Kwanyama

Kwanyama
Oshikwanyama
Native to	Angola and Namibia
Region	Cunene Province (Angola), Ovamboland (Namibia)
Native speakers	1,003,783 in Angola (2024); 250,000 in Namibia (2006)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Kavango–Southwest Southwest Bantu Ovambo Kwanyama
Language codes
ISO 639-1	kj
ISO 639-2	kua
ISO 639-3	kua
Glottolog	kuan1247
Guthrie code	R.21
ELP
Linguasphere	99-AUR-la

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').

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 (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