Kalanga
TjiKalanga/Ikalanga
Native to	Zimbabwe,Botswana
Region	SouthWest parts of ZimbabweCentral, North Central and NorthEast Botswana
Ethnicity	Kalanga people
Native speakers	700,000 in Zimbabwe, 850,000 in Botswana (2012-2015)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantu Shona group (S.10) Kalanga
Official status
Official language in	Zimbabwe (both Kalanga and Nambya)Botswana-recognized language nationally.
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: kck – Kalanga nmq – Nambya
Glottolog	kala1405
Guthrie code	S.16[2]
Linguasphere	99-AUT-ai

Kalanga^{[pronunciation?]}, orTjiKalanga (in Zimbabwe), is aBantu language spoken by theKalanga people inBotswana andZimbabwe which belongs to theShonic(Shona-Nyai) group of Language. It has an extensive phoneme inventory, which includespalatalised,velarised,aspirated andbreathy-voiced consonants,^[3] as well aswhistled sibilants.

Kalanga is recognized as an official language by the Zimbabwean Constitution of 2013 and is taught in schools in areas where its speakers predominate. The iKalanga language is closely related to theNambya,TshiVenda, andKheLobedu languages of Zimbabwe andSouth Africa.

Linguists place Kalanga (S.16 inGuthrie's classification) andNambya (in theHwange region of Zimbabwe) as the western branch of theShona group (or Shonic, or Shona-Nyai) group of languages, collectively coded as S.10.

Kalanga has a dialectal variation between itsBotswana and Zimbabwean varieties and they use slightly different orthographies. Historically, Wentzel mentioned Kalanga (proper) and Lilima (Tjililima/Humbe) on the west.^[2][4]

TjiLilima is the Kalanga language dialect popularly used in everyday speech as well as in a lot of documentation made and developed in Botswana. The use and rise of this specific dialect was brought on by the population group that uses it. This population group includes people who come from the Southern parts of theTutume district, theTonota district as well as those from the country'sNorth east district. Combined,the people of these districts speak the TjiLilima dialect and refer to themselves as either BaLilima or BaWhumbe. This dialect has also managed to spill into the diaspora communities ofBulilima and Mangwe districts because of the closeness of the two (2) groups of people and communities with each other. The Bulilima-Mangwe area used to be a base for the Tjikalanga proper dialect(Tjindondondo), however the dialect is now facing being overshadowed by the TjiLilima.

This dialect derives its name from the settlement patterns of the language users who(unlike other Bakalanga people) preferred to settle where there are a lot of rivers(gwizi) and therefore adopting the name.The following most popular dialect of theKalanga people is the TjiGwizi (sometimes referred to as TjiDeti). Like the TjiLilima dialect, TjiGwizi was also made popular by its many speakers and users who are found in many villages and towns and also occupy large areas of land in present-day Botswana. This dialect is spoken and used in the northern parts of the Tutume District as well as all over theBoteti area, however there is not a lot of documentation written and produced in this specific dialect.

The third Kalanga language dialect worth noting is the dialect of theBatalaunda people who are also found in Botswana as well as in the country of Zimbabwe. In Botswana their majority population can be found inSerowe & Mahalapye villages where they have been living alongside theNgwato tribe and other tribes for many years. In Zimbabwe this dialect can be found in theMatobo District as well as theGwanda District.TjiTalaunda has striking similarities with both TjiGwizi and TjiLilima despite them being over 200 kilometres away from each other. The Batalaunda pride themselves in being the only Kalanga tribe using a singular totem which is theMoyo (heart).

TheBaNanzwa get their name from the Kalanga word Nanzwa which refers to the direction "North". This basically means that they are the Bakalanga tribe who are found north of all otherBakalanga peoples and tribes. They speak the Nanzwa dialect(sometimes treated as a different language in its own right). The language has slightly different pronunciations from the other dialects because of it mixing with other tribes they stay with. This Kalanga dialect is also spoken in other parts of Zimbabwe particularly theHwange area where a huge number of the Bananzwa reside and have been for over a hundred years. TjiNanzwa is feared to be close to extinction because a very large number of the language users are adopting the three above mentioned dialects.

The last popular Kalanga dialect is the Tjindondondo dialect which is the main dialect of communication amongst the Bakalanga of that area. It is by far the largest, most spoken and most documented of theKalanga language dialects holding a huge presence in both countries. Despite all the other language being used in different areas, Tjindondondo is considered to be more ancient to the others and more original since it has many similarities with all the others and can be understood by all the other speakers of the Kalanga dialects. This dialect is more widely used in theBulilimamangwe districts as well as theTsholotsho area. A lot of work has since been done and made on this dialect and the language has since then been resuscitated in schools in the country ofZimbabwe where it is an official language.

TheKalanga language used to have many other dialects which seem to have gone or are going into disuse because the speakers of those dialects saw it better to adopt the dialects of the popular ones. Such dialects are the Nyai (Rozvi), Lemba (Remba), Lembethu (Rembethu), Twamamba (Xwamamba), Pfumbi, Jaunda (Jawunda, Jahunda), and †Romwe, †Peri.

TheJawunda dialect was about to become extinct, however there are collaborations underway to help resuscitate the dialect to its former status,especially in its native district of Gwanda in Zimbabwe. The natives in partnership with the government are helping the minority dialects get noticed and supported.

• Phonemes/tʰʷ,p͡s,b͡z,t͡ʃʼ/ occur only as marginal phonemes.
• Sounds/tʼ,tʷ,x,xʷ/ are sounds that are borrowed from Tswana.^[3]

Kalanga has a typical five-vowel system:

• Chebanne, A. M.; Rodewald, M. K; Pahlen, K. W. (1995).Ngatikwaleni iKalanga: A Manual for Writing Kalanga as Spoken in Botswana. Gaborone: Botswana Society.ISBN 9991260331.OCLC 42736229.
• Chebanne, Andy; Schmidt, Daniel (2010).Kalanga: Summary Grammar. CASAS Monograph. Vol. 75. Cape Town: CASAS.ISBN 9781920287030.
• Dube, Limukani T. (2021)."Zimbabwe's Kalanga Orthography: The Strengths and Shortcomings of the 2008 Writing System"(PDF).Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics.3 (1):42–51.
• Letsholo, R. (2013)."Object Markers in Ikalanga".Linguistic Discovery.11 (1).doi:10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.436.
• Mathangwane, Joyce T. (1996).Ikalanga Phonetics and Phonology: A Synchronic and Diachronic Study (PhD thesis). Berkeley: University of California.

Kalanga language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Language section of the Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association website
• http://talkingdictionary.swarthmore.edu/kalanga/

• Kalanga
• Shona languages
• Languages of Botswana
• Languages of Zimbabwe

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