Sena language

Sena
Native toMozambique, Malawi
EthnicitySena
Native speakers
2,869,000 (2017–2020)
Dialects
  • Rue (Barwe)
  • Podzo
Official status
Official language in
 Zimbabwe (as 'Chibarwe')
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
seh – Mozambiquean Sena
swk – Malawian Sena
bwg – Barwe
Glottolognucl1396  Nuclear Sena
mala1475  Malawi Sena
barw1243  Barwe
N.44,441 (N.45,46)
Linguasphere99-AUS-xi incl. varieties 99-AUS-xia...-xic; also 99-AUS-xj (chi-Rue) & 99-AUS-xm (chi-Podzo)
A speaker of Barwe, a dialect of the Sena language. Portuguese is also spoken in this video.

Sena is a Bantu language spoken in the four provinces of central Mozambique (Zambezi valley): Tete, Sofala, Zambezia and Manica. There were an estimated 900,000 native Sena speakers in Mozambique in 1997, with at least 1.5 million if including those who speak it as a second language. It is one of the Nyasa languages.

Sena is spoken in several dialects, of which Rue (also called Barwe or Cibalke) and Podzo are divergent. The Sena of Malawi may be a distinct language. Barwe (Chibarwe) has official recognition in Zimbabwe.

Some remarks on Sena tenses can be found in Funnell (2004), Barnes & Funnell (2005) and in Kiso (2012).

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palato-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
plain lab.
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop voiceless p t k
aspirated
voiced b d ɡ
implosive ɓ ɗ (ɗʲ)
Affricate voiceless p͡f t͡s p͡s t͡ʃ
voiced b͡v d͡z b͡z d͡ʒ
aspirated t͡ʃʰ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced v z ʒ
Approximant l j w
Trill r
  • Labialized sounds /sʷ,zʷ/ can also be heard as retroflex [ʂ,ʐ] among different speakers.
  • /ɗ/ is heard as palatalized [ɗʲ] when followed by a /j/.
  • The following sounds occur as prenasalized when after a homorganic nasal; [ᵐp,ᶬf,ᶬp͡f,ⁿt,ⁿs,ᶮt͡ʃ,ᵑk], [ᵐb,ᵐɓ,ᶬv,ᶬb͡v,ⁿd,ⁿɗ,ⁿz,ᶮd͡ʒ,ᵑɡ].

This page was last updated at 2023-12-07 10:03 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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