Nande language

Not to be confused with Nandi.

Nande
Yira
Ndandi
Native to	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region	Nord-Kivu province
Native speakers	(900,000 cited 1991)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu Rwenzori Nande
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nnb
Glottolog	nand1264
Guthrie code	JD.42

Nande, also known as (Oru)Ndandi and Yira, is a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Nande of Congo and the Konjo people of Uganda are a single ethnic group, which they call Yira (Bayira). They trace their origins to the Ruwenzori Mountains between the two countries. The languages Nande and Konjo are close enough to be considered divergent dialects. Nande has a number of dialects of its own: Nande proper, Kumbule, Mate, Tangi, Sanza, Shu, Songola (Songoora, Nyangala), Swaga / Kira (in Nande, all of these are prefixed with eki-).

For the varieties of this language known as Shu we are given the information that another language, "EkiShukaali" was formerly spoken by the women, the AvaShukaali. This may be a specific reference to some kind of "secret jargon" into which the girls, and not boys, were initiated.

Some of the Nande of Congo have a patron–vassal relationship with the Efé Pygmies.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪	t		k
	prenasal	ᵐb		ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Affricate				t͡s
Fricative	voiceless			s			h
	voiced	β				ɣ
	prenasal			ⁿz
Nasal		m		n	ɲ
Rhotic	trill			r
	tap			ɾ
Approximant				l	(j)	(w)

• Palatal and labio-velar glides [j, w] are only heard as a result of front vowels /i, ɪ, ɛ/ or back vowels /u, ʊ, ɔ/ preceding other vowels, or in stem-initial positions between two vowels.
• Voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ can be freely heard as voiced [b, d, ɡ] among speakers, or voiced stops may also occur in loanwords.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Close-mid	ɛ ~ e		ɔ ~ o
Open-mid
Open		a

• Sounds /ɛ, ɔ/ can also occur as more tense (close) vowels [e, o] within stems containing tense vowels (like /i, u/), or within stems in plural form.

External links

• Kinande: A Grammar Sketch (Version 1.0)