thumb|250px|A Makhuwa family in [[Nampula.]]

Makhuwa (Emakhuwa; also spelled Makua and Macua) or Mozambican is the primary Bantu language of northern Mozambique. It is spoken by roughly 5.8 million Makua people, who live north of the Zambezi River, particularly in Nampula Province, which is virtually entirely ethnically Makua. It is the most widely spoken indigenous language of Mozambique.

Apart from the languages in the same group, eMakhuwa is distinguished from other Bantu languages by the loss of consonant + vowel prefixes in favour of e; compare epula, "rain", with Tswana pula.

Long and short vowels distinguish five vowel qualities /i e a o u/:

  • omala - to finish
  • omaala - to paste, stick
  • omela - to sprout, bud
  • omeela - to share out

The consonants are more complex: postalveolar tt and tth exist, both p and ph are used. Both x (English "sh") and h exist while x varies with s. Regionally, there are also θ (the "th" of English "thorn"), ð (the "th" of English "seethe"), z and ng. For instance in eLomwe, to which Makhuwa is closely related, the tt of eMakhuwa is represented by a "ch" as in English "church".

Dialects

The names of the dialects vary in different sources. The shibboleth or distinctive variant in the dialects is the treatment of the s:

  • eSamgagi dialect: odhiva
  • eSangagi dialect: θtiva
  • eSaaka dialect: ociva
  • eNahara dialect: oziva - all meaning "agreeable, pleasant"

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|-

!Makhuwa

!English

!Notes

|-

|apakati

|avocado

|borrowed from Portuguese abacate

|-

|ovenya

|to wake up

|-

|alyu

|garlic

|borrowed from Portuguese alho

|-

|mwana

|child

|Cognate with Swahili mwana

|-

|ophenta

|to love

|Cognate with Swahili kupenda

|-

|ekamaama

|light

|

|-

|}

Reading material in eMakhuwa

Muluku Onnalavuliha Àn'awe - Ipantte sikosolasiwe sa Biblia ("God speaks to his children" - extracts from the Scriptures for children) Aid to the Church in Need. Edição em Macúa / eMakhuwa) Editorial Verbo Divino, Estella, Navarra, 1997.

Sample text

6 Moovirikana ni mamwene ale ootakhala, aakhala atthu akina yaawenrye woona ntata na Muluku, nnaamwi awo okathi mukina yaarina makhalelo mamosaru yaarina aya atthu ale akina aromoliwe.

Translation

6 In contrast with those wicked kings, others saw God's hand, even though they were in the same situation as those mentioned above.

References

  • Oliver Kröger (2005), Report on a Survey of Coastal Makua Dialects (SIL International)