Ndali language

Ndali
Chindali
Native to	Tanzania, Malawi
Ethnicity	Ndali
Native speakers	(220,000 cited 1987–2003) [1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Rukwa Rungwe Ndali
Writing system	Latin script Mwangwego script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ndh
Glottolog	ndal1241
Guthrie code	M.301 [2]

Ndali, or Chindali, is a Bantu language spoken in southern Tanzania by 480,000 people and in northern Malawi by 70,000 (2003).

Sukwa, or Chisukwa, spoken in the Misuku Hills of northern Malawi, is closely related to Ndali, and both languages are fairly close to Lambya. ^[3]

The examples below come in the order Lambya, Ndali, Sukwa, showing the similarity of vocabulary: ^[4]

• Person = umunthu, umundu, umundu
• Grasshopper = imphanzi, imbashi, imbasi
• Scorpion = kalizga, kalisha, kalisya
• Maize = ivilombe, ifilombe, ifilombe
• Dog = imbwa, ukabwa, ukabwa
• Bird = chiyuni, kayuni, kayuni
• Snail = inkhozo, ingofu, ingofo

Further reading

• Botne, R. (2008). Grammatical Sketch of Chindali: Malawian Variety. Darby: Diane.
• Botne, R. and Schaffer, L. (2008). A Chindali and English Dictionary with an Index to ProtoBantu Roots: The Chindali Language of Malawi. Vol 1. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
• Kershner, Tiffany (2001). "Imperfectivity in Chisukwa" in Explorations in African Linguistics: From Lamso to Sesotho, eds. Robert Botne and Rose Vondrasek, Bloomington: Indiana University Working Papers in Linguistics, pp. 37–52.
• Mtenje, Atikonda (2016). A comparative analysis of the Phonology and Morpho-syntax of Cisukwa, Cindali and Cilambya. (University of Cape Town PhD thesis)
• Swilla, Imani N. (1998). Tenses in Chindali. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere (AAP) 54. 95–125.

References

1. Ndali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
3. "The University of Malawi Language Mapping Survey for Northern Malawi (2006), p. 16" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
4. The University of Malawi Language Mapping Survey for Northern Malawi (2006) Archived 2021-04-13 at the Wayback Machine , pp. 70–71.

External links

• Language Mapping Survey for Northern Malawi Archived 2021-04-13 at the Wayback Machine . University of Malawi Centre for Language Studies, 2006. Contains comparative vocabulary and a short text (the Tortoise and the Hare) in Chindali and other languages.
• Language Map of Northern Malawi Archived 2021-04-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Paper by Martin Walsh and Imani Swilla on South-West Tanzanian languages (2002) Archived 2018-05-30 at the Wayback Machine