Ethnicity Makua | Native speakers 6.6 million (2006) | |
 | ||
Native to Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi Language family Niger–Congo
Atlantic–Congo
Benue–Congo
Southern Bantoid
Bantu
Southern Bantu
Makua
Makhuwa ISO 639-3 Variously:
vmw – Central Makhuwa
mgh – Makhuwa-Meetto
vmk – Makhuwa-Shirima
kzn – Kokola
llb – Lolo
mny – Manyawa
vmr – Marenje
tke – Takwane
xmc – Makhuwa-Marrevone
xsq – Makhuwa-Saka Glottolog maku1279 (Makua–Lomwe; adds Lomwe & Moniga)
chuw1239 (Chuwaboic; adds Chuwabo)
koko1267 (Kokola)
many1259 (Manyawa) | ||
The Makhuwa language, Emakhuwa (also spelled Makua and Macua) is the primary Bantu language of northern Mozambique. It is spoken by 4 million Makua people, who live north of the Zambezi River, particularly in the province of Nampula. It is the most populous indigenous language of Mozambique. The province of Nampula has practically no other ethnic group. It is also spoken in the Congo in the district of Makoua
Contents
Apart from the languages in the same group, eMakhuwa is distinguished from other Bantu languages by the loss of consonant + vowel prefixes in favour of e- - compare epula, "rain", with Tswana pula.
Long and short vowels are used for i, e, a, o, u, which is unusually sparse for a Bantu language:
The consonants are more complex: postalveolar tt and tth exist, both p and ph are used. Both x (English "sh") and h exist while x varies with s. Regionally, there are also θ (the "th" of English "thorn"), ð (the "th" of English "seethe"), z and ng. In eLomwe, for instance, the -tt- of eMakhuwa is represented by a "ch" as in English "church".
Makhuwa is closely related to Lomwe.
Dialects
The names of the dialects vary in different sources. The shibboleth or distinctive variant in the dialects is the treatment of the s:
Maho (2009) lists the following dialects:
Mutual intelligibility between these is limited. Central Makhuwa ("Makhuwa-Makhuwana") is the basis of the standard language. Ethnologue lists Central Makhuwa, Meetto–Ruvuma, Marrevone–Enahara, and Esaka as separate languages, and Chirima as six languages.
The population figures are from Ethnologue for 2006. They tally 3.1 million speakers of Central Makhuwa and 3.5 million of the other varieties, though the Ethnologue article for Central Makhuwa covers Marrevone and Enahara, so these might be double counted.
Reading matter in eMakhuwa
Muluku Onnalavuliha Àn'awe - Ipantte sikosolasiwe sa Biblia ("God speaks to his children" - extracts from the Scriptures for children) Aid to the Church in Need. Edição em Macúa / eMakhuwa) Editorial Verbo Divino, Estella, Navarra, 1997.