Region Copperbelt ISO 639-2 lam | Ethnicity Lamba people | |
Native to Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo Native speakers 200,000 in Zambia (2010 census)
unknown but smaller number in DRC Language family Niger–Congo
Atlantic–Congo
Benue–Congo
Bantoid
Bantu
Sabi
South
Lamba | ||
Lamba is a language found in Zambia and is commonly spoken in the Copperbelt. There are about 210,000 native speakers in the northern parts of Zambia and southern fringes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lamba is also spoken in Lusaka, mainly because many speakers have migrated there for jobs. Lamba is a Bantu language. (In fact, "mu ntu" means "one person" in Lamba and "ba ntu" means "two or more people".) Depending on who does the counting, Zambia has between 42 and 78 local languages besides English – see Languages of Zambia for further details. Some people might say Lamba is a dialect of Bemba. Though the two languages share many words, they are not as close as say Cockney and Haitian Creole are to English or French.
Maho (2009) lists the Lima (Bulima) and Temba varieties as distinct languages.