Kimbundu

Kimbundu
North Mbundu
Native toAngola
RegionLuanda Province, Bengo Province, Malanje Province
EthnicityAmbundu
Native speakers
1.7 million (2015)[1]
Dialects
  • Kimbundu proper (Ngola)
  • Mbamba (Njinga)
Official status
Official language in
 Angola ("National language")
Language codes
ISO 639-2kmb
ISO 639-3kmb
Glottologkimb1241
H.21[2]
A Kimbundu speaker, recorded in Angola.

Kimbundu, a Bantu language which has sometimes been called Mbundu[3] or North Mbundu (to distinguish it from Umbundu, sometimes called South Mbundu),[4] is the second-most-widely-spoken Bantu language in Angola.

Its speakers are concentrated in the north-west of the country, notably in the Luanda, Bengo, Malanje and the Cuanza Norte provinces. It is spoken by the Ambundu.[5]

Northern Mbundu
PersonMumbundu
PeopleAmbundu or Akwambundu
LanguageKimbundu
CountryNdongo and Matamba
  1. ^ Kimbundu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ A language name 'mbundu' was used by Guthrie in his 1948 classification, for his group R10 (the language is Umbundu, the Ovimbundu's language. Kimbundu is found as Ndongo-H21). This has become obsolete: In his 1971 classification, the group H20 is called the Kimbundu group, and the R10 group is called Umbundu group. See: M. Guthrie, The Classification of the Bantu Languages (OUP, 1948), and M. Guthrie, Comparative Bantu, Vol 2 (Gregg Press, 1971). Glottolog classifies Kimbundu in a Mbundu group, which is in the Northern Njila group, and Umbundu (the Ovimbundu's language) in the Kunene group, which is itself in the Southern Njila group. see the Glottolog entry
  4. ^ "Narrow Bantu "H"". International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. 2003-01-01. p. 115. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195139778.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-513977-8.
  5. ^ Ambundu is the short form for Akwa Mbundu, where 'Akwa' means 'from', or 'of', or more originally 'originally from' and 'belonging to'. In Kimbundu language, the particle Akwa is shortened into simply A, so that instead of Akwa Mbndu, it becomes Ambundu; similarly the term Akwa Ngola becomes ANgola, then Angola. Ngola was the title for kings in the historic Northern Angolan kingdom, before the Portuguese invasion.