| Luvale | |
|---|---|
| Chiluvale | |
| Native to | Angola,Zambia |
| Ethnicity | Lovale |
Native speakers | 640,000 (2001–2010)[1] |
| Latin (Luvale alphabet) Luvale Braille | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lue |
| Glottolog | luva1239 |
K.14[2] | |
Luvale (also spelt Chiluvale, Lovale, Lubale, Luena, Lwena) is aBantu language spoken by theLovale people ofAngola andZambia. It is recognized as a regional language for educational and administrative purposes in Zambia, where about 168,000 people speak it as of 2006. Luvale uses a modified form of theLatin alphabet in its written form.[3]
Luvale is closely related toChokwe.
It contains manyloanwords fromPortuguese from colonial contact during 20th century,[4] such as:
| Luvale | Portuguese | English |
|---|---|---|
| xikata | escada | ladder |
| xikitelu | mosquitero | mosquito net |
| ngatwe | gato | cat |
| mbalili | barril | powder keg (lit. barrel) |
| kaluwaxa | carro | bicycle |
| semana | semana | week |
Most verbs begin with "ku" in the infinitive form. In a modern dictionary, verbs are listed without the "ku" prefix, unlike in older dictionaries.
| Verb | Without Prefix | English infinitive |
|---|---|---|
| kutonga | tonga | to sew |
| kwimba | imba | to sing |
| kwehuka | ehuka | to step aside |
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | |
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮdʒ | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | |||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
Consonants may also occur as labialized [ʷ] or palatalized [ʲ].
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Close-mid | e eː | o oː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | |
| Open | a aː |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)| National | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
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