Rwanda
Ikinyarwanda (O)Runyarwanda
Spoken in	Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ethnicity	Hutu, Tutsi
Native speakers	7.5 million  (1998)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu Ruanda-Rundi Rwanda
Official status
Official language in	Rwanda
Language codes
ISO 639-1	rw
ISO 639-2	kin
ISO 639-3	kin
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Kinyarwanda (also sometimes known as Rwanda, Ruanda or Rwandan) is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language spoken by some 12 million people in Rwanda, where it is the official language, and adjacent parts of southern Uganda. (The Kirundi dialect is the official language of neighboring Burundi.)^[1]

The inhabitants of Rwanda and Burundi belong to three different ethnic groups: Hutu (84%), Tutsi (15%), and Twa (1%) (a pygmy people). 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). Rwanda is one of very few countries in the world, where the native language (Kinyarwanda) is spoken by all ethnic groups of the country.

Phonology[link]

Consonants[link]

The table below gives the consonant set of Kinyarwanda, grouping voiceless and voiced consonants together in a cell where appropriate, in that order.

Vowels[link]

The table below gives the vowel sounds of Kinyarwanda.

All five vowels occur in long and short forms. The distinction is phonemically distinctive. The quality of a vowel is not affected by its length.

Tone[link]

Kinyarwanda is a tonal language.

This section requires expansion.

Orthography[link]

Except in a few morphological contexts, the sequences 'ki' and 'ke' may be pronounced interchangeably as [ki] and [ke] or [ci] and [ce] according to speaker's preference.^{[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."

In the colloquial language, there are some discrepancies from orthographic Cw and Cy. Specifically, rw (as in Rwanda) is often pronounced /ɾɡw/. The most obvious differences are the following:

Orthog.	Pron.
rw	/ɾɡw/
pw	/pk/
bw	/bɡ/
mw	/mŋ/
my	/mɲ/
tw	/tkw/
dw	/dɡw /
cw	/tʃkw/
by	/bɟ/

Note that these are all sequences; /bɡ/, for example, is not labio-velar [ɡ͡b]. Even when Rwanda is pronounced /ɾwanda/, the onset is a sequence, not a labialized [ɾʷ].

Grammar[link]

Nouns[link]

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[link]

All Kinyarwanda verb infinitives begin with gu- or ku- (morphed into 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.

The prefixes for pronouns are as follows:

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

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed. ed.). Dallas: SIL. http://www.ethnologue.com/. 
• Habumuremyi, Emmanuel et al. (2006). IRIZA-STARTER 2006: The 1st Kinyarwanda–English and English–Kinyarwanda Dictionary. Kigali: Rural ICT-Net. 
• Jouannet, Francis (ed.) (1983) (in French). Le Kinyarwanda, langue bantu du Rwanda. Paris: SELAF. 
• Kimenyi, Alexandre (1980). A Relational Grammar of Kinyarwanda. University of California Press. 

External links[link]

• 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

Kinyarwanda edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

v t e Languages of Rwanda Official Kinyarwanda French English

v t e Languages of Uganda Official English Swahili Ugandan Sign Language Indigenous Adhola Alur Aringa Elgon Gwere Ik Karamojong Kiga Kitara Nkole Lango Luganda Lugbara Luhya (Nyole dialect) Masaba Nkore Nkore-Kiga Nubi Nyoro Oropom Pökoot Rundi Rwanda Soga Talinga-Bwisi Teso Tooro