| Chokwe | |
|---|---|
| Ucôkwe (Wuchokwe) | |
| Native to | Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia |
| Ethnicity | Chokwe people |
Native speakers | (2.5 million cited 1990–2018)1 |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Angola (national language) |
| Regulated by | Instituto de Línguas Nacionais |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cjk |
| Glottolog | chok1245 |
K.112 | |
| Chokwe | |
|---|---|
| Person | Kacôkwe |
| People | Tucôkwe |
| Language | Ucôkwe (Wuchokwe) |
Chokwe (also known as Batshokwe, Ciokwe, Kioko, Kiokwe, Quioca, Quioco, Shioko, Tschiokloe or Tshokwe3) is a Bantu language spoken by the Chokwe people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Zambia.
In Angola, it is the native language of more than 2 million people (as of 2024);4 another half a million speakers lived in the Congo in 1990, and some 20,000 in Zambia in 2010.1 It is used as a lingua franca in eastern Angola.
Writing system
Angola's Instituto de Línguas Nacionais (National Languages Institute) has established spelling rules for Chokwe with a view to facilitate and promote its use.5
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a ~ ɑ | ||
Vowels may also be heard as nasalized when preceding nasal consonants.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | (c) | k | ||
| voiced | b | d | (ɟ) | g | |||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | ||||
| prenasal vd. | ᵐb | ⁿd | (ᶮɟ) | ᵑɡ | |||
| prenasal vl. | ᵐp | ||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | p͡f | t͡f | t͡ʃ | |||
| voiced | t͡v | d͡ʒ | |||||
| prenasal | ⁿd͡v | ⁿd͡ʒ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | ||
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | ||||
| prenasal | ⁿz | ⁿʒ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||
| Approximant | lateral | l | ʎ | ||||
| plain | j | w | |||||
Affricate sounds /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ⁿd͡ʒ/ may also be pronounced as palatal stops [c, ɟ, ᶮɟ].
Tones
Chokwe has three tones as /v́/, /v̀/, and /v̂/.67
Examples
| English | Chokwe |
|---|---|
| Good Morning
-Response |
Menekenu
-Mwane |
| See you | Ndo shimbu yikehe |
| Goodbye | Salenuho |
| What is your name? | Jina lie yena iya? |
| My name is ____ | Jina liami ___ |
References
References
- Chokwe at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gérard; Bostoen, Koen; Van de Velde, Mark (2019). The Bantu languages (Second ed.). London. ISBN 9781317628682.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - "Resultados Definitivos do Recenseamento Geral da População e Habitação - 2024" (PDF) (in Portuguese). 2025-11-20.
- "Ethnologue report for Angola". 2012-09-23. Archived from the original on 2012-09-23. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
- Ualhanga, Xavier Chipuleno (2017). Antroponímia na Língua Cokwe (Lunda-Norte) [Anthroponymy in the Cokwe Language (Lunda-Norte)] (Master's thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. hdl:10362/21952.
- Martins, João Vicente (1990). Elementos de Gramática de Utchokwe [Utchokwe Grammar Elements] (in Portuguese). Lisboa: Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical. pp. 25–32.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - Akindipe, Omotola. "Learn Chokwe (Greetings and Introduction)". Learn Chokwe. Archived from the original on 2021-05-09.
External links
External links
- Learn Chokwe on the internet (Mofeko) Omotola Akindipe, Geofrey Kakaula & Alcino Joné