| Dciriku | |
|---|---|
| Gciriku | |
| Rumanyo | |
| Region | Kavango East |
| Ethnicity | Vagciriku, Vamanyo, Vashambyu |
Native speakers | 82,000 (2004–2018)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | diu |
| Glottolog | diri1252 |
K.331,334 (K.332)[2] | |
 | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Gciriku, orDciriku (Also Diriku, Dirico, Manyo or Rumanyo), is aBantu language spoken by 305,000 people along theKavango River inNamibia,Botswana andAngola. 24,000 people speak Gciriku inAngola, according toEthnologue.[3] It was first known in the west via the Vagciriku, who had migrated from the main Vamanyo area and spoke Rugciriku, a dialect of Rumanyo. The nameGciriku (Dciriku, Diriku) remains common in the literature, but within Namibia the nameRumanyo has been revived.[4] The Mbogedu dialect is extinct; Maho (2009) lists it as a distinct language, and notes that the names 'Manyo' and 'Rumanyo' are inappropriate for it.
It is one of several Bantu languages of the Okavango which haveclick consonants, as in[ǀɛ́ǀˀà] ('bed'),[mùǀûkò] ('flower'), and[kàǀûrù] ('tortoise'). These clicks, of which there are half a dozen (c, gc, ch, and prenasalized nc and nch), are generally all pronounced with adental articulation, but there is broad variation between speakers. They are especially common in place names and in words for features of the landscape, reflecting their sources inKhwe andJu, two so-calledKhoisan languages. Many of the words with clicks in Gciriku, including those in native Bantu vocabulary, are shared withKwangali,Mbukushu, andFwe.[5]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | ɑ |
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