Language/Kalanga
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Welcome to the Kalanga learning page!
You will find below many free resources to learn and practice this language.
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Facts about Kalanga[edit | edit source]
Kalanga is a Bantu language, most closely related to Nambya in northwestern Zimbabwe and the Shona languages in central and eastern Zimbabwe. Kalanga shares about 75% of its core vocabulary with the Shona literary standard, but the languages are not mutually intelligible. The Kalanga language comes under heavy social pressure from Tswana in Botswana and Ndebele in Zimbabwe and often borrows words from these languages, as well as English.
The Kalanga language has 2 main varieties: TjiKalanga, spoken by approximately 500,000 people in southwestern Zimbabwe, and Ikalanga spoken by 150,000 people in northeastern Botswana, as well as smaller numbers in the Diaspora. Dialects include:
- Lilima (Botswana)
- Nyai
- Kalanga from the Plumtree region
- Language code (ISO 639-3):
kck - Other names for "Kalanga":
Chikalanga, Ikalanga, Kalagan, Kalaka, Sekalaka, Sekalaña, Tjikalanga, Bakaa, Kalana, Kanana, Makalaka, Wakalanga, Western Shona - The Kalanga language is spoken in:
Zimbabwe
Online resources:[edit | edit source]
- Dictionary by Joyce Mathangwane
- List of 1100 Kalanga verbs
- Bibliography of Kalanga linguistics
- Bibliography of publications written in Kalanga
- Extract from Ntando Dumani’s play titled Mihodzi Yebun’wa.