Gciriku language

Gciriku
Manyo
Rumanyo
Region Okavango River
Ethnicity Vagciriku, Vamanyo, Vashambyu
Native speakers
 (undated figure of 36,000)[1]
Dialects
  • Gciriku
  • Shambyu
  • Mbogedu (extinct)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 diu
Glottolog diri1252[2]
K.331,334 (K.332)[3]

Gciriku or Dciriku (Diriku) or Dirico (in Angola), also known as Manyo or Rumanyo, is a Bantu language spoken by 305,000 people along the Okavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, in Botswana, and in Angola. It was first known in the west via the Vagciriku, who had migrated from the main Vamanyo area and spoke Rugciriku, a dialect of Rumanyo. The name Gciriku (Dciriku, Diriku) remains common in the literature, but within Namibia the name Rumanyo has been revived.[4] The Mbogedu dialect is extinct; Maho (2009) lists it as a distinct language, and notes that the names 'Manyo' and 'Rumanyo' are inappropriate for it.

It is one of several Bantu languages of the Okavango which have click consonants, as in [ ǀɛ́ǀˀà] "bed", [mùǀûkò] "flower", and [kàǀûrù] "tortoise". These clicks, of which there are half a dozen (c, gc, ch, and prenasalized nc and nch), are generally all pronounced with a dental articulation, but there is broad variation between speakers. They are especially common in place names and in words for features of the landscape, reflecting their source in an as-yet unidentified Khoisan language. Many of the click words in Gciriku, including those in native Bantu vocabulary, are shared with Kwangali, Mbukushu, and Fwe.

References

  1. ↑ Gciriku at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Diriku". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  4. ↑ Nordic journal of African studies, Volume 12, 2003

External links

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