| Gweno | |
|---|---|
| Kigweno | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Region | North Pare Mountains, Kilimanjaro Region |
| Ethnicity | 2,500 (no date)[1] |
Native speakers | (older adults)[1] |
| Unwritten | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gwe |
| Glottolog | gwen1239 |
E.65[2] | |
| ELP | Gweno |
Gweno (kighonu, to its inhabitants) is aBantu language spoken in theNorth Pare Mountains in theKilimanjaro Region ofTanzania. The people known as the Gweno (or more properlyAsu[3]) are aChaga ethnic and linguistic group. Since the Chaga people areBantu speakers, the adopted language contains dialects similar to that of the Kenyan languageKamba. Gweno shares about 54% to 56% of its vocabulary with other Chaga dialects and 46% with Taita dialects. However, a large percentage of its vocabulary is not seen in the other dialects.[4] Also at the start of the 11th century, the Chaga people descended and migrated from the Bantu group in which they migrated to the foothills of mount Kilimanjaro. The Gweno language is today spoken mostly by older adults, with younger generations having shifted toAsu andSwahili.[1]Ethnologue considers Gweno to be moribund;[1] the language is not being passed down because children have not been exposed to Gweno since the 1970s.[4] The generational shift from Gweno to either Asu or Swahili has certainly created shifts in dialect, however Gweno speakers do not see this as a threat.[3]
