Rangi language

For the Lango people, see Lango people.
Rangi
Kɨlaangi
Native toTanzania
EthnicityRangi
Native speakers
410,000 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3lag
Glottologlang1320
F.33[2]
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Rangi or Langi (native name: Kɨlaangi[3]) is a Bantu language spoken by the Rangi people of Kondoa District in the Dodoma Region of Central Tanzania. Whilst the language is known as Rangi in English and Kirangi in the dominant Swahili spoken throughout the African Great Lakes, the self-referent term is Kilaangi.

Estimates at the number of Rangi-speakers range from 270,000[4] to 410,000 speakers.[5] Rangi is the largest linguistic group in the Babati-Kondoa region.

Two main varieties of Rangi are identified - that spoken in the Rangi Highlands (known in Swahili as Irangi ya Juu) and that of the Lowlands (Irangi ya Chini). Despite differences, these varieties are mutually intelligible. However, some dialectal variation is also found between the varieties spoken in the main town of Kondoa, as well as in the surrounding villages of Bereko, Bukulu, Isabe, Humai, Kwadinu, Kolo, Choka, Gubali, Nkuku, Bicha, Kingale, Kelema, Paranga, Kidoka, Haubi and Mondo.

  1. ^ Rangi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ Stegen, Oliver (2011). In quest of a vernacular writing style for the Rangi of Tanzania: Assumptions, processes, challenges (PDF). University of Edinburgh.
  4. ^ Bergman et al.2007
  5. ^ Grimes 2005