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Kinyarwanda is the chief spoken language in Rwanda. It is also spoken in the east of D.R. Congo and in the south of Uganda (Bufumbira-area). Kinyarwanda is a tonal language of the Bantu language family (Guthrie D61). Kinyarwanda is closely related to Kirundi spoken in the neighboring country, Burundi and to Giha of western Tanzania. Image File history File links Information_icon. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... In the classification of African languages, Volta-Congo is the major branch (in terms of number of languages) of the Niger-Congo phylum. ... The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family, both in terms of sheer number of languages, of which 938 are known (not counting mere dialects), and in terms of speakers, numbering perhaps 550 million. ... In the classification of African languages, Bantoid is a branch of the Benue-Congo subfamily of the Niger-Congo phylum. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Motto: Justice – Paix – Travail  (French) Justice – Peace – Work Anthem: Debout Congolais Capital (and largest city) Kinshasa French Government Semi-Presidential Republic  - President Joseph Kabila Independence    - from Belgium June 30, 1960  Area  - Total 2,344,858 km² (12th) 905,351 sq mi   - Water (%) 3. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Tone (linguistics). ... Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. ... Malcolm Guthrie (1903-1972), professor of Bantu languages, is known primarily for his classification of Bantu languages (Guthrie 1971). ... Kirundi (also written Rundi) is a Bantu language (D62 in Guthries classification) spoken by some 6 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Tanzania and Congo-Kinshasa, as well as in Uganda. ...

The inhabitants of Rwanda and Burundi belong to three different ethnic groups (Although the validity of the ethnic nature is debatable; see [1]): Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. The fact that these ethnic groups share the same language is assumed to be the result of the Hutu outnumbering the latter two groups (see Hutu for a more complete historical perspective). To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Tutsi are one of three native peoples of the nations of Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa, the other two being the Twa and the Hutu. ... The Twa, also known as Batwa, are a pygmy people, of short stature, who were the oldest recorded inhabitants of the Great Lakes region of central Africa. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Pronunciation

a [ɑ]

b [b/β]

c [c]

d [d]

e [e]

f [f]

g [g]

h [h]

i [i]

j [ʤ]

k [k]

l [l]

m [m]

n [n]

o [o]

p [p] (stands alone only in foreign loanwords)

r [ɾ]

s [s]

t [t]

u [u]

v [v]

w [w]

y [j]

z [z]

sh [ɕ]

nt [nh]

mp [mh]

nk [ŋx]

cy [kj]

jy [gj]

ny [ɲ]

'ki' and 'ke' can be pronounced interchangeably as [ki] and [ke] or [ci] and [ce] according to speaker's preference

An 'a', 'e', or 'i' at the end of a word followed by a word starting with a vowel often follows a pattern of omission (observed in the following excerpt of the Rwandan anthem) in common speech, though the orthography REMAINS THE SAME.

e.g. 'Reka tukurate tukuvuge ibigwi wowe utubumbiye hamwe twese Abanyarwanda uko watubyaye berwa, sugira, singizwa iteka.' would be pronounced as 'reka tukurate tukuvug' ibigwi wow' utubumiye hamwe twes' abanyarwand' uko watubyaye berwa, sugira singizw' iteka.'

Grammar

Nouns

Kinyarwanda has a ten noun classes: In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. ...

• Class I: singular (u)mu-, plural (a)ba-
• Class II: singular (u)mu-, plural (i)mi-
• Class III: singular (i)(ri)-, plural (a)ma-
• Class IV: singular (i)ki- or (i)gi-, plural (i)bi-
• Class V: singular (i)n-, plural (i)n-
• Class VI: singular (u)ru-, plural (i)n-
• Class VII: singular (a)ka-, plural (u)tu-
• Class VIII: singular (u)bu-, plural (u)bu-
• Class IX: singular (u)ku-, plural (a)ma-
• Class X: singular (a)ha-, plural (a)ha-

When preceded by a demonstrative, the vowel prefix is dropped. (e.g. umu- → mu-). Class I is used for words representing humans. // Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference) that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from others. ...

Verbs

All Kinyarwanda verb infinitives begin with gu- or ku- (morphed into gw- or kw- before vowels). To conjugate, the infinitive prefix is removed and replaced with a prefix agreeing with the subject. Then a tense infix can be inserted. In grammar, the infinitive is the form of a verb that has no inflection to indicate person, number, mood or tense. ... In linguistics, grammatical conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from the word root by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... The subject of a sentence is one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

• Class I: singular a- (morphs to y- before vowels), plural ba-
• Class II: singular u-, plural i-
• Class III: singular ri-, plural a-
• Class IV: singular ki- (morphs to cy- before vowels), plural bi-
• Class V: singular i-, plural zi-
• Class VI: singular ru-, plural bi-
• Class VII: singular ka-, plural tu-
• Class VIII: singular bu-, plural bu-
• Class IX: singular ku-, plural a-
• Class X: singular ha-, plural ha-

The prefixes for pronouns are as follows:

• 'I' = n-
• 'you' (sing.) = mu-
• 'he/she' = y-/a- (i.e. the singular Class I prefix above)
• 'we' = tu-
• 'you' (pl.) = u-
• 'they' (human) = ba- (i.e. the singular Class I prefix above)

Tense markers include the following.

• Present ('I do'): - (no infix)
• Present progressive ('I am doing'): -ra- (morphs to -da- when preceded by n)
• Future ('I will do'): -za-
• Continuous progressive ('I'm still doing'): -racya-

The past tense can be formed by using the present and present progressive infixes and modifying the apect marker suffix.

Example translations

References

• Jouannet, Francis (ed.) (1983). Le Kinyarwanda, langue bantu du Rwanda. Paris: Société d’Études Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France (SELAF).
• Kimenyi, Alexandre (1980). A Relational Grammar of Kinyarwanda. University of California Press.
• Habumuremyi, Emmanuel et al. (2006). IRIZA-STARTER 2006: The 1st Kinyarwanda-English and English-Kinyarwanda Dictionary. Kigali: Rural ICT-Net

External links

• Ethnologue report on Rwanda
• PanAfrican L10n page on Kinyarwanda ...

Kinyarwanda language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia