Fwe language

Fwe
cìfwè
Region	Zambezi region, Namibia and Western Province, Zambia
Native speakers	10,200 (2006)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Botatwe Subia Fwe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	fwe
Glottolog	fwee1238
Guthrie code	K.402

Person	màfwè
People	cìfwè

Fwe, or Chifwe, is a Bantu language spoken by 10,000 people along the Okavango River in the Zambezi region of Namibia and in the Western Province in Zambia. It is closely related to Kuhane, and is one of several Bantu languages of the Okavango which have click consonants.

Although under the pressure of Lozi and Kuhane (Subiya), Fwe speakers tend to have a positive attitude towards Fwe, and speaking Fwe is often considered an important part of one's identity, and thus underscores the vitality of the language.

Regional variation

Main phonological differences between Zambian and Namibian Fwe, as noted by both the speakers and seen in the data:

Zambian Fwe	Namibian Fwe
loss of clicks	maintenance of clicks
overgeneralization of /l/	[l] only as conditioned allophone of /r/
epenthetic [h] frequently used	epenthetic [h] rarely used

Morphological differences between Zambian and Namibian Fwe:

	Zambian Fwe	Namibian Fwe
past	na-	a-
reflexive	kí-	rí-
remote past	na-	ni-
remote future	na-	(á)rá-
inceptive	sha-	shi-
connective	PP - o	PP - a
persistive	shí-	shí-/-sí-
negative imperative	ásha-	ásha-/-ása-
negative infinitive	shá-	shá-/-sá-
negative subjunctive	sha	sha-/-sa-
near future	mbo-/mba-	mbo

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant inventory of Fwe

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Click	plain		[ǀ] [ɡǀ]
	prenasalized		[ⁿǀ̥] [ⁿǀ]
Nasal		[m]		[n]	[ɲ]	[ŋ]
Stop	voiceless	[p]		[t]		[k]
	voiced	[b]		[d]		[g]
	prenasalized	[ᵐp] [ᵐb]		[ⁿt] [ⁿd]		[ᵑk] [ᵑg]
Fricative	voiceless		[f]	[s]	[ʃ]		[h]
	voiced	[β]	[v]	[z]	[ʒ]
	prenasalized		[ᶬf] [ᶬv]	[ⁿs] [ⁿz]	[ᶮʃ]
Affricate	plain				[tʃ]
	prenasalized				[ᶮtʃ] [ᶮdʒ]
Tap				[ɾ]
Glide					[j]	[w]

• The plosives /p b d g/ are considered peripheral phonemes, as they are relatively infrequent in the lexicon. They are not reflexes of *p, *b, *d and *g as reconstructed for Proto-Bantu, but mainly appear in loanwords.
• Though there are numerous cases where /h/ contrasts with zero, i.e. where /h/ can-not be omitted, [h] is also often used as an epenthetic consonant, in which case it freely commutes with [w], [j] and zero. Phonemic /h/, on the other hand, cannot commute with a glide nor can it be dropped.

Vowels

Fwe has five contrastive vowel phonemes: /i u ɛ ɔ a/.