Ndonga

Ndonga, also called Oshindonga, is a Bantu dialect spoken in Namibia and parts of Angola. It is a standardized dialect of the Ovambo language, and is mutually intelligible with Kwanyama, the other Ovambo dialect with a standard written form. With 810,000 speakers, the language has the largest number of speakers in Namibia.

Martti Rautanen translated the Bible into the Ndonga dialect. Beginning his work in 1885, he published the New Testament in 1903, but it took until 1920 to finish the Old Testament. His Bible translation became the basis of a standardized form of Ndonga.

Phonology

Vowels

Oshindonga uses a five-vowel system:

	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Mid	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Open	Template:IPAlink

Consonants

Oshindonga contains the following consonant phonemes:

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	voiceless	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
	affricate			Template:IPAlink
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Approximant	central	Template:IPAlink			Template:IPAlink
	lateral			Template:IPAlink

Prenasalized sounds are listed below:

• [m̥p], [mb], [ɱv], [n̥θ], [nð], [n̥ʃ], [n̥t], [nd], [nz], [n̥ts], [ŋk], [ŋɡ]

Oshindonga also contains many other consonant compounds, listed below:

• [m̥pʰ], [n̥tʰ], [n̥kʰ], [m̥pʰw], [n̥tʰw], [n̥kʰw], [n̥dz], [n̥tsʰ], [ndʒ], [xw], [tsʼ] (voiceless, ejective, alveolar affricate), [psʲ] (voiceless, palatalized, labio-alveolar affricate)

Tones

Oshidonga has two tones: high and low.

External links

• Ndonga