Mwanga language

Namwanga
Ichinamwanga
Native toZambia, Tanzania
EthnicityMwanga people
Native speakers
(230,000 cited 1987– 2010 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Iwa
  • Tambo
Language codes
ISO 639-3mwn
Glottolognyam1275
M.22,26,27[2]

Mwanga, or Namwanga (Nyamwanga), is a Bantu language spoken by the Mwanga people in the Muchinga Province of Zambia[3] (mainly in the districts of Isoka and Nakonde) and in Mbeya Region, Tanzania. The 2010 Zambian census found 140,000 speakers. The current number in Tanzania is unknown; Ethnologue cites a figure from 1987 of 87,000.[1]

There are also some speakers of Namwanga in the north-west part of Chitipa District in northern Malawi.[4]

The Namwanga language is similar to the Mambwe language spoken by the Mambwe people of Mbala and Mpulungu districts and the Lungu people also found in Isoka. Other similar smaller peoples include the Lambyas, the Nyikas and the Wandyas.

  1. ^ a b Namwanga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ Lee S. Bickmore (2000). "Downstep and fusion in Namwanga". Cambridge Journals (Cambridge University Press). Retrieved 2007-02-24.
  4. ^ University of Malawi Language Mapping Survey (2006), p. 29.