Bushi language

Bushi or Kibosy (Shibushi or Kibushi) is a dialect of Malagasy spoken in the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte. Malagasy dialects most closely related to Bushi are spoken in northwestern Madagascar in the area of Antsiranana (Diego-Suarez) and Mahajanga (Majunga), which is also the closest point in Madagascar to Mayotte. Kibosy and Majunga together are considered one of the Malagasy languages by Glottolog.

Kibosy
Shibushi, Kibushi
bushi-majunga بُوشِ-مَچُونْڠَ‎
Native to	Mayotte
Native speakers	60,000 (2017)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Indonesian Barito East Barito Northern malagasy Kibosy
Writing system	Latin Arabic[2][3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	buc
Glottolog	bush1250
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Geographical distribution

Bushi is known as Kibushi on Mayotte and is spoken by 40% of the island's people (1980). It is spoken alongside the Maore dialect (Shimaore), a Bantu language. Historically, Kibushi and Shimaore have been spoken in certain villages but Shimaore tends to be the de facto indigenous lingua franca in everyday life because of the larger Shimaore-speaking population. Only Shimaore is represented on the local television news program by Réseau Outre-Mer 1re. Dialects of Bushi in Mayotte (known as Shibushi in Shimaore) include Kiantalaotsy and Kibushi-Kimaore (Shibushi-Shimaore in Shimaore).

Bushi is spoken along the west coast of the main island (Grande-Terre) including the villages of Bambo Est, M'Boueni, Passy-Kéli, Mronabeja, Kani-Kéli, Chirongui, Poroani, Ouangani, Chiconi, Sohoa, M'Tsangamouji, Acoua, Mtsangadoua, and Handrema.

Phonology

In Mayotte, Bushi was traditionally written with an informal French-based Latin orthography. On 22 February 2006, the Conseil de la culture, de l'éducation et de l'environnement de Mayotte introduced an official alphabet that utilizes the basic Latin alphabet without c, j, q, and x and uses three extra letters: ɓ, ɗ, and n̈.^[4] Here, the letters used in the orthography are bolded, their IPA counterparts in brackets. On March 3, 2020, the Conseil départemental de Mayotte announced the adoption of official orthographies in both Latin and Arabic scripts for Kibushi.^[3][5]

Vowels

Bushi has five vowels.

	Front	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩	u ⟨u⟩
Close-mid	e ⟨e⟩	o ⟨o⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩

Consonants

Bushi has 20 consonants.

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩		ŋ ⟨n̈⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩		k ⟨k⟩
	voiced	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩		ɡ ⟨g⟩
	implosive	ɓ ⟨ɓ⟩	ɗ ⟨ɗ⟩
Fricative	voiceless	f ⟨f⟩	s ⟨s⟩			h ⟨h⟩
	voiced	v ⟨v⟩	z ⟨z⟩
Approximant			l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩	w ⟨w⟩
Trill			r ⟨r⟩

Vocabulary

Number

• number or digit: isaka
• to count: mañisaka

Numbers in English and Shibushi

Number	English	Shibushi
1	one	araiky
2	two	aroy (or aroay)
3	three	telo
4	four	efatra
5	five	dimy
6	six	tchouta (or tsiota or tshouta)
7	seven	fito
8	eight	valo
9	nine	sivy
10	ten	folo
11	eleven	folo araiky amby (or ambin' ny)
12	twelve	folo aro amby
13	thirteen	folo telo amby
14	fourteen	folo efatra amby
15	fifteen	folo dimy amby
16	sixteen	folo tchouta amby
17	seventeen	folo fito amby
18	eighteen	folo valo amby
19	nineteen	folo sivy amby
20	twenty	aro polo
30	thirty	telo polo
40	forty	efa polo
50	fifty	dimy polo
60	sixty	tsiota polo
70	seventy	fito polo
80	eighty	valo polo
90	ninety	sivy polo
100	one hundred	zato
101	one hundred and one	zato araiky
110	one hundred and ten	zato folo
111	one hundred and eleven	zato folo araiky amby
200	two hundred	aro zato (or aroan zato)
300	three hundred	telon zato
400	four hundred	efan zato (tra disappears)
500	five hundred	diman zato
600	six hundred	tsiotan zato
700	seven hundred	fiton zato
800	eight hundred	valon zato
900	nine hundred	sivin zato
1,000	one thousand	arivo
2,000	two thousand	aroy arivo
3,000	three thousand	telo arivo
4,000	four thousand	efatra arivo
5,000	five thousand	dimy arivo
10,000	ten thousand	Alina
100,000	one hundred thousand	hetsy
1,000,000	one million	tapitrisa
1,000,000,000	one billion	miliara

Standard Malagasy and Kibushi: A Vocabulary Comparison

Gloss	Standard Malagasy	Kibushi
1	iray	araiky
2	roa	aroy (or aroay)
3	telo	telo
4	efatra	efatra
5	dimy	dimy
6	enina	tchouta (or tsiota or tshouta)
7	fito	fito
8	valo	valo
9	sivy	sivy
10	folo	folo
I	Izaho/Aho	Za
You	Anao/Anareo	Ano/Anareo
He/She	Izy	Izy
We	Isika	Atsika
They	Zareo	Reo
All	Rehetra/avy	Jiaby
And	Sy	Ndreka
Yet	Mbola	Mbo
Not	Tsy	Tsy
Too	Koa	Aka
Today	Androany	Niany
Week	Herinandro	Herignandra
In/Inside	Anaty	Ankaty
Thing	Zavatra	Raha
Food	Sakafo/Anina	Agniny
Child	Zaza	Tseky
Woman	Vehevavy	Viavy
Man	Lalahy	Lehilahy
Thank you	Misaotra	Marahaba
France	Frantsa	Farantsa
Your house	Tranonareo	Tragnonareo
To listen	Mihaino	Mitandregny

See also

• Mayotte: Languages