Mbukushu or Thimbukushu is a Bantu language spoken by 45,000 people along the Kavango East Region in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Botswana, Angola and Zambia.
In 2022 it was selected among a variety of Mother Tongue languages to be taught in Botswana Primary Schools in the year 2023.
Mbukushu is one of several Bantu languages of the Kavango which have click consonants; Mbukushu has three: tenuis c, voiced gc, and nasalized nc, as well as prenasalized ngc, which vary between speakers as dental, palatal, and postalveolar. It also has a nasal glottal approximant.
Common phrase used by Mbukushu; TUYEREKE-:or TU-YE-RE-KE-SHII-(verb)meaning; To improvise or trying in action or speech. This word is commonly used in mbukushu language.
Phonology
Consonants
- Sounds /s, z/ are only heard from loanwords.
- /j/ may also be heard as a palatal fricative [ʝ].
- Click sounds may also range to being alveolar [ᵏǃ, ᶢǃ, ᵑǃᵏ, ᵑǃᶢ] or palatal [ᵏǂ, ᶢǂ, ᵑǂᵏ, ᵑǂᶢ].
Vowels
References
External links
- Mbukushu sound files at UCLA
