Fwe_language

Fwe language

Fwe language

Bantu language of Southern Africa

Fwe, or Chifwe, is a Bantu language spoken by 10,000 people along the Okavango River in the Zambezi region of Namibia and in the Western Province in Zambia. It is closely related to Kuhane, and is one of several Bantu languages of the Okavango which have click consonants.

Quick Facts Region, Native speakers ...
Quick Facts Person, People ...

FV:final vowel

Although under the pressure of Lozi and Kuhane (Subiya), Fwe speakers tend to have a positive attitude towards Fwe, and speaking Fwe is often considered an important part of one's identity,[3] and thus underscores the vitality of the language.[4]

Regional variation

Main phonological differences between Zambian and Namibian Fwe, as noted by both the speakers and seen in the data:[5]

More information Zambian Fwe, Namibian Fwe ...

Morphological differences between Zambian and Namibian Fwe:

More information Zambian Fwe, Namibian Fwe ...

Phonology

Fwe syllables consist, at most, of a consonant, a glide, and a vowel.

Consonants

More information Bilabial, Dental/ Labiodental ...
  • The plosives /p b d g/ are considered peripheral phonemes, as they are relatively infrequent in the lexicon. They are not reflexes of *p, *b, *d and *g as reconstructed for Proto-Bantu, but mainly appear in loanwords.[7]
  • Though there are numerous cases where /h/ contrasts with zero, i.e. where /h/ can-not be omitted, [h] is also often used as an epenthetic consonant, in which case it freely commutes with [w], [j] and zero. Phonemic /h/, on the other hand, cannot commute with a glide nor can it be dropped.[8]

Vowels

Fwe has five contrastive vowel phonemes: /ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ a/. Vowels contrast in length, as seen in the minimal pairs below:[9]

ku-kúr-a

INF-grow-FV

ku-kúr-a

INF-grow-FV

to grow

ku-kúːr-a

INF-shift-FV

ku-kúːr-a

INF-shift-FV

to shift, move house

Tone

Fwe has two underlying tones, high and low. At the surface level, these tones may be articulated as high, low, falling, or downstepped high tone.[10]

References

  1. [1]
    Fwe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. [2]
    Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. [3]
    Gunnink 2018, p. 4
  4. [4]
    Gunnink 2018, p. 5
  5. [5]
    Gunnink 2018, p. 5, 6
  6. [6]
    Gunnink 2018, p. 11, 12
  7. [7]
    Gunnink 2018, p. 13
  8. [8]
    Gunnink 2018, p. 19
  9. [9]
    Gunnink 2022, p. 32
  10. [10]
    Gunnink 2022, p. 74
  • Gunnink, Hilde (2018). A grammar of Fwe: a Bantu language of Zambia and Namibia (PhD thesis). Ghent University. hdl:1854/LU-8553074.
  • Gunnink, Hilde (2022). A grammar of Fwe (pdf). Berlin: Language Science Press. doi:10.5281/zenodo.6669944. ISBN 9783961103881.
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