| Kamba | |
|---|---|
| Kikamba | |
| Native to | Kenya,Tanzania |
| Region | Machakos,Kitui,Makueni, andShimba Hills |
| Ethnicity | Akamba |
Native speakers | 4.6 million (2019 census)[1] 600,000L2 speakers |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | kam |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:kam – Kambadhs – Dhaiso (Thaisu) |
| Glottolog | kamb1297 |
E.55–56[2] | |
| ELP | Dhaiso |
Kamba/ˈkæmbə/,[3] orKikamba, is aBantu language spoken by millions ofKamba people, primarily inKenya, as well as thousands of people inUganda,Tanzania, and elsewhere. In Kenya, Kamba is generally spoken in fourcounties:Machakos,Kitui, Makueni, andKwale. The Machakos dialect is considered thestandard variety and has been used in translation. The other major dialect is Kitui.[4]
Kamba has lexical similarities to other Bantu languages such asKikuyu,Meru, andEmbu, of whom together they form the GEMA community.
The SwedishMuseum of World Culture holds field recordings of the Kamba language made by Swedish ethnographerGerhard Lindblom in 1911–12.[5] Lindblom used phonograph cylinders to record songs along with other means of documentation in writing and photography. He also gathered objects, and later presented his work inThe Akamba in British East Africa (1916).
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Close-mid | e eː | o oː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | |
| Open | a aː |
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | (b) | t (d) | k (ɡ) | |||
| Affricate | tʃ (dʒ) | |||||
| Fricative | β | ð | s (z) | |||
| Nasal | m | n̪ | n | ŋ | ||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Approximant | labial | ɥ | w | |||
| central | (ð̞) | j | ||||
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