Mbukushu language
Mbukushu or Thimbukushu is a Bantu language spoken by 45,000 people along the Kavango East Region in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Botswana, Angola and Zambia.
In 2022, it was selected among a variety of Mother Tongue languages to be taught in Botswana Primary Schools in the year 2023.
Mbukushu is one of several Bantu languages of the Kavango which have click consonants; Mbukushu has three: tenuis c, voiced gc, and nasalized nc, as well as prenasalized ngc, which vary between speakers as dental, palatal, and postalveolar. It also has a nasal glottal approximant.
Phonology
Consonants
- Sounds are only heard from loanwords.
- may also be heard as a palatal fricative .
- Click sounds may also range to being alveolar or palatal.
Vowels