Kinyarwanda

* Atlantic–Congo
	+ Volta-Congo
		- Benue–Congo
			* Bantoid
				+ Southern Bantoid
					- Bantu
						* Northeast Bantu
							+ Great Lakes Bantu
								- Rwanda-Rundi

**Kinyarwanda** (Template:IPA-rw) is an official language of Rwanda and a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language spoken by at least 10 million people in Rwanda, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and adjacent parts of southern Uganda where it is known as Rufumbira. The mutually intelligible Kirundi dialect is the official language of neighbouring Burundi. Kinyabwisha and Kinyamulenge are the mutually intelligible dialects spoken in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces of neighbouring DR Congo.

 File:Stop the Spread of Germs updated (Kinyarwanda).pdf
Kinyarwanda is one of the four official languages of Rwanda (along with English, French and Kiswahili) and is spoken by almost all of the native population. That contrasts with most modern African states, whose borders were drawn by colonial powers and do not correspond to ethnic boundaries or precolonial kingdoms.**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

## Phonology

See also: Rwanda-Rundi § Comparison of Kinyarwanda and Kirundi

### Consonants

The table below gives the consonants of Kinyarwanda.

1. Template:IPA is only found in loanwords.
2. Consonants in parentheses are allophones.

### Vowels

The table below gives the vowel sounds of Kinyarwanda.

### Tone

Kinyarwanda is a tonal language. Like many Bantu languages, it has a two-way contrast between high and low tones (low-tone syllables may be analyzed as toneless). The realization of tones in Kinyarwanda is influenced by a complex set of phonological rules.

## Orthography

Except in a few morphological contexts, the sequences 'ki' and 'ke' may be pronounced interchangeably as Template:IPA and Template:IPA or Template:IPA and Template:IPA according to speaker's preference.Template:Citation needed

The letters '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. For example, *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."

There are some discrepancies in pronunciation from orthographic *Cw* and *Cy.* The glides Template:IPA strengthen to stops in consonant clusters. For example, *rw* (as in *Rwanda)* is pronounced Template:IPA. The differences are the following:

Note that these are all sequences; Template:IPA, for example, is not labial-velar Template:IPAblink. Even when *Rwanda* is pronounced Template:IPA, the onset is a sequence, not a labialized Template:IPA.

## Grammar

### Nouns

Kinyarwanda uses 16 of the Bantu noun classes. Sometimes these are grouped into 10 pairs so that most singular and plural forms of the same word are included in the same class. The table below shows the 16 noun classes and how they are paired in two commonly used systems.

### Verbs

All Kinyarwanda verb infinitives begin with *ku-* (morphed into *k(w)-* before vowels, and into *gu-* before stems beginning with a voiceless consonant due to Dahl's Law). To conjugate, the infinitive prefix is removed and replaced with a prefix agreeing with the subject. Then a tense marker can be inserted.

The class I prefixes *y-/a-* and *ba-* correspond to the third person for persons. The personal prefix *n-* becomes *m-* before a labial sound (p, b, f, v), while personal prefix *tu-* becomes *du-* under Dahl's Law.

Every regular verb has three stems: the imperfective (ending in the morpheme *-a*), the perfective (ending in the morpheme *-:ye*, which may trigger a variety of morphophonological changes in the preceding segment) and the subjunctive (ending in the morpheme *-e*).

According to Botne (1983), a verb may belong to any of eight Aktionsart categories, which may be broadly grouped into stative and dynamic categories. In the immediate tense, dynamic verbs take the imperfective stem while stative verbs take the perfective stem, while both use the imperfective stem in the habitual or gnomic tense.

Simple tense/mood markers include the following:

* With the *present stem*:
	+ Present ('I do'): *-* (no infix)
	+ Present Progressive ('I am doing'): *-ra-* (assimilates to *-da-* when preceded by *n*)
	+ Habitual Past ('I used to do/was doing'): *-a-* plus *-ga* suffixed to the verb
	+ Future ('I will do'): *-za-*
* With the *past stem*:
	+ Polite Imperative ('Let me do'; 'please do'): *-* (no infix)
	+ Perfect ('I have done/I did'): *-a-*
	+ Near Past ('I just did'): *-ra-* (assimilates to *-da-* when preceded by *n*)
	+ Preterite ('I did'): *-ara-*
	+ Subjunctive ('that I do/did'): *-za-*

Object affixes corresponding to the noun classes of an object may be placed after the tense marker and before the verb stem:

The personal object affixes are as follows:

### Causatives

Kinyarwanda employs the use of periphrastic causatives, in addition to morphological causatives.

The periphrastic causatives use the verbs *-teer-* and *-tum-*, which mean *cause*. With *-teer-*, the original subject becomes the object of the main clause, leaving the original verb in the infinitive (just like in English):**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

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In this construction, the original S can be deleted.**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

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With *-túm-*, the original S remains in the embedded clause and the original verb is still marked for person and tense:**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

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Derivational causatives use the instrumental marker *-iish-*. The construction is the same, but it is instrumental when the subject is inanimate and it is causative when the subject is animate:**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

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This morpheme can be applied to intransitives (3) or transitives (4):**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

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However, there can only be one animate direct object. If a sentence has two, one or both is deleted and understood from context.**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

The suffix *-iish-* implies an indirect causation (similar to English *have* in "I had him write a paper), while other causatives imply a direct causation (similar to English *make* in "I made him write a paper").**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

One of these more direct causation devices is the deletion of what is called a "neutral" morpheme *-ik-*, which indicates state or potentiality. Stems with the *-ik-* removed can take *-iish*, but the causation is less direct:**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

Another direct causation maker is *-y-* which is used for some verbs:**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data' not found.**

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## References

* Template:Cite journal
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## External links

Template:PortalTemplate:InterWiki

* Template:Commonscatinline
* Kinyarwanda.net Kinyarwanda–English dictionary and grammar reference
* Kinyarwanda phonology case study by University of Texas
* PanAfrican localisation page on Kinyarwanda and Kirundi
* Kinyarwanda–English Dictionary by Betty Ellen Cox
* A Kinyarwanda-English and English-Kinyarwanda Dictionary

Template:Languages of Rwanda
Template:Languages of Uganda
Template:Narrow Bantu languages

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1. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
2. ↑ "Rundi", Ethnologue, 16th Ed.