Tumbuku is the language of the Bantu family , common to the Nightshade , in some places of Malawi , Zambia and Tanzania . The local language name is chiTumbuka, where 'chi' means "language", like the prefix 'ki' in the word kiSwahili (local name Swahili) or 'se' in the name of the language seTswana (setswana).
| Tumbuku | |
|---|---|
| Self name | chiTumbuka |
| Country | Malawi , Zambia , Tanzania |
| Regions | east africa |
| Regulatory Organization | not |
| Total number of speakers | OK. 2 million (1998) |
| Classification | |
| Category | African languages |
Nigero-Congolese Macro family of the Benue-Congolese family
| |
| Writing | Latin |
| Language codes | |
| GOST 7.75–97 | tum 692 |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | tum |
| ISO 639-3 | tum |
| Ethnologue | |
| Linguasphere | |
| Guthrie | |
| Ietf | |
| Glottolog | |
The number of carriers, according to The World Almanac ( 1998 ), is about 2 million.
The dialects of the thumbuka language, common in the city (“urban thumbs”, containing many borrowings from Chicheva / Nyanj ) and in rural areas (“rural thumbs”), differ significantly from each other. There is also a “linguistically pure” form of the tongue of the thumbuku, which the local population calls the “true thumbus”.
Writing
Writing - based on the Latin alphabet . The alphabet has 28 letters, including 3 digraphs and 1 trigraph .
| A a | B b | C c | Ch ch | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | M m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| / a / | / b / | / k / | / t͡ʃ / | / d / | / e / | / f / | / g / | / h / | / i / | / d͡ʒ / | / k / | / l / | / m / |
| N n | Ng ng | Nkh nkh | O o | P p | Ph ph | R r | S s | T t | U u | V v | W w | Y y | Z z |
| / n / | / ŋ / | / ŋʰ / | / o / | / p / | / pʰ / | / r / | / s / | / t / | / u / | / v / | / w / | / j / | / z / |
Wikipedia in the language of the cabinet
There is a Wikipedia section in the thumbuka language (“ Wikipedia in the thumbuka language ”). As of 19:34 ( UTC ) on August 2, 2019, the section contains 575 articles (total number of pages - 1894); 5105 participants are registered in it, one of them has the status of an administrator; 12 participants have taken any actions in the past 30 days; the total number of edits during the life of the section is 21,556 [1] .
Phonetics
Consonants
| Lip-labial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Postvalveolar | Palatal | Velor | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | nonasp. | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| asp. | ŋʰ | |||||||
| Blasting | nonasp. | p b | t d | k g | ||||
| asp. | pʰ | |||||||
| Affricates | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | |||||||
| Fricatives | f v | s z | h | |||||
| Approximants | j | |||||||
| Shivering | r | |||||||
| Lateral sonants | l | |||||||
Common phrases
Greetings
- Mwawuka uli? = Good morning. (How did you wake up?)
- Tawuka makola. Kwali imwe? = Good morning. How are you? (I woke up well. I didn't know about you?)
- Tawuka makola = I'm fine. (I woke up well).
- muli uli? = How are you?
- nili makola. Kwali imwe? = I'm fine. How are you?
- mwatandala uli? = Good afternoon. (How did you spend the day?)
- natandala makola. Kwali imwe? = Good afternoon. How are you? (I spent the day well. I don't know about you?)
- monile. = more formal greeting.
People
- Ba nyamata = boys
- mu nyamata = boy
- Ba sungwana = girls
- mu sungwana = girl
- ba mwali = girls
- ba mama = mother
- ba dada = father
- ba gogo = grandma
- ba buya = grandmother, also - an appeal to an elderly woman
- ba sekulu = grandfather
Verbs
- Kusebela = play
- Kuseka = laugh
- Kurya = eat
- Kugona = sleep
- Kwenda = walk
- Kuchimbila = run
- Kulemba = write
- Kuchapa = wash, wash
- Kugeza = swim
- Kupika = cook food
- Kulima = dig
- Kupanda = grow
- Kuvina = dance
- Kwimba = sing
Animals
- Fulu = Turtle
- Kalulu = hare
- Chimbwi = Hyena
- njoka = snake
- nkhumba = pig
- n'gombe = cow
- nchebe = dog
- chona / pusi = cat
- mbelele = sheep
- nkalamu = lion
- mbuzi = goat
Notes
- ↑ Wikipedia in thumbuka language: statistics page