Kalanga[pronunciation?], or TjiKalanga (in Zimbabwe), is a Bantu language spoken by the Kalanga peopleinBotswana and Zimbabwe. It has an extensive phoneme inventory, which includes palatalised, velarised, aspirated and breathy-voiced consonants,[3] as well as whistled sibilants.
| Kalanga | |
|---|---|
| TjiKalanga/Ikalanga | |
| Native to | Zimbabwe, Botswana |
| Region | SouthWest parts of Zimbabwe Central, North Central and NorthEast Botswana |
| Ethnicity | Kalanga people |
Native speakers | 700,000 in Zimbabwe, 850,000 in Botswana (2012-2015)[1] |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Zimbabwe (both Kalanga and Nambya)
Botswana-recognized language nationally. |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:kck – Kalanganmq – Nambya |
| Glottolog | kala1405 |
S.16[2] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUT-ai |
Kalanga is recognised as an official language by the Zimbabwean Constitution of 2013 and is taught in schools in areas where its speakers predominate. The iKalanga language is closely related to the Nambya, TshiVenda, and KheLobedu languages of Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Linguists place Kalanga (S.16 in Guthrie's classification) and Nambya (in the Hwange region of Zimbabwe) as the western branch of the Shona group (or Shonic, or Shona-Nyai) group of languages, collectively coded as S.10.
Kalanga has a dialectal variation between its Botswana and Zimbabwean varieties and they use slightly different orthographies. Historically, Wentzel mentioned Kalanga proper in the east and Lilima (Tjililima, Humbe) on the west, as well as varieties that are now rare or extinct: Nyai (Rozvi), Lemba (Remba), Lembethu (Rembethu), Twamamba (Xwamamba), Pfumbi, Jaunda (Jawunda, Jahunda), and †Romwe, †Peri, †Talahundra (Talaunda).[2][4]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | alveolar | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t̪ | (tʷ) | k | kʷ | |||||||
| voiced | b | d̪ | d | dʷ | ɡ | ɡʷ | |||||||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡʷ | |||||||||
| aspirated | pʰ | t̪ʰ | tʰ | tʰʷ | kʰ | kʰʷ | |||||||
| breathy | pʱ | tʱ | kʷʱ | ||||||||||
| ejective | (tʼ) | ||||||||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | p͡s | t̪͡s̪ | t͡ʃ | |||||||||
| voiced | b͡z | d̪͡z̪ | d̪͡z̪ʷ | d͡ʒ | b͡ɡ | ||||||||
| prenasal | ⁿd͡ʒ | ||||||||||||
| aspirated | t̪͡s̪ʰ | t̪͡s̪ʰʷ | p͡kʰ | ||||||||||
| breathy | t̪͡s̪ʱ | t͡ʃʱ | |||||||||||
| ejective | t͡ʃʼ | ||||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sʷ | ʃ | ʃʷ | (x) | (xʷ) | |||||
| voiced | v | z | zʷ | ʒ | ɦ | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋʷ | ||||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||||||
| Approximant | lateral | l | |||||||||||
| central | β̞ | j | w | ||||||||||
| breathy | wʱ | ||||||||||||
Kalanga has a typical five-vowel system:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
