Rangi language
| Rangi | |
|---|---|
| Kilaangi | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | Rangi |
|
Native speakers
|
410,000 (2007) |
|
Niger–Congo
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | lang1320 |
F.33 |
|
Rangi or Langi (there is no distinction between /r/ and /l/; also known as Irangi, Kilaangi, etc.) is a Bantu language of spoken by the Rangi people of Kondoa District in the Dodoma Region of Central Tanzania. Whilst the language is known as Rangi in English and Kirangi in the dominant Swahili spoken throughout the African Great Lakes, the self-referent term is Kilaangi.
Estimates at the number of Rangi-speakers range from 270,000 to 410,000 speakers. Rangi is the largest linguistic group in the Babati-Kondoa region.
Two main varieties of Rangi are identified - that spoken in the Rangi Highlands (known in Swahili as Irangi ya Juu) and that of the Lowlands (Irangi ya Chini). Despite differences, these varieties are mutually intelligible. However, some dialectal variation is also found between the varieties spoken in the main town of Kondoa, as well as in the surrounding villages of Bereko, Bukulu, Isabe, Humai, Kwadinu, Kolo, Choka, Gubali, Nkuku, Bicha, Kingale, Kelema, Paranga, Kidoka, Haubi and Mondo.
Rangi exhibits the basic head-initial syntax commonly associated with Bantu languages. The languages exhibits a dominant SVO word order, with some variation in word order possible for pragmatic reasons.
In common with many Bantu languages, Rangi employs a system of noun classes. Rangi has 19 noun classes. Classes 1-10 show regular singular-plural distinctions (with odd numbers representing singular forms and even numbers representing the plural forms). Class 12 is used for (singular) diminutive nouns, class 15 contains infinitival nouns, classes 16 and 17 contain locative nouns, whilst class 19 contains plural diminutives nouns.
Classes 1/2 contain human nouns: kinship terms, professions, ethnicities, nationalities etc.
Class 3/4 contain natural phenomena, trees and plants, body parts which exhibit a part-whole relationship.
Classes 5/6 contain nouns which host the prefix i- or ri-.
Classes 7/8 contain nouns which denote inanimate objects including tools.
...
Wikipedia