| Tumbuka | |
|---|---|
| Chitumbuka | |
| Native to | Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia |
Native speakers | 7 million (2022) |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | tum |
| ISO 639-3 | tum |
| Glottolog | tumb1250 |
N.21[1] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUS-wc (+ chi-Kamanga) incl. varieties 99-AUS-wca...-wcl |
Tumbuka is a Bantu language which is spoken in Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania.[2] It is also known as Chitumbuka or Citumbuka — the chi- prefix in front of Tumbuka means "in the manner of", and is understood in this case to mean "the language of the Tumbuka people". Tumbuka belongs to the same language group (Guthrie Zone N) Chewa and Sena.[3]
Tumbuka-Senga or simply Senga, though customarily considered a separate language, is close enough to be a dialect of Tumbuka. [3]
The World Almanac in 1998 estimated that there were approximately two million Tumbuka speakers, though other sources estimated a much smaller number while others estimated a higher number. The majority of Tumbuka speakers are said to live in Malawi.[2] Tumbuka is the most widely spoken of the languages of Northern Malawi in the Rumphi, Mzuzu, Mzimba, Chitipa, Nkhata-Bay and Karonga districts.[4] In Zambia, Tumbuka is primarily spoken in the Lundazi, Chasefu and Lumezi districts. Its dialect (Senga) is spoken in Chama district and surrunding areas.
There are substantial differences between the form of Tumbuka spoken in urban areas of Malawi (which borrows some words from Swahili and Chewa) and the "village" or "deep" Tumbuka spoken in villages. The Rumphi variant is often regarded as the most "linguistically pure", and is sometimes called "real Tumbuka".[5] The Mzimba dialect has been strongly influenced by Zulu (chiNgoni),[6] even so far as to have clicks in words like chitha [ʇʰitʰa] "urinate", which do not occur in other dialects.
Throughout the history of Malawi, only Tumbuka and Chewa (Nyanja) have at one time or another been the primary dominant language used by government officials. However, the Tumbuka language suffered a lot during the rule of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, since in 1968 as a result of his one-nation, one-language policy it lost its status as an official language in Malawi. As a result, Tumbuka was removed from the school curriculum, the national radio, and the print media.[7] With the advent of multi-party democracy in 1994, Tumbuka programmes were started again on the radio, but the number of books and other publications in Tumbuka remains low.[8]
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ a b Michigan State University African Studies Center information page.
- ^ a b Kiso (2012), pp.21ff.
- ^ University of Malawi (2006) Language Mapping Survey for Northern Malawi.
- ^ Kamwendo (2004), p.282.
- ^ University of Malawi (2006), p.27.
- ^ Kamwendo (2004), p.278.
- ^ See Language Mapping Survey for Northern Malawi (2006), pp.38-40 for a list of publications.