Ha language

For the language of Hainan Island, China, see Hlai languages.

For the ISO 639-1 code "ha", see Hausa language.

Ha, also known with the Bantu language prefix as Giha, Igiha, or Kiha, is a Bantu language spoken by the Ha people of the Kigoma Region of Tanzania, spoken on the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika up to the headwaters of the Mikonga. It is closely related to the languages of Rwanda and Burundi; neighboring dialects are reported to be mutually intelligible with Kirundi.^[4]

Ha
Igiha
Native to	Tanzania
Ethnicity	Abaha
Native speakers	990,000 (2001)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu Rwanda-Rundi Ha
Writing system	Latin (proposed)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	haq
Glottolog	haaa1252
Guthrie code	JD.66[3]

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n	ɲ
Plosive	voiceless	p		t		k
	voiced	b		d	ɟ	ɡ
Affricate			p͡f	t͡s	t͡ʃ
Fricative	voiceless		f	s	ʃ		h
	voiced	(β)	v	z
Tap				ɾ
Approximant				(l)	j	w

• /ɾ/ is heard as [l] among different dialects in free variation.
• /b/ can be heard as either [b] or [β] in complementary distribution.^[5]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Low		a aː

Further reading

• Bichwa, Saul S. 2018. "The Role of Prosodic Units in the Study of Giha." Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics, 1(1): 81-90.