Kwanyama

Kwanyama
Oshikwanyama
Native to	Namibia and Angola
Region	Ovamboland
Native speakers	(250,000 in Namibia (2006); 420,000 in Angola cited 1993)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Kavango–Southwest Southwest Bantu Ovambo Kwanyama
Language codes
ISO 639-1	kj
ISO 639-2	kua
ISO 639-3	kua
Glottolog	kuan1247
Guthrie code	R.21
Linguasphere	99-AUR-la

Kwanyama or Cuanhama is a national language of Angola and Namibia. It is a standardized dialect of the Ovambo language, and is mutually intelligible with Oshindonga, the other Ovambo dialect with a standard written form.

The entire Christian Bible has been translated into Kwanyama and was first published in 1974 under the name Ombibeli by the South African Bible Society. Jehovah’s Witnesses released the modern translation of the new testament, the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in Kwanyama in 2019, both printed and electronic online version.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t~t̪	tʃ	k
	voiced	b	d~d̪	dʒ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿdʒ	ᵑɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	(s)	ʃ	x	h
	voiced	v
Nasal	voiced	m	n	ɲ
	voiceless	m̥	n̥	ɲ̊	ŋ̊
Approximant		w	l	j

/t/ and /d/ are dentalized when followed by a front vowel /i/. An /s/ sound can only occur in loanwords.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

Bibliography

• Crane, Thera; Lindgren-Streicher, Karl; Wingo, Andy (2004). Hai ti! A Beginner's Guide to Oshikwanyama (PDF).
• Halme, Riikka (2004). A Tonal Grammar of Kwanyama. pp. 12-18.
• Zimmerman, W.; Hasheela, P. (1998). Oshikwanyama Grammar. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan.

External links

• Language map of Namibia
• Grammar and vocabulary (in Spanish)
• PanAfrican L10n page on Kwanyama
• Omalinjongameno Ōngeleka. (Services of the Church in Kwanyama Authorised for Use in the Diocese of Damaraland, 1957) digitized by Richard Mammana 2015