Chokwe language

Last updated
Chokwe
Ucôkwe (Wuchokwe)
Native to Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia
Ethnicity Chokwe people
Native speakers
(2.5 million cited 1990–2018) [1]
Official status
Official language in
Flag of Angola.svg  Angola (national language)
Regulated by Instituto de Línguas Nacionais
Language codes
ISO 639-3 cjk
Glottolog chok1245
K.11 [2]
Chokwe
PersonKacôkwe
PeopleTucôkwe
LanguageUcôkwe (Wuchokwe)

Chokwe (also known as Batshokwe, Ciokwe, Kioko, Kiokwe, Quioca, Quioco, Shioko, Tschiokloe or Tshokwe [3] ) is a Bantu language spoken by the Chokwe people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Zambia. It is recognised as a national language of Angola, where half a million people were estimated to have spoken it in 1991; another half a million speakers lived in the Congo in 1990, and some 20,000 in Zambia in 2010. [1] It is used as a lingua franca in eastern Angola.

Contents

Writing system

Angola's Instituto de Línguas Nacionais (National Languages Institute) has established spelling rules for Chokwe with a view to facilitate and promote its use. [4]

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a ~ ɑ

Vowels may also be heard as nasalized when preceding nasal consonants.

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless p t ( c ) k
voiced b d ( ɟ ) g
aspirated
prenasal vd. ᵐb ⁿd ( ᶮɟ ) ᵑɡ
prenasal vl. ᵐp
Affricate voiceless p͡f t͡f t͡ʃ
voiced t͡v d͡ʒ
prenasal ⁿd͡v ⁿd͡ʒ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced v z ʒ
prenasal ⁿz ⁿʒ
Nasal m n ɲ
Approximant lateral l ʎ
plain j w

Affricate sounds /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ⁿd͡ʒ/ may also be pronounced as palatal stops [c, ɟ, ᶮɟ].

Tones

Chokwe has three tones as /v́/, /v̀/, and /v̂/. [5] [6]

Examples

EnglishChokwe
Good Morning

-Response

Menekenu

-Mwane

See youNdo shimbu yikehe
GoodbyeSalenuho
What is your name?Jina lie yena iya?
My name is ____Jina liami ___

[7]

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References

  1. 1 2 Chokwe at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gérard; Bostoen, Koen; Van de Velde, Mark (2019). The Bantu languages (Second ed.). London. ISBN   9781317628682.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. "Ethnologue report for Angola". web.archive.org. 2012-09-23. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  5. Ualhanga, Xavier Chipuleno (2017). Antroponímia na Língua Cokwe (Lunda-Norte)[Anthroponymy in the Cokwe Language (Lunda-Norte)] (Master's thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. hdl: 10362/21952 .
  6. Martins, João Vicente (1990). Elementos de Gramática de Utchokwe[Utchokwe Grammar Elements] (in Portuguese). Lisboa: Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical. pp. 25–32.
  7. Akindipe, Omotola. "Learn Chokwe (Greetings and Introduction)". Learn Chokwe . Archived from the original on 2021-05-09.