Kwanyama dialect facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Kwanyama |
|
|---|---|
| Oshikwanyama | |
| Native to | Namibia and Angola |
| Region | Ovamboland |
| Native speakers | (250,000 in Namibia (2006); 420,000 in Angola cited 1993)e18 |
| Language family |
Niger–Congo
|
| 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
| 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.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
See also
In Spanish: Idioma kuanyama para niños
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Kwanyama dialect Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.