Chewa (also known as Nyanja , / ˈ n j æ n dʒ ə / ) is a Bantu language spoken in Malawi and a recognised minority in Zambia and Mozambique . The noun class prefix chi- is used for languages, so the language is usually called Chichewa and Chinyanja . In Malawi, the name was officially changed from Chinyanja to Chichewa in 1968 at the insistence of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda (himself of the Chewa people ), and this is still the name most commonly used in Malawi today. In Zambia, the language is generally known as Nyanja or Cinyanja/Chinyanja '(language) of the lake' (referring to Lake Malawi ).
49-597: Chewa belongs to the same language group ( Guthrie Zone N ) as Tumbuka , Sena and Nsenga . Throughout the history of Malawi, only Chewa and Tumbuka have at one time been the primary dominant national languages used by government officials and in school curricula. However, the Tumbuka language suffered a lot during the rule of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, since in 1968 as a result of his one-nation, one-language policy it lost its status as an official language in Malawi. As
98-576: A book called Polyglotta Africana in 1854. Among other slaves was one Mateke, who spoke what he calls "Maravi". Mateke's language is clearly an early form of Nyanja, but in a southern dialect. For example, the modern Chichewa phrase zaka ziwiri 'two years' was dzaka dziŵiri in Mateke's speech, whereas for Johannes Rebmann's informant Salimini, who came from the Lilongwe region, it was bzaka bziŵiri . The same dialect difference survives today in
147-417: A cluster analysis is as follows: Consonants in parentheses are marginal or found mainly in loanwords. The lateral is an approximant [l] word-initially and a flap [𝼈] medially. If the more complex syllable onsets are analyzed as single consonants, the inventory is as follows: The spelling used here is that introduced in 1973, which is the one generally in use in the Malawi at the present time, replacing
196-578: A further 4,000 inhabitants. The most represented ethnic groups are the Nyanja people (60%) and the Tonga people (25%), followed by smaller groups of Tumbuka , Yao , and Chewa . Their main economic activity is fishing , although agriculture (mainly rice and cassava ) is also represented. The town of Mbamba hosts a busy market. It is also the site of the Anglican Cathedral of St Peter, one of
245-455: A genealogical group, cuts across the Guthrie system, and is covered at Northeast Bantu . Other groups with dedicated articles, such as Southern Bantu (Zone S) are also only summarized here, so that the initial listing is only a summary and an index for other articles. Ethnologue made multiple changes to Guthrie in an attempt to make the classification more historically accurate. However,
294-499: A high population density, the natural environment of Likoma island is largely unspoiled. The coast is varied, with rocky slopes, sandy bays and swamps. The interior of the island is mostly covered by grassland , with a large number of baobab trees (of the Adansonia digitata species) and mango trees . Fauna is mostly composed of small reptilians , amphibians , birds and a number of invertebrates , including scorpion spiders . On
343-631: A place called Mphande apparently in the Lilongwe region, also noted some differences between his own dialect, which he called Kikamtunda , the "language of the plateau", and the Kimaravi dialect spoken further south; for example, the Maravi gave the name mombo to the tree which he himself called kamphoni . The first grammar, A Grammar of the Chinyanja language as spoken at Lake Nyasa with Chinyanja–English and English–Chinyanja vocabulary ,
392-667: A result, Tumbuka was removed from the school curriculum, the national radio, and the print media. With the advent of multi-party democracy in 1994, Tumbuka programmes were started again on the radio, but the number of books and other publications in Tumbuka remains low. Chewa is the most widely known language of Malawi , spoken mostly in the Central and Southern Regions of that country. It is also spoken in Eastern Province of Zambia , as well as in Mozambique , especially in
441-552: A rising or falling tone at the end of a yes-no question. Chewa nouns are divided for convenience into a number of classes, which are referred to by the Malawians themselves by names such as "Mu-A-", but by Bantu specialists by numbers such as "1/2", corresponding to the classes in other Bantu languages . Conventionally, they are grouped into pairs of singular and plural. However, irregular pairings are also possible, especially with loanwords; for example, bánki 'bank', which takes
490-447: A word like bambo 'father', even though it is singular, will take plural concords (e.g. bambo a nga akuyenda, ndiku wa ona 'my father is walking, I see him'); they note that to use the singular object-marker -mu- would be 'grossly impolite'. The various prefixes are shown on the table below: There are 17 different noun classes, but because some of them share concords there are in fact only 12 distinct sets of prefixes. In
539-514: Is little agreement as to which Guthrie zones (or which parts of zones) should be in either, the dichotomy is dubious, and they have not been followed here. Accepted genealogical groups within the Guthrie zones are boldfaced. S Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, N Gabon Zone A is sometimes considered Forest Bantu. Guthrie's A60 and part of his A40 have been removed to the Southern Bantoid Mbam languages . Sawabantu may include some of
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#1732772478981588-695: Is located in the north-eastern part of Lake Malawi, 7 km north-west of Cobue , Mozambique. The closest town on the Malawian coast is Chintheche . In 1880 missionaries from the Universities' Mission to Central Africa , founded in response to a plea by David Livingstone , established their headquarters on Likoma Island. Due to the presence of British missionaries, the island was assigned to Malawi rather than Mozambique when national borders in East Africa were established after World War II . Despite
637-555: Is not found in Chewa. Words like lumo 'razor' and lusó 'skill' are considered to belong to class 5/6 (Li-Ma-) and take the concords of that class. Infinitive class: Locative classes: Pronouns, adjectives, and verbs have to show agreement with nouns in Chichewa. This is done by means of prefixes, for example: Class 2 (the plural of class 1) is often used for respect when referring to elders. According to Corbett and Mtenje,
686-567: Is not obligatory in Chewa (for example, ndagula means 'I have bought (them)'). If used, it comes immediately before the verb root, and agrees with the object: The object infix of classes 16, 17, and 18 is usually replaced by a suffix: ndaonámo 'I have seen inside it'. The same infix with verbs with the applicative suffix -ira represents the indirect object, e.g. ndamúlembera 'I have written to him'. Numeral concords are used with numbers -módzi 'one', -wíri 'two', -tátu 'three', -náyi 'four', -sanu 'five', and
735-598: Is now classified as Southern Bantu , specifically Shona . Some K30 languages have been reclassified as Kavango , but Luyana is an independent lineage. K40 Subiya–Totela has been reclassified as Botatwe , apart from Mbukushu, which appears to be an independent lineage. S DR-Congo, C Zambia L20 Songe (apart perhaps from Lwalu ), L30 Luba , L40 Kaonde , and L60 Nkoya have been grouped as Luban. E Zambia, SE DR-Congo Sabi–Bobatwe may be related. Malawi and surrounding areas, C Mozambique, N. Zimbabwe, W. Zambia N10 Manda has been classified as Rufiji–Ruvuma , and
784-599: Is provided by the MV ; Ilala steamer boat that circumnavigates Lake Malawi, stopping over at all the main settlements on the coast and the islands. In addition, The MV Chambo links the island with the town of Nkhata Bay on the west side of the lake once a week. Smaller boats (including dhows ) cross the strait between Likoma and Chizumulu, and also between Likoma and Cobue in Mozambique. Both goods and people are transported through these routes. As Likoma
833-589: Is sometimes considered Forest Bantu. B10–30 may belong together as Kele–Tsogo , B40 with Kongo–Yaka (H), and B50–70 with H24 Songo as Teke–Mbede . NW DR-Congo, N Congo Zone C is sometimes considered Forest Bantu, sometimes Savanna Bantu. There are proposals for three larger clades, Mboshi–Buja covering C10–20 and C37+41, and Bangi–Tetela covering C30 with C50–80 (Motingea 1996), and C40a together with D20–30 in Boan . NE DR-Congo D10, D30, and some of D20 and D40 are sometimes considered Forest Bantu,
882-603: Is the larger of two islands in Lake Malawi , in East Africa , the smaller being the nearby Chizumulu . Likoma and Chizumulu both belong to Malawi, and together they make up the Likoma District . Although both islands lie just a few kilometres from Mozambique , and are entirely surrounded by Mozambican territorial waters , they are both exclaves of Malawi . The island has an overall area of 18 km , and
931-457: Is the original list from Guthrie (1948), with all numerical assignments, as updated by Guthrie himself (1971) and J.F. Maho (2009). The groups are geographic, and do not necessarily imply a relationship between the languages within them. Words in parentheses are added for disambiguation. Numbers in brackets are changes made in Maho (2009); languages in brackets were added by Maho (2009). Languages of
980-498: Is thus widespread. Likoma has no paved roads, and there are very few motor vehicles . Electricity is provided by a generator and a solar bank. This affords the island 24 hour electricity, with the exception of 1-5 minutes at around 10 pm, while they switch the power source. There is a small telephone network on the island, although telephones themselves are quite rare. Likoma has a tarred airstrip and can be reached by plane from Lilongwe . The island's main mode of transportation
1029-640: The Buku Lopatulika ndilo Mau a Mulungu , was made in a more standard Central Region dialect about 1900–1922 by missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Mission and Church of Scotland with the help of some Malawians. This has recently (2016) been reissued in a revised and slightly modernised version. Another early grammar, concentrating on the Kasungu dialect of the language, was Mark Hanna Watkins ' A Grammar of Chichewa (1937). This book,
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#17327724789811078-481: The Chinyanja Orthography Rules of 1931. Notes on the consonants Like most other Bantu languages, Chewa is a tonal language; that is to say, the pitch of the syllables (high or low) plays an important role in it. Tone is used in various ways in the language. First of all, each word has its own tonal pattern, for example: Usually there is only one high tone in a word (generally on one of
1127-533: The Great Lakes . The list is first summarized, with links to articles on accepted groups of Bantu languages (bold decade headings). Following that is the complete 1948 list, as updated by Guthrie in 1971 and by J. F. Maho in 2009. The list below reflects Guthrie as updated by Maho (2009). Not included in detail are the Northeast Bantu languages characterized by Dahl's Law , which is thought to be
1176-564: The A10 languages apart from Manenguba, whereas Bube may belong in Mbam. Southern Bantoid Jarawan was assigned to Zone A by Gerhardt (1982) and Blench (ms 2006, 2011), specifically to A60, within Mbam. According to several scholars, including Blench, there can be no coherent concept of Bantu as long as many of the Zone A and perhaps Zone B languages are included. S Gabon, W Congo, W DR-Congo Zone B
1225-641: The Chambwe stream (not far south of the present border between Mozambique and Zambia), while the Chewa lived north of the Chambwe. Another, more extensive, list of 263 words and phrases of the language was made by the German missionary Sigismund Koelle who, working in Sierra Leone in West Africa, interviewed some 160 former slaves and recorded vocabularies in their languages. He published the results in
1274-502: The N20 Tumbuka 'dialect' Senga as Sabi . NE Mozambique, SE Tanzania P10 Matuumbi and P20 Yao have been classified as Rufiji–Ruvuma , P15 Mbunga as Kilombero , P30 Makhuwa as Southern Bantu . SW Angola, N Namibia, N Botswana R20 Ovambo , R30 Herero , and R10 apart from Umbundu have been grouped together as Southwest Bantu . Yeyi forms its own lineage. South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, S. Mozambique. Following
1323-574: The changes are inconsistent, and Ethnologue has not been followed here, though it is publicly available online. Thus a code may mean different things depending on whether Guthrie or SIL is being followed. (See link below for the SIL code assignments.) The updates in Maho (2009), on the other hand, are designed to be compatible with the original values of the codes. Bantu has long been divided into Northwest Bantu (Forest Bantu) and Central Bantu (Savanna Bantu) branches based upon tone patterns, but there
1372-512: The coast, crocodiles are occasionally seen. The waters around Likoma, as is usual in Lake Malawi, host a number of cichlids ; some species, such as Labidochromis caeruleus likomae , are endemic of the Likoma area. Likoma is densely populated, with about 10,500 inhabitants dispersed in a dozen settlements, the main being the eponymous town of Likoma ; the nearby island of Chizumulu has
1421-846: The concords of class 9 in the singular, has a plural mabánki (class 6). When assigning nouns to a particular class, initially the prefix of the noun is used. Where there is no prefix, or where the prefix is ambiguous, the concords (see below) are used as a guide to the noun class. For example, katúndu 'possessions' is put in class 1, since it takes the class 1 demonstrative uyu 'this'. Some nouns belong to one class only, e.g. tomáto 'tomato(es)' (class 1), mowa 'beer' (class 3), malayá 'shirt(s)' (class 6), udzudzú 'mosquito(es)' (class 14), and do not change between singular and plural. Despite this, such words can still be counted if appropriate: tomáto muwíri 'two tomatoes', mowa uwíri 'two beers', malayá amódzi 'one shirt', udzudzú umódzi 'one mosquito'. Class 11 (Lu-)
1470-596: The examples below, the concords are illustrated mainly with nouns of classes 1 and 2. The shortened forms are more common. Prefixed by a supporting vowel, or by ná 'with' or ndi 'it is', these make the pronouns 'he/she' and 'they': For classes other than classes 1 and 2, a demonstrative is used instead of a freestanding pronoun, for example in class 6 ichi or icho . But forms prefixed by ná- and ndi- such as nácho and ndichó are found. The three pronominal adjectives yénse 'all', yékha 'alone', yémwe 'that same' (or 'who') have
1519-641: The first grammar of any African language to be written by an American, was a work of cooperation between a young black PhD student and young student from Nyasaland studying in Chicago, Hastings Kamuzu Banda , who in 1966 was to become the first President of the Republic of Malawi. This grammar is also remarkable in that it was the first to mark the tones of the words. Modern monographs on aspects of Chichewa grammar include Mtenje (1986), Kanerva (1990), Mchombo (2004) and Downing & Mtenje (2017). In recent years
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1568-502: The language has changed considerably, and a dichotomy has grown between the traditional Chichewa of the villages and the language of city-dwellers. Chewa has five short vowel sounds: a, ɛ, i, ɔ, u; these are written a , e , i , o , u . Long vowels are sometimes found, e.g. áákúlu 'big' (class 2), kufúula 'to shout'. When a word comes at the end of a phrase, its penultimate vowel tends to be lengthened, except for non-Chewa names and words, such as Muthárika or ófesi , in which
1617-583: The largest churches in Africa. As a consequence of poverty and insufficient hospitals, the situation of public health on the island is critical, although malaria (which is widespread in Malawi) has not been reported. Recently , Likoma has been the subject of a scientific study on the epidemiology of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Despite the minimal economic development of Likoma, there are several schools serving all settlements, and literacy
1666-478: The last three syllables), or none. However, in compound words there can be more than one high tone, for example: A second important use of tone is in the verb. Each tense of the verb has its own characteristic tonal pattern (negative tenses usually have a different pattern from positive ones). For example, the present habitual has high tones on the initial syllable and the penultimate, the other syllables being low: The recent past continuous and present continuous, on
1715-528: The major language Sukuma , have been reclassified as Northeast Bantu , with Bungu to Rukwa and Sumbwa as Great Lakes . Mbugwe–Rangi, however, form a valid node by themselves. Isanzu is sometimes classified as F30, as a variety of Nilamba , and sometimes thought to be a remnant of the Bantu languages spoken in the area before F-zone languages arrived. E Tanzania, Comoros The languages of Zone G have been reclassified, G60 Bene–Kinga to Northeast Bantu , and
1764-431: The other branches more specifically to Northeast Coast Bantu languages . NW Angola, W Congo H10 and H40 are sometimes considered Forest Bantu, the others Savanna Bantu. H10 Kunyi , Suundi , and Vili have been split between B40 and L10. H40 is split between H30 and L10. Kongo–Yaka may form a family, perhaps with B40 Sira . Uganda, Rwanda–Burundi, near lakes Kivu & Victoria E Angola, W Zambia K20 Lozi
1813-468: The other hand, have a tone on the third syllable: Tones can also indicate whether a verb is being used in a main clause or in a dependent clause such as a relative clause: A third use of tones in Chewa is to show phrasing and sentence intonation . For example, immediately before a pause in the middle of a sentence the speaker's voice tends to rise up; this rise is referred to as a boundary tone . Other intonational tones are sometimes heard, for example
1862-537: The others Savanna Bantu. Most of D40–60 has been moved to Great Lakes Bantu languages . Lengola, Bodo, and Nyali may belong together as Lebonya , and Beeke in Boan . Kenya, apart from Swahili The languages of Zone E have been reassigned: E10–E40 to Great Lakes Bantu languages ; E50 Kikuyu–Kamba (Central Kenya Bantu) and E60 Chaga–Taita to Northeast Bantu ; E70 Nyika to Northeast Bantu, mostly in Sabaki . W & C Tanzania. Much of F20 and F30, including
1911-417: The penultimate vowel always remains short. The added 'u' or 'i' in borrowed words such as láputopu 'laptop' or íntaneti 'internet' tends to be very short. Vowels are generally lengthened in the penultimate syllable of a prosodic phrase. Chewa consonants can be simple (directly preceding a vowel) or may be followed by w or y : In the orthography, the place of by is taken by the affricate bz ,
1960-436: The place of gy is taken by j , and that of sy by sh . Voiced and aspirated consonants, as well as [f] and [s], can also be preceded by a homorganic nasal: It is debated whether these are consonant clusters /NC/, /Cy/ and /Cw/ , or whether Chichewa has prenasalized , palatalized and labialized consonants /ᴺC/, /Cʲ/, /Cʷ/ . The most straightforward analysis is that they are clusters. The consonant inventory under
2009-402: The proposed Zone J are included among zones D and E. §: These languages do not have separate articles, though they might warrant them. Besides the languages added within the existing framework above, Maho appends several creoles, pidgins, and mixed languages: §: These languages did not have separate articles at the last review by a Misplaced Pages editor. Likoma Island Likoma Island
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2058-645: The provinces of Tete and Niassa . It was one of the 55 languages featured on the Voyager spacecraft . The Chewa were a branch of the Maravi people who lived in the Eastern Province of Zambia and in northern Mozambique as far south as the River Zambezi from the 16th century or earlier. The name "Chewa" (in the form Chévas ) was first recorded by António Gamitto , who at the age of 26 in 1831
2107-403: The same pronominal concords yé- and (w)ó- , this time as prefixes: In classes 2 and 6, ó- often becomes wó- (e.g. wónse for ónse etc.). The commonly used word álíyensé 'every' is compounded from the verb áli 'who is' and yénse 'all'. Both parts of the word have concords: As with other Bantu languages , all Chewa verbs have a prefix which agrees with
2156-428: The standard for identifying Bantu languages; it was a practical way to distinguish many ambiguously named languages before the introduction of ISO 639-3 coding, and it continues to be widely used. Only Guthrie's Zone S is (sometimes) considered to be a genealogical group. Since Guthrie's time a Zone J (made of languages formerly classified in groups D and E) has been set up as another possible genealogical group bordering
2205-418: The subject of the verb. In modern Chewa, the class 2 prefix (formerly ŵa- ) has become a- , identical with the prefix of class 1: The perfect tense ( wapita 'he/she has gone', apita 'they have gone') has different subject prefixes from the other tenses (see below). The relative pronoun améne 'who' and demonstrative améneyo use the same prefixes as a verb: The use of an object infix
2254-674: The word dzala or bzala '(to) plant'. Apart from the few words recorded by Gamitto and Koelle, the first extensive record of the Chewa language was made by Johannes Rebmann in his Dictionary of the Kiniassa Language , published in 1877 but written in 1853–4. Rebmann was a missionary living near Mombasa in Kenya, and he obtained his information from a Malawian slave, known by the Swahili name Salimini, who had been captured in Malawi some ten years earlier. Salimini, who came from
2303-494: The words -ngáti? 'how many', -ngápo 'several': Guthrie classification of Bantu languages#Zone N The 250 or so "Narrow Bantu languages " are conventionally divided up into geographic zones first proposed by Malcolm Guthrie (1967–1971). These were assigned letters A–S and divided into decades (groups A10, A20, etc.); individual languages were assigned unit numbers (A11, A12, etc.), and dialects further subdivided (A11a, A11b, etc.). This coding system has become
2352-514: Was appointed as second-in-command of an expedition from Tete to the court of King Kazembe in what became Zambia. His route took him through the country of King Undi west of the Dzalanyama mountains, across a corner of present-day Malawi and on into Zambia. Later he wrote an account including some ethnographic and linguistic notes and vocabularies. According to Gamitto, the Malawi or Maravi people ( Maraves ) were those ruled by King Undi south of
2401-717: Was written by Alexander Riddel in 1880. Further early grammars and vocabularies include A grammar of Chinyanja, a language spoken in British Central Africa, on and near the shores of Lake Nyasa by George Henry (1891) and M.E. Woodward's A vocabulary of English–Chinyanja and Chinyanja–English: as spoken at Likoma, Lake Nyasa (1895). The whole Bible was translated into the Likoma Island dialect of Nyanja by William Percival Johnson and published as Chikalakala choyera: ndicho Malangano ya Kale ndi Malangano ya Chapano in 1912. Another Bible translation, known as
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