Sena language
| Sena | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Mozambique, Malawi |
| Ethnicity | Sena |
Native speakers | 2,869,000 (2017–2020)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Zimbabwe (as 'Chibarwe') |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:seh – Mozambiquean Senaswk – Malawian Senabwg – Barwe |
| Glottolog | nucl1396 Nuclear Senamala1475 Malawi Senabarw1243 Barwe |
N.44,441 (N.45,46)[2] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUS-xi incl. varieties 99-AUS-xia...-xic; also 99-AUS-xj (chi-Rue) & 99-AUS-xm (chi-Podzo) |
Sena is a Bantu language spoken in the four provinces of central Mozambique (Zambezi valley): Tete, Sofala, Zambezia and Manica. There were an estimated 900,000 native Sena speakers in Mozambique in 1997, with at least 1.5 million if including those who speak it as a second language. It is one of the Nyasa languages.
Sena is spoken in several dialects, of which Rue (also called Barwe or Cibalke) and Podzo are divergent. The Sena of Malawi may be a distinct language. Barwe (Chibarwe) has official recognition in Zimbabwe.
Some remarks on Sena tenses can be found in Funnell (2004),[3] Barnes & Funnell (2005)[4] and in Kiso (2012).[5]
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | ||||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | (ɗʲ) | |||||
| Affricate | voiceless | p͡f | t͡s | p͡s | t͡ʃ | |||
| voiced | b͡v | d͡z | b͡z | d͡ʒ | ||||
| aspirated | t͡ʃʰ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sʷ | ʃ | h | ||
| voiced | v | z | zʷ | ʒ | ||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
- Labialized sounds /sʷ, zʷ/ can also be heard as retroflex [ʂ, ʐ] among different speakers.[6]
- /ɗ/ is heard as palatalized [ɗʲ] when followed by a /j/.
- The following sounds occur as prenasalized when after a homorganic nasal; [ᵐp, ᶬf, ᶬp͡f, ⁿt, ⁿs, ᶮt͡ʃ, ᵑk], [ᵐb, ᵐɓ, ᶬv, ᶬb͡v, ⁿd, ⁿɗ, ⁿz, ᶮd͡ʒ, ᵑɡ].[7]
References
- ^ Mozambiquean Sena at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Malawian Sena at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Barwe at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Funnell, Barry J. (2004)."A Contrastive Analysis of Two Varieties of Sena". MA dissertation, University of South Africa; (Introduction)
- ^ Barnes, Lawrie; Funnell, Barry (2005) "Exploring the cross-border standardisation of Chisena". Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa. Vol. 36.
- ^ Kiso, Andrea (2012), "Tense and Aspect in Chichewa, Citumbuka, and Cisena". Ph.D. Thesis. Stockholm University.
- ^ Ngunga, Armindo; Faquir, Osvaldo G. (2012). Padronização da Ortografia de Línguas Moçambicanas: Relatório do III Seminário. Maputo.
- ^ Kishindo, Pascal J.; Lipenga, Allan L. (2007). Parlons Cisena: langue et culture du Mozambique. Paris: L'Harmattan.
