Velar consonants are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum"). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive and the movements of the dorsum are not very precise, velars easily undergo assimilation, shifting their articulation back or to the front depending on the quality of adjacent vowels. They often become automatically ''fronted'', that is partly or completely palatal before a following front vowel, and ''retracted'', that is partly or completely uvular before back vowels. Palatalised velars (like English in ''keen'' or ''cube'') are sometimes referred to as palatovelars. Many languages also have labialized velars, such as , in which the articulation is accompanied by rounding of the lips. There are also labial–velar consonants, which are doubly articulated at the velum and at the lips, such as . This distinction disappea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
