Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
However, these differences do not continually recur. One has to memorize such differences as "-anga" in Kinyarwanda in contrast to "-anka" in Kirundi (meaning to dislike or hate), because the shift from "g" to "k" is extremely rare, with proof being words like "inka" (cow), "inkono" (pot) and many other words where "nk" is common in both dialects.
Kinyarwanda, [3] Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, [4] is a Bantu language and the national language of Rwanda. [5] It is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is also spoken in adjacent parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Uganda, where the dialect is known as Rufumbira or Urufumbira.
Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language and the national language of Burundi. It is a dialect of Rwanda-Rundi dialect continuum that is also spoken in Rwanda and adjacent parts of Tanzania (in regions close to Kigoma), the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Uganda , as well as in Kenya .
The most prominent grammatical characteristic of Bantu languages is the extensive use of affixes (see Sotho grammar and Ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes). Each noun belongs to a class , and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like grammatical gender in European languages.
On a more personal level, I lived in neighbouring Rwanda for many years, and knew people based in Bujumbura. All commonly referred to the languages of the two countries as "Kinyarwanda" (for Rwanda) and "Kirundi". For example in this English language newspaper: article. I never heard the term "Rundi language" at all, so this is probably ...
In a dialect continuum, neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but differences mount with distance, so that more widely separated varieties may not be mutually intelligible. Intelligibility can be partial, as is the case with Azerbaijani and Turkish , or significant, as is the case with Bulgarian and Macedonian .
Rwanda-Rundi family of languages (including Kinyarwanda, [18] Kirundi, [19] and Ha [20]): 16 noun classes grouped in 10 pairs. Ganda : 10 classes called simply Class I to Class X and containing all sorts of arbitrary groupings but often characterised as people , long objects , animals , miscellaneous objects , large objects and liquids , small ...
Kinyarwanda is a Bantu language, and is mutually intelligible with Kirundi, an official language of Burundi and Ha, a language of western Tanzania; together, these languages form part of the wider dialect continuum known as Rwanda-Rundi. [86]