A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Kinyarwanda | |
|---|---|
| Rwandan | |
| Ikinyarwanda | |
| Native to | Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, DR Congo, Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Banyarwanda |
Native speakers | 15 million (2014–2022)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Rwanda |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | rw |
| ISO 639-2 | kin |
| ISO 639-3 | kin |
| Glottolog | kiny1244 |
JD.61[2] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUS-df |
| Person | Umunyarwanda |
|---|---|
| People | Abanyarwanda |
| Language | Ikinyarwanda |
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 Burundi and adjacent parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda (where there is a dialect known as Rufumbira or Urufumbira) and Tanzania. Kinyarwanda is universal among the native population of Rwanda and is mutually intelligible with Kirundi, the national language of neighbouring Burundi.[6] Kinyabwishya and Kinyamulenge are mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces of neighbouring DR Congo.
In 2010, the Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture (RALC)[7] was established to help promote and sustain Kinyarwanda. The organization attempted an orthographic reform in 2014, but it was met with pushback due to their perceived top-down and political nature, among other reasons.[8]
Geographic distribution
Kinyarwanda is spoken in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Tanzania.
Phonology
Consonants
The table below gives the consonants of Kinyarwanda.
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | (ŋ) | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p1 | t | (c) | k | |||
| voiced | (b) | d | (ɟ) | ɡ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | p͡f | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ç | h | ||
| voiced | β | v | z | ʒ | ||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||||
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||||||
- /p/ is only found in loanwords.
- Consonants in parentheses are allophones.
Vowels
The table below gives the vowel sounds of Kinyarwanda.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː |
| Mid | e eː | o oː |
| Open | a aː | |
Tone
Kinyarwanda is a tonal language. Like many Bantu languages, it has a two-way contrast between high and low tones (low-tone syllables may be analyzed as toneless). The realization of tones in Kinyarwanda is influenced by a complex set of phonological rules.
Orthography
| Letter(s) | a | b | c | cy | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | jy | k | m | n | ny | o | p | pf | r | s | sh | shy | t | ts | u | v | w | y | z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | a, aː | β, b | t͡ʃ | c | d | e, eː | f | ɡ, ɟ | h | i, iː | ʒ | ɟ | k, c | m | n, ŋ | ɲ | o, oː | p | p͡f | ɾ | s | ʃ | ç | t | t͡s | u, uː | v | w | j | z |
Except in a few morphological contexts, the sequences 'ki' and 'ke' may be pronounced interchangeably as and or and according to speaker's preference.[9]
The letters 'a', 'e', or 'i' at the end of a word followed by a word starting with a vowel often follows a pattern of omission (observed in the following excerpt of the Rwandan anthem) in common speech, though the orthography remains the same. For example, Reka tukurate tukuvuge ibigwi wowe utubumbiye hamwe twese Abanyarwanda uko watubyaye berwa, sugira, singizwa iteka. would be pronounced as "Reka tukurate tukuvug' ibigwi wow' utubumiye hamwe twes' abanyarwand' uko watubyaye berwa, sugira singizw' iteka."
There are some discrepancies in pronunciation from orthographic Cw and Cy. The glides /w j/ strengthen to stops in consonant clusters. For example, rw (as in Rwanda) is normally pronounced . The differences are the following:
Orthog. Pron. mw ŋ nw ŋw nyw or pw k fw pfw bw g vw tw kw tsw cw sw shw ʃkw dw dɡw gw zw zɡw jw ʒɡw rw ɾɡw my mɲ ɲ py pc c ty tc sy sc by bɟ ndy ndɟ ɟ ry ɾɟ
These are all sequences; bɡ, for example, is not labial-velar [ɡ͡b]. Even when Rwanda is pronounced ɾwaːnda rather than ɾɡwaːnda, the onset is a sequence, not a labialized ɾʷ.
Grammaredit
Nounsedit
Kinyarwanda uses 16 of the Bantu noun classes. Sometimes these are grouped into 10 pairs so that most singular and plural forms of the same word are included in the same class. The table below shows the 16 noun classes and how they are paired in two commonly used systems.
| Prefix | Classification | Number | Typical words | Example | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bantu | Cox | ??? | ||||
| umu- | 1 | 1 | singular | humans | umuntu – person | |
| aba- | 2 | plural | abantu – people | |||
| umu- | 3 | 2 | singular | trees, shrubs and things that extend | umusozi – hill | |
| imi- | 4 | plural | imisozi – hills | |||
| iri- | 5 | 5 | 3 | singular | things in quantities, liquids | iryinyo – tooth |
| ama- | 6 | 5/8/9 | 3/8/9 | plural (also substances) | amenyo – teeth | |
| iki- | 7 | 4 | singular | generic, large, or abnormal things | ikintu – thing | |
| ibi- | 8 | plural | ibintu – things | |||
| in- | 9 | 3 | 5 | singular | some plants, animals and household implements | inka – cow |
| in- | 10 | 3/6 | 5/6 | plural | inka – cows | |
| uru- | 11 | 6 | singular | mixture, body parts | urugo – home | |
| aka- | 12 | 7 | singular | diminutive forms of other nouns | akantu – little thing | |
| utu- | 13 | plural | utuntu – little things | |||
| ubu- | 14 | 8 | n/a | abstract nouns, qualities or states | ubuntu – generosity | |
| uku- | 15 | 9 | n/a | actions, verbal nouns and gerunds | ukuntu – means | |
| aha- | 16 | 10 | n/a | places, locations | ahantu – place | |
Verbsedit
All Kinyarwanda verb infinitives begin with ku- (morphed into k(w)- before vowels, and into gu- before stems beginning with a voiceless consonant due to Dahl's Law). To conjugate, the infinitive prefix is removed and replaced with a prefix agreeing with the subject. Then a tense marker can be inserted.
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corresp. Noun Class |
before consonants | before vowels | Corresp. Noun Class |
before consonants | before vowels | |
| 1st person | n-/m- | n- | tu-/du- | tw- | ||
| 2nd person | u- | w- | mu- | mw- | ||
| I | 1 | a- | y- | 2 | ba- | b- |
| II | 3 | u- | w- | 4 | i- | y- |
| III | 5 | ri- | ry- | 6 | a- | y- |
| IV | 7 | ki- | cy- | 8 | bi- | by- |
| V | 9 | i- | y- | Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Kinyarwanda_language|||