Haya language

Last updated
Haya
Luhaya, Oruhaya
Region Tanzania
Ethnicity Haya people
Native speakers
1.3 million (2006) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 hay
Glottolog haya1250
JE.22 [2]

Haya (Oruhaya) is a Bantu language spoken by the Haya people of Tanzania, in the south and southwest coast of Lake Victoria. In 1991, the population of Haya speakers was estimated at 1,200,000 people . Its closest relative is the Nyambo language and it is also closely related to the languages of southwest Uganda such as Nkore-Kiga, Rutooro and Runyoro which all form a group called Rutara.

Contents

Maho (2009) classifies JE221 Rashi as closest to Haya. [2] It has no ISO code, but is covered by the ISO 639-3 code hay.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive/
Affricate
voiceless p t t͡ʃ k
voiced b d d͡ʒ ɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced z
Approximant l j w

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

When a high vowel /i,u/ precedes a non-high vowel, it is realized as an approximant sound [j,w].

Tones

Two tones are present in Haya; high /v́/ and low /v̀/. [3]

Grammar

Tense

Haya has nine tenses. These are the present progressive, the present habitual, the past habitual and the perfect, alongside two future tenses and three past tenses. The future tense F2 refers to the distant future whilst F1 refers to the near future. P1 refers to the most recent past - events that have occurred earlier in the day, P2 refers to events that happened yesterday and P3, the most distant past, refers to events that happened before yesterday. [3]

See also

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References

  1. Haya at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. 1 2 Byarushengo, Ernest R.; Duranti, Alessandro; Hyman, Larry M. (1977). Haya Grammatical Structure. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 6: Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California. pp. 3–7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)