Nyasa languages
Encyclopedia
The Nyasa languages are an apparently valid genealogical group of Bantu languages
. With the reassignment of a couple Guthrie Zone N languages to other branches, Nyasa is essentially synonymous with Zone N. The languages and their Guthrie identifications are:
Poorly known Mwera-Nyasa
is N20 and presumably belongs here as well. Nurse (2003) has doubts about Nyungwe and Sena.
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
. With the reassignment of a couple Guthrie Zone N languages to other branches, Nyasa is essentially synonymous with Zone N. The languages and their Guthrie identifications are:
- TumbukaTumbuka languageThe Tumbuka language is a Bantu language which is spoken in parts of Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania.The language of the Tumbuka people is called chiTumbuka — the chi- marker in front of Tumbuka means “thing”, “concept”, and is understood in this case “the language of ”...
(N20) [excluding Senga dialect] - Chewa (Nyanja) (N30)
- Sena (N40, reduced): NsengaNsenga languageNsenga, also known as Senga, is a Bantu language of Zambia and Mozambique....
, KundaKunda languageKunda is a Bantu language of Zimbabwe and Zambia, with a few thousand speakers in Mozambique....
–NyungweNyungwe languageNyungwe is a Bantu language of Mozambique. It is used as a trade language....
, SenaSena languageThe Sena language is spoken in the four provinces of central Mozambique : Tete, Sofala, Zambezia and Manica.There were an estimated 900,000 native Sena speakers in Mozambique in 1997, with at least 1.5 million including those who speak it as second language.Sena is spoken in several dialects, of...
(incl. Podzo, Rue)
Poorly known Mwera-Nyasa
Mwera (Nyasa) language
Mwera Nyasa is a poorly attested Bantu language of Tanzania....
is N20 and presumably belongs here as well. Nurse (2003) has doubts about Nyungwe and Sena.