Umbundu

E71693

Umbundu is a major Bantu language spoken primarily in central and southern Angola, especially by the Ovimbundu people.

Observed surface forms (1)

Surface form As subject As object
Mbundu 0 1

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Bantu language
language of Angola
natural language
branch Benue–Congo NERFINISHED
closelyRelatedTo Kimbundu
other Bantu languages of Angola
country Angola
ethnicLanguageOf Ovimbundu people
hasAlternativeName South Mbundu
Umbundo
hasCulturalRole carrier of Ovimbundu oral tradition
medium of traditional songs and stories
hasDialects various regional dialects
hasGlottocode umbu1258
hasGrammarType subject–verb–object word order
hasLinguisticFeature agglutinative morphology
noun class system
tonal distinctions
hasNeighboringLanguage Chokwe
Kimbundu
Ovambo
hasOrthographyBasedOn Portuguese-based Latin alphabet conventions
hasPhonologicalFeature contrastive vowel length
prenasalized consonants
hasSpeakerPopulation millions of speakers
hasStandardizationEffortsBy Angolan linguistic institutions
isMajorLanguageIn Angola
isOneOfLargestLanguagesOf Angola
isTaughtAt some universities and linguistic departments
isVernacularFor Ovimbundu people
languageCodeISO639-2 umb
languageCodeISO639-3 umb
languageFamily Niger–Congo NERFINISHED
partOf Niger–Congo language family NERFINISHED
region Central Africa
spokenIn Angola
spokenPrimarilyIn central Angola
southern Angola
statusInAngola major national language
subbranch Southern Bantu
subfamilyOf Bantu languages
usedAlongside Portuguese language
surface form: "Portuguese"
usedBy Ovimbundu communities
usedIn daily communication
local media in Angola
usedInEducation some primary education and literacy programs in Angola
writingSystem Latin script

Referenced by (4)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Kimbundu alternateName Umbundu
this entity surface form: "Mbundu"
Kimbundu closelyRelatedTo Umbundu
Angola nationalLanguage Umbundu