Contents

Sena language

Bantu language of central Mozambique

Sena
Native to	Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe
Ethnicity	Sena
Native speakers	2,869,000 (2017–2020)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Nyasa Sena (N40) ? Sena
Dialects	Rue (Barwe) Podzo
Official status
Official language in	Zimbabwe (as 'Chibarwe')
Recognised minority language in	Malawi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: seh – Mozambiquean Sena swk – Malawian Sena bwg – Barwe
Glottolog	nucl1396  Nuclear Sena mala1475  Malawi Sena barw1243  Barwe
Guthrie code	N.44,441 (N.45,46)[2]
Linguasphere	99-AUS-xi; also 99-AUS-xj (Chi-Rue), 99-AUS-xk (Gombe), 99-AUS-xl (Sangwe), & 99-AUS-xm (Chi-Podzo)

Sena is a Bantu language spoken in the four provinces of central Mozambique (Zambezi valley): Tete, Sofala, Zambezia and Manica. There were an estimated 900,000 native Sena speakers in Mozambique in 1997, with at least 1.5 million if including those who speak it as a second language. It is one of the Nyasa languages.

Sena is spoken in several dialects, of which Rue (also called Barwe or Cibalke) and Podzo are divergent. The Sena of Malawi may be a distinct language. Barwe (Chibarwe) has official recognition in Zimbabwe.

Some remarks on Sena tenses can be found in Funnell (2004),^[3] Barnes & Funnell (2005)^[4] and in Kiso (2012).^[5]

Phonology[edit]

Vowels[edit]

Consonants[edit]

• Labialized sounds /sʷ, zʷ/ can also be heard as retroflex [ʂ, ʐ] among different speakers.^[6]
• /ɗ/ is heard as palatalized [ɗʲ] when followed by a /j/.
• The following sounds occur as prenasalized when after a homorganic nasal; [ᵐp, ᶬf, ᶬp͡f, ⁿt, ⁿs, ᶮt͡ʃ, ᵑk], [ᵐb, ᵐɓ, ᶬv, ᶬb͡v, ⁿd, ⁿɗ, ⁿz, ᶮd͡ʒ, ᵑɡ].^[7]

References[edit]