Hehe language

Hehe, also known by its native name Kihehe [kihehe], is a Bantu language that is spoken by the Hehe people of the Iringa region of Tanzania, lying south of the Great Ruaha River.[3] It was reported to have "Ngoni" features, that is, words of a Zulu-like language introduced when conquered by a Nguni or Zulu-like people in the early 19th century. However, other "Ngoni" speeches seem to have lost most of these distinctive features over the past 150-odd years, the language more resembling those of the neighbouring peoples. In 1977 it was estimated that 190,000 people spoke Hehe. There has been some Bible translation (British and Foreign Bible Society). Hehe may be mutually intelligible with Bena.[3]

Hehe
Kihehe
Native toTanzania
EthnicityHehe
Native speakers
810,000 (2006)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3heh
Glottologhehe1240
G.62[2]
Linguasphere99-AUS-ua

Grammar

Hehe has 15 noun classes, marked with prefixes.[4]

Hehe has a complex tense-aspect-mood system.[5]

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɡ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced v (z)
prenasal ⁿz
Approximant l j w
  • [ʍ] can be heard as an allophone of /w/ among speakers in free variation.
  • [z] occurs in the language, but is mainly heard as an allophone of /s/ after nasal sounds, or as a result of Swahili loanwords.[6]

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i iː u uː
Mid e eː o oː
Low a aː

References
  1. Hehe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. Dwyer, D. J., Yankee, E., & Michigan State Univ., E. r. (1985). African Language Resource Handbook: A Resource Handbook of the Eighty-two Highest Priority African Languages. Prepublication Edition. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED256170.pdf
  4. David Odden, Introducing Phonology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 177.
  5. Mtavangu, Norbert (2008). "Tense and aspect in Ikihehe". Occasional Papers in Linguistics. 3: 34–41.
  6. Johnson, Martha B. (2015). A Contribution toward a Kihehe Grammar.


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