Nambya language

Nambya
Nanzva
Native toZimbabwe, Botswana
EthnicityNambya people
Native speakers
100,000 (2000–2004)[1]
Official status
Official language in
Zimbabwe (both Kalanga and Nambya)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
nmq – Nambya
Glottolognamb1291
ELPNambya

Nambya, or Nanzwa/Nanzva, is a Bantu language spoken by the Nambya people. It is spoken in northwestern Zimbabwe, particularly in the town of Hwange,[2][3] with a few speakers in northeastern Botswana. It is either classified as a dialect of Kalanga or as a closely related language.[4] The Zimbabwean constitution, in particular the Education Act, as amended in 1990, recognises Nambya and Kalanga as separate indigenous languages.[4]

  1. ^ Nambya at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Ndhlovu, Finex (1 January 2009). The Politics of Language and Nation Building in Zimbabwe. Peter Lang. p. 54. ISBN 9783039119424.
  3. ^ Kamwangamalu, Nkonko; Baldauf, Richard B. Jr.; Kaplan, Robert B. (8 April 2016). Language Planning in Africa: The Cameroon, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Routledge. p. 220. ISBN 9781134916887.
  4. ^ a b Kadenge, Maxwell (March 2010). "Some Segmental Phonological Processes Involving Vowels in Nambya: A Preliminary Descriptive Account" (PDF). The Journal of Pan African Studies. 3 (6): 239–252.