Rangi language

For the Lango people, see Lango people.

Rangi
Kilaangi
Native to	Tanzania
Ethnicity	Rangi
Native speakers	410,000 (2007)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu (Zone F) Mbugwe–Rangi (F.30) Rangi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lag
Glottolog	lang1320
Guthrie code	F.33

Rangi or Langi (there is no distinction between /r/ and /l/; also known as Irangi, Kilaangi, etc.) is a Bantu language of spoken by the Rangi people of Kondoa District in the Dodoma Region of Central Tanzania. Whilst the language is known as Rangi in English and Kirangi in the dominant Swahili spoken throughout the African Great Lakes, the self-referent term is Kilaangi.

Estimates at the number of Rangi-speakers range from 270,000 to 410,000 speakers. Rangi is the largest linguistic group in the Babati-Kondoa region.

Two main varieties of Rangi are identified - that spoken in the Rangi Highlands (known in Swahili as Irangi ya juu) and that of the Lowlands (Irangi ya Chini). Despite differences, these varieties are mutually intelligible. However, some dialectal variation is also found between the varieties spoken in the main town of Kondoa as well as in the predominantly Rangi villages of Haubi, Kolo, Mondo etc.

Grammar

Rangi has 19 noun classes.

Rangi has come to the attention of linguists due to a number of features it exhibits which are unusual for Bantu languages. Included in this is the verb-auxiliary ordering found in two tenses in the languages. This unusual word order is also found in the neighbouring Bantu language Mbugwe spoken in the Babati region.

Phonology

Rangi has a seven-vowel system, with a single low vowel and phonemically contrasting front-back pairs at three heights. The vowels are [a], [ɛ], [i], [ɪ], [ɔ], [u] and [ʊ]. Rangi has phonemic vowel length alternation with a distinction attested between long and short vowels. Rangi also exhibits asymmetric vowel height harmony.