Kamba, or Kikamba, is a
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantÊŠÌ€), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
spoken by millions of
Kamba people
The Kamba or Akamba (sometimes called Wakamba) people are Bantu peoples ethnic group who predominantly live in Kenya stretching from Nairobi to Tsavo and northwards to Embu, Kenya, Embu, in the southern part of the Eastern Province, Kenya, f ...
, primarily in
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
, as well as thousands of people in
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It 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 ...
,
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
, 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 purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
:
Machakos,
Kitui,
Makueni, and
Kwale. The Machakos dialect is considered the
standard variety 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 Cen ...
,
Meru, 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, the Bantu language spoken by them
{{Disamb, geo ...
, of whom together they form the GEMA community.
The Swedish
Museum of World Culture
The National Museum of World Culture opened in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2004. It is a part of the public authority Swedish National Museums of World Cultures and builds on the collections of the former Göteborgs Etnografiska Museum that closed d ...
holds field recordings of the Kamba language made by Swedish ethnographer
Gerhard Lindblom 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
ÌŸ 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