Hehe language

Last updated
Hehe
Kihehe
Native toTanzania
Ethnicity Hehe
Native speakers
810,000 (2006) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 heh
Glottolog hehe1240
G.62 [2]
Linguasphere 99-AUS-ua

Hehe, also known by its native name Kihehe [kihehe] , is a Bantu language that is spoken by the Hehe people of the Iringa region of Tanzania, lying south of the Great Ruaha River. [3] It was reported to have "Ngoni" features, that is, words of a Zulu-like language introduced when conquered by a Nguni or Zulu-like people in the early 19th century.[ citation needed ] However, other "Ngoni" speeches seem to have lost most of these distinctive features over the past 150-odd years, the language more resembling those of the neighbouring peoples.[ citation needed ] In the 1970s, it was estimated that 190,000 people spoke Hehe. [4] There has been some Bible translation (British and Foreign Bible Society). Hehe may be mutually intelligible with Bena. [3]

Contents

Grammar

Hehe has 15 noun classes, marked with prefixes. [5]

Hehe has a complex tense-aspect-mood system. [6]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɡ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced v ( z )
prenasal ⁿz
Approximant l j w

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bantu languages</span> Large language family spoken in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Bantu languages are a language family of about 600 languages that are spoken by the Bantu peoples of Central, Southern, Eastern and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African English</span> Set of English dialects native to South Africans

South African English is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swazi language</span> Bantu language spoken in Eswatini and South Africa

Swazi or siSwati is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Eswatini and South Africa by the Swati people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 4.7 million including first and second language speakers. The language is taught in Eswatini and some South African schools in Mpumalanga, particularly former KaNgwane areas. Siswati is an official language of Eswatini, and is also one of the twelve official languages of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsonga language</span> Bantu language of the Tsonga people of Southern Africa

Tsonga or, natively, Xitsonga, as an endonym, is a Bantu language spoken by the Tsonga people of South Africa. It is mutually intelligible with Tswa and Ronga and the name "Tsonga" is often used as a cover term for all three, also sometimes referred to as Tswa-Ronga. The Xitsonga language has been standardised for both academic and home use. Tsonga is an official language of the Republic of South Africa, and under the name "Shangani" it is recognised as an official language in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. All Tswa-Ronga languages are recognised in Mozambique. It is not official in Eswatini.

The Nguni languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa by the Nguni people. Nguni languages include Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele, and Swati. The appellation "Nguni" derives from the Nguni cattle type. Ngoni is an older, or a shifted, variant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ndwandwe</span> Bantu Nguni-speaking people

The Ndwandwe are a Bantu Nguni-speaking people who populate sections of southern Africa. They are also known as the Nxumalo's

Chitumbuka is a Bantu language which is spoken in Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania. It is also known as Tumbuka or Citumbuka — the chi- prefix in front of Tumbuka means "in the manner of" and is understood in this case to mean "the language of the Tumbuka people". Chitumbuka belongs to the same language group as other Bantu languages. In Northern Malawi, it is spoken in the districts of Rumphi, Mzuzu, Mzimba, Chitipa, Nkhata-Bay, Monkey Bay and Karonga, as well as in Central Malawi in the districts of Kasungu and Nkhotakota. In Eastern Zambia, Chitumbuka is spoken in the districts of Lumezi, Chasefu, Lundazi and Chama. In Southern Tanzania, it is spoken in Mbeya and Njombe districts that share boundary with Northern Malawi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nafanan language</span> Senufo language of Ghana and Ivory Coast

Nafaanra, also known as Nafanan or Nafana, is a Senufo language spoken in northwest Ghana, along the border with Ivory Coast, east of Bondoukou. It is spoken by approximately 90,000 people. Its speakers call themselves Nafana, but others call them Banda or Mfantera. Like other Senufo languages, Nafaanra is a tonal language. It is somewhat of an outlier in the Senufo language group, with the geographically-closest relatives, the Southern Senufo Tagwana–Djimini languages, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) to the west, on the other side of Comoé National Park.

Central Kilimanjaro, or Central Chaga, is a Bantu language of Tanzania spoken by the Chaga people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Ndebele language</span> Bantu language of Zimbabwe and Botswana

Northern Ndebele, also called Ndebele, isiNdebele saseNyakatho, Zimbabwean Ndebele, Sindebele or North Ndebele, associated with the term Matabele, is a Bantu language spoken by the Northern Ndebele people which belongs to the Nguni group of languages.

Fanagalo, or Fanakalo, is a vernacular or pidgin based primarily on Zulu with input from English and a small amount of Afrikaans. It is used as a lingua franca, mainly in the gold, diamond, coal and copper mining industries in South Africa and to a lesser extent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Although it is used as a second language only, the number of speakers was estimated as "several hundred thousand" in 1975. By the time independence came–or in the case of South Africa, universal suffrage–English had become sufficiently widely spoken and understood that it became the lingua franca, enabling different ethnic groups in the same country to communicate with each other, and Fanagalo use declined.

Phuthi (Síphùthì) is a Nguni Bantu language spoken in southern Lesotho and areas in South Africa adjacent to the same border. The closest substantial living relative of Phuthi is Swati, spoken in Eswatini and the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Although there is no contemporary sociocultural or political contact, Phuthi is linguistically part of a historic dialect continuum with Swati. Phuthi is heavily influenced by the surrounding Sesotho and Xhosa languages, but retains a distinct core of lexicon and grammar not found in either Xhosa or Sesotho, and found only partly in Swati to the north.

Tonga (Chitonga), also known as Zambezi, is a Bantu language primarily spoken by the Tonga people who live mainly in the Southern province, Lusaka province, Central Province and Western province of Zambia, and in northern Zimbabwe, with a few in northwest Mozambique. The language is also spoken by the Iwe, Toka and Leya people among others, as well as many bilingual Zambians and Zimbabweans. In Zambia Tonga is taught in schools as first language in the whole of Southern Province, Lusaka and Central Provinces.

The Tonga are an ethnic group living in northern Malawi on the shores of Lake Malawi in Nkhata Bay and northern part of Nkhotakota. Their language and Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe belong to different branches of the Bantu family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bantu peoples of South Africa</span> Ethnic descriptor in South Africa

Blacks are the majority ethno-racial group in South Africa, belonging to various Bantu ethnic groups. They are descendants of Southern Bantu-speaking peoples who settled in South Africa during the Bantu expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nguni people</span> Southern African Bantu cultural group

The Nguni people are a linguistic cultural group of Bantu cattle herders who migrated from central Africa into Southern Africa, made up of ethnic groups formed from iron age and proto-agrarians, with offshoots in neighboring colonially-created countries in Southern Africa. Swazi people live in both South Africa and Eswatini, while Ndebele people live in both South Africa and Zimbabwe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luba-Katanga language</span> Language

Luba-Katanga, also known as Luba-Shaba and Kiluba, is a Bantu language of Central Africa. It is spoken mostly in the south-east area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Luba people.

Temein, also known as Ron(g)e, is an Eastern Sudanic language spoken by the Temein people of the Nuba Hills in Sudan.

Jacob Ludwig Döhne, from the Berlin Missionary Society, who was responsible for compiling A Zulu-Kafir Dictionary after spending twenty years documenting the language and dialects. He also translated the New Testament into Xhosa and Zulu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jita language</span> Bantu language of Tanzania

Jita is a Bantu language of Tanzania, spoken on the southeastern shore of Lake Victoria/Nyanza and on the island of Ukerewe.

References

  1. Hehe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. 1 2 Dwyer, David J.; Yankee, Everyl (January 1985). African Language Resource Handbook: A Resource Handbook of the Eighty-two Highest Priority African Languages (PDF) (Prepublication ed.). East Lansing: Michigan State University. ED256170.
  4. Voegelin, C. F.; Voegelin, F. M. (1977). "Bantu Proper = Narrow Bantu". Classification and Index of the World's Languages . Elsevier. p. 57. ISBN   0-444-00155-7.
  5. Odden, David (2005). "Doing an Analysis". Introducing Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 177. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511808869.009. ISBN   978-0-521-53404-8.
  6. Mtavangu, Norbert (2008). "Tense and aspect in Ikihehe". Occasional Papers in Linguistics. 3: 34–41.
  7. 1 2 Johnson, Martha B. (2015). A Contribution toward a Kihehe Grammar (Report).