| Kwanyama | |
|---|---|
| Oshikwanyama | |
| Native to | Namibia andAngola |
| Region | Ovamboland |
Native speakers | (250,000 in Namibia (2006); 420,000 in Angola cited 1993)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | kj |
| ISO 639-2 | kua |
| ISO 639-3 | kua |
| Glottolog | kuan1247 |
R.21[2] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUR-la |
Kwanyama orCuanhama is anational language ofAngola andNamibia. It is a standardized dialect of theOvambo language, and ismutually intelligible withOshindonga, the other Ovambo dialect with a standard written form.
The entire Christian Bible has been translated into Kwanyama and was first published in 1974 under the nameOmbibeli by the South African Bible Society.[3] Jehovah's Witnesses released the modern translation of thenew testament, theNew World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in Kwanyama in 2019,[4] both printed andelectronic online version.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t~t̪ | tʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d~d̪ | dʒ | |||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ⁿdʒ | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | (s) | ʃ | x | h |
| voiced | v | |||||
| Nasal | voiced | m | n | ɲ | ||
| voiceless | m̥ | n̥ | ɲ̊ | ŋ̊ | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
/t/ and /d/ are dentalized when followed by a front vowel /i/. An /s/ sound can only occur in loanwords.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Tones
Kwanyama has two tones : high and low.
Verbs are inflected for two tenses: present and non-present. There is a mandatory subject concord before verbs, indicating person, tense, and negation. Verbs are divided into two categories, active and stative, each of which have different subject concords. The future tense in active verbs is indicated by inserting the auxiliaryka after the nonpast subject concord.
| Active | Stative | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Negation | Past | Nonpast | Person | Negation | Past | Present | Future |
| 1S | + | Onda | Ohandi/Ohai | 1S | + | Onda li ndi | Ondi | Ohandi ka kala ndi |
| - | Inandi | Itandi | - | Kandi li ndi | Kandi/ Nghi | Itandi ka kala ndi | ||
| 2S | + | Owa | Oto | 2S | + | Owa li u | Ou | Oto ka kala u |
| - | Ino | Ito | - | Kwa li u | Ku | Ito ka kala u | ||
| 3S | + | Okwa | Ota | 3S | + | Okwa li e | oku | Ota ka kala e |
| - | Ina | Ita | - | Ka li e | Ke | Ita ka kala e | ||
| 1P | + | Otwa | Ohatu | 1P | + | Otwa li tu | Otu | Ohatu ka kala tu |
| - | Inatu | Itatu | - | Katwa li tu | Katu | Itatu ka kala tu | ||
| 2P | + | Omwa | Otamu | 2P | + | Omwa li mu | Omu | Otamu ka kala mu |
| - | Inamu | Itamu | - | Kamwa li mu | Kamu | Itamu ka kala mu | ||
| 3P | + | Ova | Otaa/Otava | 3P | + | Ova li ve | Ove | Otava ka kala ve |
| - | Inaa/Inava | Itaa/Itava | - | Kava li ve | Kave | Itava ka kala ve | ||
Another way to negate a verb is to add the prefixha- before the verb stem (ex.okwiimba 'to sing' ->okuhaimba 'to not sing').[5]
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