Malawi Lomwe language

Template:Short description Template:Template other Malawi Lomwe, known as Elhomwe, is a dialect of the Lomwe language spoken in southeastern Malawi in parts of Mulanje and Thyolo.

Background

The Lomwe is one of the three largest languages of Malawi after Chewa and Chitumbuka. Many Lomwes moved into Malawi towards the end of the 19th century due to tribal wars in Mozambique.

The Elhomwe language spoken in Malawi is to a large extent a Mihavane dialect. Just like all major tribes of Malawi, the Lhomwes are not natives of Malawi but the Akafula also known as the Mwandionelapati or Abathwa, were the original natives of Malawi.

Although the Elhomwe dialect spoken in Malawi is not mutually intelligible with other dialects of Lomwe spoken in Mozambique, it shares many characteristics and much vocabulary. For instance, one could note the similarities in the following word forms: otchuna (Emakhuwa), onthuna (Lmeetto), and (Elhomwe) meaning "to want." Similarly, the words for "women" are (Emakhuwa and Elhomwe), andanumwane (Lmeetto).

Lomwe (Elhomwe) is a tonal language, with high-toned syllables (H) contrasting with toneless ones. In nouns there is a limited degree of unpredictability in the position of the H tone, particularly in words borrowed from other Bantu languages. In verbs there is no tonal distinction between one verb-root and another (i.e. no distinction between high and low-toned verbs as in some other Bantu languages), but in the dialect they study (Emihavani) Kisseberth & Mtenje identify a variety of tonal patterns associated with different tenses. For example, the conjoint past continuous has H tone at the beginning of the macrostem (e.g. "they were twisting ropes"), the negative subjunctive has H tone on the verb final ( "you should not twist"), and so on.

Relevant literature

• Kapyepye, Mavuto. Lhomwe Proverbs: A collection of 200 African proverbs in the Lhomwe language of Malawi. Privately published, via Amazon.

Bibliography

• Boerder, R.B. (1984) Silent Majority: A History of the Lomwe in Malawi. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa.
• Kayambazinthu, Edrinnie (1998). "The Language Planning Situation in Malawi". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, vol. 19, no. 5–6.[1].
• Kisseberth, Charles W; Mtenje, Al. (2022). "Melodic High tones in Emihavani". Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, Vol. 62(2), 2022, 1-33.
• Murray, S.S. (1932) [1910] Handbook of Nyasaland. Zomba: Government Printer.
• Rashid, P.R. (1978) "Originally Lomwe, culturally Maravi, and linguistically Yao: The rise of the Mbewe c. 1760–1840". Seminar paper, History Department, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, Zomba.
• Soka, L.D. (1953) Mbiri ya a Lomwe (The History of the Lomwe). London: MacMillan.
• Vail, L. and White, L. (1989) "Tribalism in the political history of Malawi". In L. Vail (ed.) The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa (pp. 151–192). London: James Currey.