Kiga (also called Rukiga, Ruchiga, or Chiga) is a Great Lakes Bantu language of the Kiga people (Bakiga). Kiga is a similar and partially mutually intelligible with the Nkore language. It was first written in the second half of the 19th century. Kiga is largely spoken in the ancient Kigezi region which includes about 5 districts, namely Rubanda, Rukiga, Kabale, Kanungu and some parts of Rukungiri. As of 2021, Kiga is spoken natively by about 1.3 million people in Uganda.
| Kiga | |
|---|---|
| Chiga | |
| Orukiga | |
| Native to | Uganda, Rwanda |
| Ethnicity | Bakiga, Twa |
Native speakers | 1.6 million (2002 census)[1] |
Standard forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cgg |
| Glottolog | chig1238 |
JE.14[2] | |
| This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. | |
Kiga is so similar to Nkore (84%–94% lexical similarity[3]) that some argue they are dialects of the same language, called Nkore-KigabyCharles Taylor.[4]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | o | |
| Open | a | ||
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | g | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||
D and P are only used in foreign names and loanwords.
G and K are palatalised before I.
In common with other Bantu languages, Kiga has a noun class system in which prefixes on nouns mark membership of one of the noun genders. Pronouns, adjectives, and verbs reflect the noun gender of the nominal they refer to. Some examples of noun classes:
The sound [l] is not distinctive in Rukiga. The letter "r" is used instead.
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