Sambaa or Shambaa or Shambala is a Bantu language of Tanzania.
| Sambaa | |
|---|---|
| kisambaa | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Shambaa |
Native speakers | 660,000 (2001)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ksb |
| Glottolog | sham1280 |
G.23[2] | |
Overview
editSambaa, also Kisambaa, (ki)Shambaa, (ki)Shambala is spoken by the Shambaa in the Usambara mountains in the Lushoto District and Muheza District, Tanga Region, of northern Tanzania. Some dialectal variation exists between the language as spoken in the area around Lushoto and the areas around Mlalo and Mtae, possibly also between the Shambaa of the Western Usambara Mountains and the Eastern Usambara Mountains.
Phonology
editVowels
editFive vowels are noted as [i, ɛ, a, ɔ, u].
Consonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| vl. prenasal | ᵐ̥p | ⁿ̥t | ᵑ̊k | |||
| vd. prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |
| voiced | v | z | ɣ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
The diacritics within prenasal voiceless plosives are devoiced as [ᵐ̥ ⁿ̥ ᵑ̊].[3]
References
edit- ^ Sambaa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Riedel, Kristina (2009). The syntax of object marking in Sambaa: A comparative Bantu perspective. University of Leiden.
External links
edit
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