Mijikenda language

Mijikenda
Native to	Kenya, Tanzania
Region	Mombasa and Kwale districts in Kenya; Muheza and Tanga districts in Tanzania
Ethnicity	Mijikenda, Chonyi
Native speakers	1.9 million (2009 census)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Northeast Coast Bantu Sabaki Mijikenda
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: coh – Chonyi dig – Digo dug – Duruma nyf – Giryama seg – Segeju
Glottolog	miji1238[2]
Guthrie code	E.72,73,731,732[3]

Mijikenda is a Bantu dialect cluster of Kenya, with about 100,000 speakers in Tanzania.

Varieties

Maho (2009) lists four varieties as distinct languages:

• North Mijikenda - ("Nyika") consists of several mutually intelligible dialects: Giryama, Kauma, Chonyi, Duruma, Rabai, Jibana, Kambe, Ribe.
• Digo
• Segeju
• Degere (cf. Degere language (Cushitic))

Clicks

Clicks have been reported in ideophones from two dialects of Mijikenda, Digo and Duruma. (It is not known if they occur in the others.) These are tsya! /ʇ̃ǎ/ 'scram!' and /ʇ̃akule/ 'minute'. It is not known if these have any connection with the neighboring Dahalo language.

References

1. Chonyi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Digo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Duruma at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Giryama at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Segeju at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Mijikenda". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online

• Walsh, M.T. (2006). "A Click in Digo and its Historical Interpretation", Azania, 41.