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 | |
---|---|
Native to | Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe |
Ethnicity | Sena |
Native speakers | 2,869,000 (2017–2020)[1] |
Dialects |
|
Official status | |
Official language in | Zimbabwe (as 'Chibarwe') |
Recognised minority language in | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:seh – Mozambiquean Senaswk – Malawian Senabwg – Barwe |
Glottolog | nucl1396 Nuclear Senamala1475 Malawi Senabarw1243 Barwe |
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 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
editVowels
editFront | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | o | |
Open | a |
Consonants
editLabial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | lab. | |||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | ||||
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||
implosive | ɓ | ɗ | (ɗʲ) | |||||
Affricate | voiceless | p͡f | t͡s | p͡s | t͡ʃ | |||
voiced | b͡v | d͡z | b͡z | d͡ʒ | ||||
aspirated | t͡ʃʰ | |||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sʷ | ʃ | h | ||
voiced | v | z | zʷ | ʒ | ||||
Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
Trill | r |
- 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- ^ Mozambiquean Sena at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Malawian Sena at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
Barwe at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) - ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Funnell, Barry J. (2004)."A Contrastive Analysis of Two Varieties of Sena". MA dissertation, University of South Africa; (Introduction)
- ^ Barnes, Lawrie; Funnell, Barry (2005) "Exploring the cross-border standardisation of Chisena". Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa. Vol. 36.
- ^ Kiso, Andrea (2012), "Tense and Aspect in Chichewa, Citumbuka, and Cisena". Ph.D. Thesis. Stockholm University.
- ^ Ngunga, Armindo; Faquir, Osvaldo G. (2012). Padronização da Ortografia de Línguas Moçambicanas: Relatório do III Seminário. Maputo.
- ^ Kishindo, Pascal J.; Lipenga, Allan L. (2007). Parlons Cisena: langue et culture du Mozambique. Paris: L'Harmattan.