Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 5, 2026

Ndali language

Ndali, or Chindali, is a Bantu language spoken in southern Tanzania by 480,000 people and in northern Malawi by 70,000 (2003).

Last revised
Jul 5, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
345 w
Citations
4
Source
Ndali
Chindali
Native toTanzania, Malawi
EthnicityNdali
Native speakers
(220,000 cited 1987–2003)1
Latin script
Mwangwego script
Language codes
ISO 639-3ndh
Glottologndal1241
M.3012

Ndali, or Chindali, is a Bantu language spoken in southern Tanzania by 480,000 people and in northern Malawi by 70,000 (2003).

Sukwa, or Chisukwa, spoken in the Misuku Hills of northern Malawi, is closely related to Ndali, and both languages are fairly close to Lambya.3

The examples below come in the order Lambya, Ndali, Sukwa, showing the similarity of vocabulary:4

  • Person = umunthu, umundu, umundu
  • Grasshopper = imphanzi, imbashi, imbasi
  • Scorpion = kalizga, kalisha, kalisya
  • Maize = ivilombe, ifilombe, ifilombe
  • Dog = imbwa, ukabwa, ukabwa
  • Bird = chiyuni, kayuni, kayuni
  • Snail = inkhozo, ingofu, ingofo
Further reading

Further reading

  • Botne, R. (2008). Grammatical Sketch of Chindali: Malawian Variety. Darby: Diane.
  • Botne, R. and Schaffer, L. (2008). A Chindali and English Dictionary with an Index to ProtoBantu Roots: The Chindali Language of Malawi. Vol 1. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
  • Kershner, Tiffany (2001). "Imperfectivity in Chisukwa" in Explorations in African Linguistics: From Lamso to Sesotho, eds. Robert Botne and Rose Vondrasek, Bloomington: Indiana University Working Papers in Linguistics, pp. 37–52.
  • Mtenje, Atikonda (2016). A comparative analysis of the Phonology and Morpho-syntax of Cisukwa, Cindali and Cilambya. (University of Cape Town PhD thesis)
  • Swilla, Imani N. (1998). Tenses in Chindali. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere (AAP) 54. 95–125.
References

References

  1. Ndali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. "The University of Malawi Language Mapping Survey for Northern Malawi (2006), p. 16" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  4. The University of Malawi Language Mapping Survey for Northern Malawi (2006) Archived 2021-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 70–71.
External links