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 the 1970s, it was estimated that 190,000 people spoke Hehe.[4] 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.[5]

Hehe has a complex tense-aspect-mood system.[6]

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.[7]

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, David J.; Yankee, Everyl (January 1985). African Language Resource Handbook: A Resource Handbook of the Eighty-two Highest Priority African Languages (PDF) (Prepublication ed.). East Lansing: Michigan State University. ED256170.
  4. Voegelin, C. F.; Voegelin, F. M. (1977). "Bantu Proper = Narrow Bantu". Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. p. 57. ISBN 0-444-00155-7.
  5. Odden, David (2005). "Doing an Analysis". Introducing Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 177. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511808869.009. ISBN 978-0-521-53404-8.
  6. Mtavangu, Norbert (2008). "Tense and aspect in Ikihehe". Occasional Papers in Linguistics. 3: 34–41.
  7. Johnson, Martha B. (2015). A Contribution toward a Kihehe Grammar.


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