Luvale language

Luvale (also spelt Chiluvale, Lovale, Lubale, Luena, Lwena) is a Bantu language spoken by the Lovale people of Angola and Zambia. It is recognized as a regional language for educational and administrative purposes in Zambia, where about 168,000 people speak it as of 2006. Luvale uses a modified form of the Latin alphabet in its written form.^[3]

Luvale
Chiluvale
Native to	Angola, Zambia
Ethnicity	Lovale
Native speakers	640,000 (2001–2010)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone K) Chokwe–Luchazi (K.10) Luvale
Writing system	Latin (Luvale alphabet) Luvale Braille
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Zambia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lue
Glottolog	luva1239
Guthrie code	K.14[2]

Luvale is closely related to Chokwe.

Vocabulary

It contains many loanwords from Portuguese from colonial contact during 20th century,^[4] such as:

Luvale	Portuguese	English
xikata	escada	ladder
xikitelu	mosquitero	mosquito net
ngatwe	gato	cat
mbalili	barril	powder keg (lit. barrel)
kaluwaxa	carro	bicyle
semana	semana	week

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants of Luvale^[5]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮdʒ	ᵑɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ		h
	voiced	v	z	ʒ
Approximant		w	l	j

Vowels

Vowels of Luvale^[5]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Close-mid	e eː		o oː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː
Open		a aː

Speakers

• Bernard K. Mbenga
• Samba Yonga
• Mokoomba