Chokwe language

Chokwe (also known as Batshokwe, Ciokwe, Kioko, Kiokwe, Quioca, Quioco, Shioko, Tschiokloe or Tshokwe^[3]) is a Bantu language spoken by the Chokwe people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Zambia. It is recognised as a national language of Angola, where half a million people were estimated to have spoken it in 1991; another half a million speakers lived in the Congo in 1990, and some 20,000 in Zambia in 2010.^[1] It is used as a lingua franca in eastern Angola.

Chokwe
Ucôkwe (Wuchokwe)
Native to	Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia
Ethnicity	Chokwe people
Native speakers	(2.5 million cited 1990–2018)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone K) Chokwe–Luchazi (K.10) Chokwe
Official status
Official language in	Angola (national language)
Regulated by	Instituto de Línguas Nacionais
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cjk
Glottolog	chok1245
Guthrie code	K.11[2]

Chokwe
Person	Kacôkwe
People	Tucôkwe
Language	Ucôkwe (Wuchokwe)

Writing system

Angola's Instituto de Línguas Nacionais (National Languages Institute) has established spelling rules for Chokwe with a view to facilitate and promote its use.^[4]

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a ~ ɑ

Vowels may also be heard as nasalized when preceding nasal consonants.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t		(c)	k
	voiced	b	d		(ɟ)	g
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ
	prenasal vd.	ᵐb	ⁿd		(ᶮɟ)	ᵑɡ
	prenasal vl.	ᵐp
Affricate	voiceless	p͡f	t͡f	t͡ʃ
	voiced		t͡v	d͡ʒ
	prenasal		ⁿd͡v	ⁿd͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ			h
	voiced	v	z	ʒ
	prenasal		ⁿz	ⁿʒ
Nasal		m	n		ɲ
Approximant	lateral		l		ʎ
	plain				j	w

Affricate sounds /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ⁿd͡ʒ/ may also be pronounced as palatal stops [c, ɟ, ᶮɟ].

Tones

Chokwe has three tones as /v́/, /v̀/, and /v̂/.^[5][6]

Examples

English	Chokwe
Good Morning -Response	Menekenu -Mwane
See you	Ndo shimbu yikehe
Goodbye	Salenuho
What is your name?	Jina lie yena iya?
My name is ____	Jina liami ___

^[7]