Tumbuka
Language · official in 1 country
Chitumbuka takes its chi- prefix from the phrase "the language of", so English publications usually keep the prefix too. It is a Bantu language of northern Malawi, eastern Zambia and southern Tanzania, native to more than a dozen peoples, among them the Tumbuka, Senga, Phoka, Henga and Northern Ngoni. In 2024 it had about 7.1 million native speakers in those three countries.
The language on record
- Own name
- Chiyowoyelo cha Chitumbuka
- ISO 639-3
- TUM
- Script
- Latin
- Family
- Bantu
- Official in
- 1 country
Where Tumbuka is official
Malawi is the one record that lists Tumbuka. Its constitution names English as the sole official language and counts Chitumbuka, with Chichewa, among the common languages.
Official beside Tumbuka
About Tumbuka
When Tumbuka lost its official standing
Chitumbuka was made an official language of Malawi in 1947, beside Chewa and English, and held that status for 21 years. In 1968 a one-nation, one-language policy removed it. It was taken out of the school curriculum, off the national radio and out of the print media. Radio programmes in Chitumbuka started again after multi-party democracy arrived in 1994. Today the language policy treats it as a common language of public life, the media and schooling, and English stays the only official language in the constitution.
Where Chitumbuka is spoken
In northern Malawi it is spoken in all six districts, Rumphi, Mzimba, Karonga, Chitipa, Nkhata-Bay and Likoma, and in the Central Region in Kasungu, Nkhotakota and Ntchisi. In Zambia it is spoken in Eastern and Muchinga provinces, where one variant goes by the name Senga, and in Tanzania in districts along the Malawian border. Some 20,000 people speak it in Zimbabwe, mostly in Harare. Twelve dialects have been studied. The Rumphi variety is sometimes called real Chitumbuka. The Mzimba dialect shows the mark of chiNgoni, the Zulu-like language of the Ngoni, down to click consonants in words such as chitha.
Why two spellings compete
The traditional spelling, used by the Chitumbuka Wikipedia and the newspaper Fuko, writes banthu "people" and chaka "year". The new official spelling, used in the Centre for Language Studies dictionary and the online Bible, writes ŵanthu and caka. Writers also hesitate between r and l, which are one sound: the dictionary has cakulya for "food" and the Bible cakurya.
Tone does little work. Every word said alone carries the same falling tone on its second-to-last syllable, so Chitumbuka cannot tell two words or two tenses apart by tone the way Chewa can.
Common questions
Questions about Tumbuka
Was Chitumbuka ever an official language?
Yes. Malawi made it official beside Chewa and English in 1947 and removed it in 1968 under a one-nation, one-language policy.
What does the chi- in Chitumbuka mean?
It means "the language of". Chitumbuka is the language of the Tumbuka, and the prefix is usually kept in English as well, the same way Chichewa is written for Chewa.
Which letters differ between old and new Tumbuka spelling?
The new official spelling writes ŵ and c where the traditional one writes b and ch, so banthu becomes ŵanthu and chaka becomes caka. The traditional form survives in the newspaper Fuko and on the Chitumbuka Wikipedia, and writers still disagree over r and l.