| Kirundi | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Burundi | |
| Region: | Central Africa | |
| Total speakers: | 4. Burundi (buˈɾundi officially the Republic of Burundi, is a small country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda Central Africa is a core Region of the African Continent often considered to include Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad 6 million | |
| Language family: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Narrow Bantu Central Kirundi |
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | Burundi | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | rn | |
| ISO 639-2: | run | |
| ISO 639-3: | run | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa 's largest in terms of geographical area number of speakers and number In the classification of African languages, Atlantic-Congo constitutes the core of the Niger-Congo family, with the Noun class systems stereotypical The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family both in terms of sheer number of languages of which 880 are known (per Ethnologue In the classification of African languages, Bantoid is a branch of the Benue-Congo subfamily of the Niger-Congo phylum In the classification of African languages, Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid is one of the two branches of the Bantoid subfamily of the Niger-Congo In the classification of African languages, Narrow Bantu is a term commonly used to designate the branch of Niger-Congo containing the numerous Bantu languages This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's | ||
Kirundi (also written Rundi) is a Bantu language (D62 in Guthrie's classification) spoken by some 6 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Tanzania and Congo-Kinshasa, as well as in Uganda. The Bantu languages (technically Narrow Bantu languages) constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo family Malcolm Guthrie ( February 10, 1903 &ndash November 22, 1972) professor of Bantu languages is known primarily for his classification Burundi (buˈɾundi officially the Republic of Burundi, is a small country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda Tanzania ˌtænzəˈniːə officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya The Democratic Republic of the Congo (République démocratique du Congo often referred to as DR Congo, DRC or RDC, and formerly known or referred to The Republic of Uganda is a Landlocked country in East Africa. 84% of the speakers are Hutu, 15% are Tutsi and 1% are Twa. The The Tutsi are one of three native Peoples of the nations of Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa, the other two being the Twa The Twa, also known as Batwa, are a Pygmy people who were the oldest recorded inhabitants of the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa
Kirundi is closely related to Kinyarwanda, the main language of neighbouring country Rwanda and to Giha, a language spoken in western Tanzania. Kinyarwanda (also known simply as Rwanda) is a Bantu language spoken primarily in Rwanda, where it is one of the Official languages of the The Republic of Rwanda (ruːˈændə or /rəˈwɑːndə/ in English ɾwanda or in Kinyarwanda is a small Landlocked country in the Tanzania ˌtænzəˈniːə officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya Kirundi and Kinyarwanda are mutually intelligible.
The inhabitants of Rwanda and Burundi belong to three different ethnic groups: Bahutu, Batutsi, and Batwa (a pygmy people). The Republic of Rwanda (ruːˈændə or /rəˈwɑːndə/ in English ɾwanda or in Kinyarwanda is a small Landlocked country in the Burundi (buˈɾundi officially the Republic of Burundi, is a small country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda The The Tutsi are one of three native Peoples of the nations of Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa, the other two being the Twa The Twa, also known as Batwa, are a Pygmy people who were the oldest recorded inhabitants of the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa Pygmies (singular Pygmy) refers to a member of any human group whose adult males grow to less than 150 cm (4 feet 11 inches in average height or less than 155 cm The fact that these ethnic groups share the same language is assumed to be the result of the Bahutu outnumbering the latter two groups (see Bahutu for a more complete historical perspective). The The
Kirundi is frequently cited as a language where Meeussen's rule, a rule describing a certain pattern of tonal change in Bantu languages, is active. Meeussen’s rule is the name for a special case of tone reduction in Bantu languages.
| Example translations | |
|---|---|
| Ego | Yes |
| Oya | No |
| Uravuga icongereza? | Do you speak English? |
| Bite? | What's Up? |
| Mwaramutse | Hi/Good Morning |
| Ikirundi n'ikinyarwanda bisa nk'igi czek n'igi slovak | Kirundi and Kinyarwanda are closely related like Czech and Slovak |
| Amata | Milk |
| Ejo | Yesterday |
| Eejo° | Tomorrow |
| Nzoza ejo/Nzoz'ejo | I will come tomorrow |
| Ubu | Now |
| Faransa/Ubufaransa | France |
| Ngereza/Ubwongereza | England |
| Leta zunz'ubumwe z'amerika | United States of America |
| Ubudagi | Germany |
| Ububirigi | Belgium |
| °N. B. eejo is pronounced the same as ejo: the other e is written for differentiation. |
|
References
- Meeussen, A. E. (1959) Essai de grammaire Rundi Annales du Musée Royal du Congo Belge, Série Sciences Humaines - Linguistique, vol. 24. Tervuren
External links
- Ethnologue on Rundi
- PanAfrican L10n page on Kirundi...
- Ethnologue on Rundi
- Learning Kirundi (in Spanish)
- Online Kirundi/English dictionary
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