Chewa
Language · official in 2 countries and territories
Chichewa carried the name Chinyanja until 1968, when Malawi officially renamed it. The prefix chi- means "in the manner of" the Chewa people. It is a tonal Bantu language of Guthrie Zone N, the group that also holds Tumbuka, Sena and Nsenga, and it is listed as official in 2 countries on record, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
The language on record
- Own name
- Chilankhulo cha Chichewa
- ISO 639-1
- NY
- ISO 639-3
- NYA
- Script
- Latin
- Family
- Bantu
- Official in
- 2 countries
Where Chewa is official
Zimbabwe names Chewa among its 16 official languages. Malawi's record lists it too, although Malawi's constitution gives official status to English alone and calls Chichewa a common language.
Official beside Chewa
About Chewa
Who first wrote Chewa down
The name was first recorded as Chévas by António Gamitto, who crossed a corner of present-day Malawi in 1831 on an expedition from Tete. In Sierra Leone the missionary Sigismund Koelle interviewed a former slave named Mateke and printed a list of 263 words and phrases of his "Maravi" in Polyglotta Africana in 1854. It was an early southern form of Chichewa: Mateke said dzaka dziŵiri for "two years", where the modern phrase is zaka ziwiri.
The first extensive record came from Johannes Rebmann near Mombasa, whose Dictionary of the Kiniassa Language was written in 1853 and 1854 from the speech of a Malawian named Salimini and published in 1877. Alexander Riddel wrote the first grammar in 1880. A whole Bible in the Likoma Island dialect appeared in 1912, and the Buku Lopatulika, made in a Central Region dialect between about 1900 and 1922, was reissued in revised form in 2016.
Why tone decides the meaning of a verb
Each word has its own pitch pattern, usually a single high tone on one of the last three syllables or none at all. Each tense of the verb has a tonal pattern of its own as well, and some pairs of tenses share a tense marker and differ only in tone. Tone can also show whether a verb stands in a main clause or a relative clause. Mark Hanna Watkins' A Grammar of Chichewa of 1937, written with a student from Nyasaland in Chicago, was the first grammar to mark the tones.
The spelling in use in Malawi was introduced in 1973 and replaced the Chinyanja Orthography Rules of 1931. The affricates bv and pf are now mostly heard as v and f, and the University of Malawi dictionary drops them from its headwords.
What official status Chewa holds
Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution lists Chewa among 16 official languages, and it is spoken in the country's northeast. In Malawi, Chichewa and Chitumbuka were official beside English under colonial rule and after independence in 1964. The language policy of 1968 left English alone at the official level, and the constitution now treats Chichewa and Chitumbuka as common languages of the public, the media and schooling. Most Malawian television is broadcast in Chichewa. Zambia's Eastern Province and Mozambique's Tete province recognise Chewa speakers as a minority.
Common questions
Questions about Chewa
Is Chichewa the same as Chinyanja?
Yes. Chinyanja was the older name, and Malawi officially changed it to Chichewa in 1968. Early grammars from 1880 onwards use Chinyanja.
Does Malawi's constitution make Chichewa official?
No. The constitution names English as the official language and treats Chichewa and Chitumbuka as common languages. Both were official beside English until the policy change of 1968. Malawi appears on this page because the country record lists Chewa.
Which countries give Chewa official status?
The record lists 2: Malawi and Zimbabwe, whose 2013 constitution names it among 16 official languages.