Kwanyama
Sign in to saveAlso known as Oshikwanyama, Cuanhama, kj, Kwanyama dialect, Kwanyama Oshiwambo
Kwanyama or Cuanhama is a national language of Angola and Namibia. It is a standardized dialect of the Ovambo language, and is mutually intelligible with Oshindonga, the other Ovambo dialect with a standard written form.
Key facts
- Language.name
- Kwanyama
- Language.nativename
- Oshikwanyama
- Language.states
- Angola and Namibia
- Language.region
- Cunene Province (Angola), Ovamboland (Namibia)
- Language.speakers
- 1,003,783 in Angola (2024); 250,000 in Namibia (2006)
- Language.familycolor
- Niger-Congo
- Language.fam2
- Atlantic–Congo
- Language.fam3
- Volta-Congo
- Language.fam4
- Benue–Congo
- Language.fam5
- Bantoid
- Language.fam6
- Southern Bantoid
- Language.fam7
- Bantu
- Language.fam8
- Kavango–Southwest
- Language.fam9
- Southwest Bantu
- Language.fam10
- Ovambo
- Language.iso1
- kj
- Language.iso2
- kua
- Language.iso3
- kua
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- standard language
- Subclass of
- Ovambo
- Country
- Angola
Show 11 more facts
- Wikimedia language code
- kj
- indigenous to
- Omusati Region
- native label
- Oshiwambo
- topic's main category
- Category:Kwanyama language
- number of speakers, writers, or signers
- 247000
- different from
- Ndonga
- writing system
- Latin script
- P10369
- Kenya
- dialect of
- Ovambo
- P11012
- AMC AMX/3
Sources (11)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Phonology
- Grammar
- Verbs
- References
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
Kwanyama or Cuanhama is a national language of Angola and Namibia. It is a standardized dialect of the Ovambo language, and is mutually intelligible with Oshindonga, the other Ovambo dialect with a standard written form.
The entire Christian Bible has been translated into Kwanyama and was first published in 1974 under the name Ombibeli by the South African Bible Society. Jehovah's Witnesses released a translation of the new testament, the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in Kwanyama in 2019, both printed and electronic online version.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Kwanyama” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.