The Lomwe (Lowe) language, ''Elomwe'', also known as Western Makua, is the Bantu language of

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. It belongs with Makua in the group of distinctive Bantu languages in the northern part of the country. Apart from the regional variations found within the Makhuwa proper, the Lomwe uses ch where tt appears in the Makhuwa orthography: for instance the Makhuwa mirette ("remedy") corresponds to the Lomwe mirecce, the Makhuwa murrutthu ("dead body") to the Lomwe miruchu, the Makhuwa otthapa ("joy") to the Lomwe ochapa. Unusual among Bantu languages is the infinitive of the verb with o- instead of the typically Bantu ku- prefix: omala (eMakhuwa) is "to finish", omeeela (also an eMakhuwa form) is "to share out". A

mutually unintelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...

form containing elements of Malawian Lomwe, is spoken in

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

. Maho (2009) separates out Ngulu (Mihavane) as a separate language, close to Malawi Lomwe.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

References

External links