Kimbundu

Kimbundu, a Bantu language which has sometimes been called Mbundu^[3] or North Mbundu (to distinguish it from Umbundu, sometimes called South Mbundu),^[4] is the second-most-widely-spoken Bantu language in Angola.

Kimbundu
North Mbundu
Native to	Angola
Region	Luanda Province, Bengo Province, Malanje Province
Ethnicity	Ambundu
Native speakers	1.7 million (2015)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone H) Kimbundu languages (H.20) Kimbundu
Dialects	Kimbundu proper (Ngola) Mbamba (Njinga)
Official status
Official language in	Angola ("National language")
Language codes
ISO 639-2	kmb
ISO 639-3	kmb
Glottolog	kimb1241
Guthrie code	H.21[2]

A Kimbundu speaker, recorded in Angola

Its speakers are concentrated in the north-west of the country, notably in the Luanda, Bengo, Malanje and the Cuanza Norte provinces. It is spoken by the Ambundu.^[5]

Northern Mbundu
Person	Mumbundu
People	Ambundu or Akwambundu
Language	Kimbundu
Country	Ndongo and Matamba

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	plain	p	t		k
	voiced	b
	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd		(ᵑɡ)
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ		h
	voiced	v	z	ʒ
	prenasalized	ᶬv	ⁿz	ⁿʒ
Nasal		m	n	(ɲ)	ŋ
Approximant		w	l	j

Allophones:

[ɸ] and [β] are allophones of /p/ and /b/, respectively, before /a/ and /u/. The phoneme /l/ is phonetically a flap [ɾ], a voiced plosive [d] or its palatalized version [dʲ] when before the front high vowel /i/. In the same way, the alveolars /s/, /z/ and /n/ are palatalized to [ʃ], [ʒ] and [ɲ], respectively, before [i]. There may be an epenthesis of [g] after /ŋ/ in word medial positions, thus creating a phonetic cluster [ŋg] in a process of fortition.

There is long distance nasal harmony, in which /l/ is realized as [n] if the previous morphemes contain /m/ or /n/, but not prenasalized stops.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

There are two contrasting tones: a high (á) and a low tone (à). There is also a downstep in cases of tonal sandhi.

Vowel harmony

There is vowel harmony in two groups (the high vowels /i, u/ and the mid and low vowels /e, o, a/) that applies only for verbal morphology. In some morphemes, vowels may be consistently deleted to avoid a hiatus.^[6]

Kimbundu alphabet

Consonants^[7]

B D F G H J K L M N P S T V W X Y Z

Vowels

A E I O U

Loans

European Portuguese

There is a small number of words of Kimbundu origin and many of those are indirect loans, borrowed via Angolan Portuguese.

The examples generally understood by most or all speakers of Angolan and European Portuguese include

bué (pronounced [bwɛ], "very, a lot"),^[8]

cota ([ˈkɔtɐ], "old person"^[9])

mambo ([ˈmɐ̃bu])

Conjugation

Personal pronouns	Translation
Eme	I
Eie / Eye	You
Muene	He or she
Etu	We
Enu	You
Ene	They

Conjugating the verb to be (kuala; also kukala in Kimbundu) in the present:^[10]

Eme ngala	I am
Eie uala / Eye uala / Eie wala / Eye wala	You are
Muene uala / Muene wala	He or she is
Etu tuala / Etu twala	We are
Enu nuala / Enu nwala	You are
Ene ala	They are

Conjugating the verb to have (kuala ni; also kukala ni in Kimbundu) in the present :

Eme ngala ni	I have
Eie / Eye uala ni	You have
Muene uala ni	He or she has
Etu tuala ni	We have
Enu nuala ni	You have
Ene ala ni	They have