Ethnicity Mijikenda, Chonyi | ||
Native speakers 1.9 million (2009 census) Language family Niger–CongoAtlantic–CongoBenue–CongoBantoidBantuNortheast Coast BantuSabakiMijikenda ISO 639-3 Variously:coh – Chonyidig – Digodug – Durumanyf – Giryamaseg – 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:
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