Kwanyama or Cuanhama is a national language of Angola and Namibia. It is a standardized dialect of the Ovambo language, and is mutually intelligible with Oshindonga, 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 name Ombibeli by the South African Bible Society. Jehovah's Witnesses released the modern translation of the new testament, the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in Kwanyama in 2019, both printed and electronic online version.
Phonology
Consonants| 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.
Vowels| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Tones
Kwanyama has two tones : high and low.
Grammar
Verbs
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 auxiliary ka after the nonpast subject concord.
Kwanyama subject concords| 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 prefix ha- before the verb stem (ex. okwiimba 'to sing' -> okuhaimba 'to not sing').3
Bibliography
- Crane, Thera; Lindgren-Streicher, Karl; Wingo, Andy (2004). Hai ti! A Beginner's Guide to Oshikwanyama (PDF).
- Halme, Riikka (2004). A Tonal Grammar of Kwanyama. pp. 12-18.
- Zimmerman, W.; Hasheela, P. (1998). Oshikwanyama Grammar. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan.
Further reading
- Turvey, B. H. C. (1977) Kwanyama-English Dictionary; compiled by B. H. C. Turvey; edited by W. Zimmermann and G. B. Taapopi. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press ISBN 0854943153 (based on the work compiled by George Tobias & Basil Henry Capes Turvey, 1954)
External links
- Language map of Namibia
- Grammar and vocabulary (in Spanish)
- PanAfrican L10n page on Kwanyama
- Omalinjongameno Ōngeleka. (Services of the Church in Kwanyama Authorised for Use in the Diocese of Damaraland, 1957) digitized by Richard Mammana 2015
References
Ombibeli, 1974, front page ↩
"Jehovah's Witnesses Release the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in Kwanyama". Jw.org. 20 August 2019. https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/south-africa/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Release-the-New-World-Translation-of-the-Christian-Greek-Scriptures-in-Kwanyama/ ↩
A Beginners Guide to Oshikwanyama (PDF). Peace Corps. https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/PeaceCorps/Kwanyama/haiti.pdf ↩