Chichewa (Chicheŵa)

Chichewa is a Bantu language spoken in parts of Malawi, where it is an official national language along with English, and also in Zambia, Mozambique, where the language is known as Chinyanja, and Zimbabwe. Between 7 and 8 million people speak Chichewa.

The orthography of Chichewa was standardised in 1973 when the New Chichewa Orthography Rules were published.

Chichewa pronunciation

Chichewa pronunciation

Sample text (Chichewa)

Anthu onse amabadwa aufulu ndiponso ofanana mu ulemu ndi ufulu wao. Iwowa ndi wodalitsidwa ndi mphamvu zoganiza ndi chikumbumtima ndipo achitirane wina ndi mnzake mwaubale.

Sample text (Chinyanja)

Anthu onse amabadwa mwa ufulu ndiponso olinganga m' makhalidwe ao. Iwo amakhala ndi nzeru za cibadwidwe kotero ayenera kucitirana zabwino wina ndi mnzace.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Tower of Babel in Chichewa

Links

Online Chichewa/(Chi)nyanja dictionary

Information about the Chichewa language
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/aflang/chichewa/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichewa_language

Online Chichewa lessons
http://nature.berkeley.edu/~alyons/chichewa/
http://learnchichewa.com/chichewa-resources/

Online Chichewa dictionary
http://translate.chichewadictionary.org/

Chichewa/(Chi)nyanja phrases
http://wikitravel.org/en/Nyanja_phrasebook
http://members.tripod.com/~malawi/chichewa.html

Niger-Congo languages

Akan, Bambara, Bamum, Bassa, Bemba, Chichewa, Duala, Ewe, Ewondo, Fula(ni), Ga, Ganda/Luganda, Herero, Igbo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kpelle, Lingala, Loma, Mandekan, Mende, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, OshiWambo, Shona, Southern Sotho, Swahili, Swati, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Twi, Vai, Venda, Wolof, Xhosa, Yorùbá, Zulu

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

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