Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Mijikenda language

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Native to
  
Kenya, Tanzania

Ethnicity
  
Mijikenda, Chonyi

Region
  
Mombasa and Kwale districts in Kenya; Muheza and Tanga districts in Tanzania

Native speakers
  
1.9 million (2009 census)

Language family
  
Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Northeast Coast Bantu Sabaki Mijikenda

ISO 639-3
  
Variously: coh – Chonyi dig – Digo dug – Duruma nyf – Giryama seg – Segeju

Mijikenda is a Bantu dialect cluster of Kenya, with about 100,000 speakers in Tanzania.

Contents

Varieties

Maho (2009) lists four varieties as distinct languages:

  • North Mijikenda - ("Nyika") consists of several mutually intelligible dialects: Giryama, Kauma, Chonyi, Duruma, Rabai, Jibana, Kambe, Ribe.
  • Digo
  • Segeju
  • Degere (cf. Degere language (Cushitic))

    • Clicks

    Clicks have been reported in ideophones from two dialects of Mijikenda, Digo and Duruma. (It is not known if they occur in the others.) These are tsya! /ʇ̃ǎ/ 'scram!' and /ʇ̃akule/ 'minute'. It is not known if these have any connection with the neighboring Dahalo language.

    References

    Mijikenda language Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA