Kaonde language

Kaonde (natively called kiiKaonde) is a Bantu language spoken primarily in Zambia. Kaonde and its dialects are spoken by over 350,000 people.

Speakers

Kaonde speakers mainly live in the Northwestern and parts of Central regions of Zambia. In Zambia, the Kaonde people are found in Solwezi, Mufumbwe, Kasempa, Kalumbila and Mushindamo in the North-Western province.

The term "Kaonde" refers to a group of people who are identified by a common language known as kiiKaonde. The Kaonde group, like many others in Zambia, was originally part of the Luba Kingdom. They migrated south to area surrounding a stream called Kaonde in river Congo Basin. From there, the people migrated into what is now Northwestern Zambia. Native speakers refer to the language as kiiKaonde. Speakers of most other Bantu languages use the prefix "chi" rather than "kii".

The Kaondes are ruled by the traditional leaders. Some of the Kaonde chiefs are Chief Kapiji Kasongo, Kasempa, and Mpanga

Grammar

Nouns

Like other Bantu languages, Kaonde nouns are grouped into several semantic classes, ranging from those that denote human beings to those that denote things. The concord or agreement markers for each class is a prefix attached to verbs and adjectives related to the noun. Tense markers may modify the concord.

Singular noun	Singular concord	Plural noun	Plural concord
mu (person)	u-	ba	ba-
mu (thing)	u -	mi-	i-
ki	ki-	bi	bi-
ka	ka-	tu	tu-
n	i-	ma	a-
lu	lu-	ma	a-
bu	bu-	ma	a-
ji	ji-	ma	a-
pa (locative "on")	pa-	none	none
ku (locative "at" or "to")	ku-	none	none
mu (locative "in")	mu-	none	none

Pronouns

Kaonde has personal, demonstrative and relative pronouns. The first and second person pronouns are independent of the noun class system. Third person pronouns are formed using the demonstrative pronouns for the ba noun class. Demonstrative are arranged by noun class and by deixis.

	Singular	Plural/Formal
1st person	amiwa	atweba
2nd person	obewa	anweba
3rd person	awe/ao/awa	abe/abo/aba

Sample text in Kaonde

Mu byambo byanji byalamata bantu bonse, Lesa waambile ne byambo bikwabo pa byo anemeka bumi ne mashi.

Translation

In a declaration applying to all humans, God revealed more about his evaluation of life and blood

External links

• A sample paragraph in Kaonde
• Template:UDHR
• Lubuto Libraries, Template:Usurped, Lubuto Library Special Collections, accessed May 3, 2014.
• Template:Usurped, Lubuto Library Special Collections
• OLAC resources in and about the Kaonde language
• J.L. Wright’s Outline of Kikaonde Grammar