The Mwani language, also known by its native name Kimwani, ( ) is a Bantu language spoken on the coast of the Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique, including the Quirimbas Islands. Although it shares high lexical similarity (60%) with Swahili, it is not intelligible with it. It is spoken by around 167,150 people (including 147,150 who speak it as a first language and 20,000 who use it as their second language). Speakers also use Portuguese (the official language of Mozambique), Swahili and Makhuwa language. Kiwibo, the dialect of the Island of Ibo is the prestige dialect. Kimwani (sometimes spelled as Quimuane) is also called Mwani (sometimes spelled as: Mwane, Muane) and Ibo. According to Anthony P. Grant Kimwani of northern Mozambique appears to be the result of imperfect shift towards Swahili several centuries ago by speakers of Makonde, and Arends et al. suggest it might turn out to be a Makonde–Swahili mixed language.Arends, Muysken, & Smith (1995), Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction
Name
The name of the language comes from the word "Mwani", meaning "beach". The prefix "Ki" means the language of, so "Kimwani" literally means "language of the beach".
Sounds Kimwani (similar to Swahili) is unusual among sub-Saharan languages in having lost the feature of lexical tone (with the exception of some verbal paradigms where its use is optional). It does not have the penultimate stress typical of Swahili; it has movable pitch accent. Labialization of consonants (indicated by a [w] following the consonant) and palatalization of r (ry; [rj]) are frequent. Nasalization of vowels occurs only before a nasal consonant n followed by a consonant.
Vowels Kimwani has five vowel phonemes: , , , , and , that is: its vowels are close to those of Spanish and Hawaiian. It does not have a distinction of closed and open mid vowels typical of Portuguese or French and found in some other Bantu languages like Lingala, Fang, and perhaps Sukuma.
The pronunciation of the phoneme /i/ stands between International Phonetic Alphabet [i] and [e]. Vowels are never reduced, regardless of stress. The vowels are pronounced as follows:
is pronounced like the "a" in Arabic hajj is pronounced like the "e" in beat is pronounced like the "y" in yam is pronounced like the "o" in or is pronounced like the "u" in Sue.
Kimwani has no diphthongs; in vowel combinations, each vowel is pronounced separately.
Consonants +Consonants of KimwaniA sketch of Kimwani by Petzell, Malin Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal Plosive &affricate Fricative Trill Approximant
Orthography Kimwani can be spelled in three ways: using orthography similar to Swahili, using a slightly modified spelling system used in Mozambique schools or using a Portuguese-based spelling. Here are the differences:
+Kimwani spelling systems differences Swahili language spelling Modified spelling Portuguese spelling Translation chala cala tchala finger juwa juwa djua Sun kitabu kitabu quitabo book ng'ombe ng'ombe ngombe cow nyoka nyoka nhoca snake fisi fisi fissi hyena meza meza mesa table kushanga kushanga cuxanga to admire wakati wakati uacate time kipya kipya quípia new sukili sukili suquile sugar ufu ufu ufo flour
Numbers MwaniEnglishmojaonembilitwonatuthreen’néfourtanofivesitasixsabasevennaneeightkendaninekumitenkumi na mojaelevenkumi na mbilitwelveishirinitwentythelathinithirtyarubainifortyhamsinififtysitinisixtysabiniseventythemaninieightytisinininetymiaone hundredmia mbilitwo hundredelfuone thousandelfu mbilitwo thousand
References
Petzell, Malin. A sketch of Kimwani (a minority language of Mozambique); Africa & Asia, #2, pp. 88–110, Göteborg University. 2002. Namuna ya kufifunda kufyoma na kwandika (Manual de transição, língua Kimwani); SIL & JUWA; Pemba, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. 2002.