Ronga language

Not to be confused with the Rongga language of central Flores, Indonesia.

Ronga
Native to	Mozambique, South Africa
Native speakers	720,000 (2006)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Tswa–Ronga Ronga
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rng
Glottolog	rong1268
Guthrie code	S.54
Linguasphere	99-AUT-dd incl. varieties 99-AUT-dda...-dde

Ronga (XiRonga; sometimes ShiRonga or GiRonga) is a Bantu language of the Tswa–Ronga branch spoken just south of Maputo in Mozambique. It extends a little into South Africa. It has about 650,000 speakers in Mozambique and a further 90,000 in South Africa, with dialects including Konde, Putru and Kalanga.

The Swiss philologist Henri-Alexandre Junod seems to have been the first linguist to have studied it, in the late 19th century.

Phonology

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

		Labio-(dental)		Alveolar		Lateral		Post-alveolar		Retroflex		Velar/ Glottal
		plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Nasal	voiced	m		n	nʷ			ɲ	ɲʷ				ŋʷ
	breathy	mʱ		nʱ	nʷʱ
Stop	voiceless	p		t	tʷ							k	kʷ
	aspirated	pʰ		tʰ								kʰ	kʷʰ
	voiced	b		d			dˡʷ					ɡ	ɡʷ
	breathy	bʱ		dʱ								ɡʱ	ɡʷʱ
	non-pulmonic	ɓ		ɗ				ɡǂ
Affricate	voiceless	p̪f	psʷ	ts				tʃ		tʂ	tʂʷ
	aspirated	p̪fʰ	psʷʰ	tsʰ				tʃʰ		tʂʰ
	voiced	b̪v	bzʷ	dz				dʒ		dʐ	dʐʷ
	breathy							dʒʱ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	sʷ	ɬ	ɬʷ	ʃ	ʃʷ
	voiced	v		z				ʒ		ʐ	ʐʷ
	breathy	vʱ											ɦ
Sonorant	voiced			r		l	lʷ	j					w
	breathy												wʱ

Alphabet

Its alphabet is similar to that of Tsonga as provided by Methodist missionaries and Portuguese settlers.

Methodist alphabet

Letter	A	B	C	D	E	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	Ṅ	O	P	R	S	Ŝ	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	Ẑ
Value	a	b~β	tʃ	d	e~ɛ	ɡ	h	i	dʒ	k	l	m	n	ŋ	ɔ~o	p	r	s	ʂ	t	u	v	w	ʃ	j	z	ʐ

1989 alphabet

Letter	A	B	By	Ch	D	E	G	H	Hl	I	J	K	L	Lh	M	N	Nʼ	O	P	Ps	R	S	Sv	Sw	T	U	V	Vh	W	X	Xj	Y	Z	Zv	Zw
Value	a	b~β	b͡ʐ	tʃ	d	e~ɛ	ɡ	h	ɸ	i	dʒ	k	l	ʎ	m	n	ŋ	ɔ~o	p	p͡ʂ	r	s	ʂ	sʷ	t	u	ʋ	v	w	ʃ	ʒ	j	z	ʐ	zʷ

Grammar

Ronga is grammatically so close to Tsonga in many ways that census officials have often considered it a dialect; its noun class system is very similar and its verbal forms are almost identical. Its most immediately noticeable difference is a much greater influence from Portuguese, due to being centred near the capital Maputo (formerly Lourenço Marques).

Literature

The first book to be published in Ronga was the Gospel of John translated mainly by Henri Berthoud from the Swiss Romande Mission. It was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1896. Further translation was done by Pierre Loze from Mission Romande (Swiss Romande Mission) and H.L. Bishop (Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society), assisted by Jeremia Caetano and Efraim Hely. The New Testament was published in 1903, and the whole Bible was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1923.