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| Kimbundu | |
|---|---|
| North Mbundu | |
| Native to | Angola |
| Region | Luanda Province,Bengo Province,Malanje Province |
| Ethnicity | Ambundu |
Native speakers | 1.7 million (2015)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Angola ("National language") |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | kmb |
| ISO 639-3 | kmb |
| Glottolog | kimb1241 |
H.21[2] | |
Kimbundu, aBantu language which has sometimes been calledMbundu[3] orNorth Mbundu (to distinguish it fromUmbundu, sometimes called South Mbundu),[4] is the second-most-widely-spoken Bantu language inAngola.
Its speakers are concentrated in the north-west of the country, notably in theLuanda,Bengo,Malanje and theCuanza Norte provinces. It is spoken by theAmbundu.[5]
| Northern Mbundu | |
|---|---|
| Person | Mumbundu |
| People | Ambundu or Akwambundu |
| Language | Kimbundu |
| Country | Ndongo and Matamba |
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | plain | p | t | k | ||
| voiced | b | |||||
| prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | (ᵑɡ) | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | |||
| prenasalized | ᶬv | ⁿz | ⁿʒ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | (ɲ) | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
Allophones:
[ɸ] and [β] are allophones of /p/ and /b/, respectively, before /a/ and /u/. The phoneme /l/ is phonetically a flap [ɾ], a voiced plosive [d] or its palatalized version [dʲ] when before the front high vowel /i/. In the same way, the alveolars /s/, /z/ and /n/ are palatalized to [ʃ], [ʒ] and [ɲ], respectively, before [i]. There may be an epenthesis of [g] after /ŋ/ in word medial positions, thus creating a phonetic cluster [ŋg] in a process offortition.
There is long distancenasal harmony, in which /l/ is realized as [n] if the previous morphemes contain /m/ or /n/, but not prenasalized stops.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
There are two contrasting tones: a high (á) and a low tone (à). There is also a downstep in cases oftonal sandhi.
There isvowel harmony in two groups (the high vowels /i, u/ and the mid and low vowels /e, o, a/) that applies only for verbal morphology. In some morphemes, vowels may be consistently deleted to avoid a hiatus.[6]
Consonants[7]
B D F G H J K L M N P S T V W X Y Z
Vowels
A E I O U
There is a small number of words of Kimbundu origin and many of those are indirect loans, borrowed viaAngolan Portuguese.
The examples generally understood by most or all speakers of Angolan and European Portuguese include
bué (pronounced[bwɛ], "very, a lot"),[8]
cota ([ˈkɔtɐ], "old person"[9])
mambo ([ˈmɐ̃bu])
| Personal pronouns | Translation |
|---|---|
| Eme | I |
| Eie / Eye | You |
| Muene | He or she |
| Etu | We |
| Enu | You |
| Ene | They |
Conjugating the verb to be (kuala; alsokukala in Kimbundu) in the present:[10]
| Eme ngala | I am |
| Eie uala / Eye uala / Eie wala / Eye wala | You are |
| Muene uala / Muene wala | He or she is |
| Etu tuala / Etu twala | We are |
| Enu nuala / Enu nwala | You are |
| Ene ala | They are |
Conjugating the verb to have (kuala ni; alsokukala ni in Kimbundu) in the present :
| Eme ngala ni | I have |
| Eie / Eye uala ni | You have |
| Muene uala ni | He or she has |
| Etu tuala ni | We have |
| Enu nuala ni | You have |
| Ene ala ni | They have |
