bemba
Language & Culture Studying bemba
...continued in the U.S.
Below is a partial list of some of the universities
Some examples of common Bemba words and phrases are:
in the United States that currently offer
How are you? Mwashibukeni?
I am fine. Eyamukwayi. Bemba. For more information, please contact
Yes. Eya ye. the National African Language Resource
No. Awe. Center or visit the NALRC website at: http://
Thank you. Twa to te la. www.nalrc.indiana.edu.
Stop! Iminina!
Let’s go! Natuleya!
the market ekobashita fyakulya
Cameron University,
How much? Shinga? Emory University
It is too much! Fingi! Michigan State University,
drinking water amenshi ayakuwa Tennessee Foreign Language Institute
some food ichakulya
Some of the historical and linguistic information
usedin this text is from the research of Professors
A.R.M. Kasonde, M.E. Kashoki, and Debra
Spitulnik and was taken from the website of the
Department of Anthropology of
Emory University. It can be accessed at:
http://www.anthropology.emory.edu/FACULTY/
ANTDS/Bemba/profile.html
http://www.medguide.org.zm/translation/
vocabtbl.htm
National African
Language Resource
Center (NALRC)
701 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street
Bloomington, IN 47406 USA
A BEMBA WOMAN
Telephone: (812) 856-4199, Fax: 8128564189
Email: nalrc@indiana.edu
Website: http://www.nalrc.indiana.edu National African Language
Resource Center (NALRC)
Why Study bemba? Language & Culture
Bemba, also known as iciBemba, ciBemba, chiBemba, and Bemba is classified as a Central Bantu language. The
ichiBemba, is spoken primarily in the Northern, Copperbelt, Bantu language is the member of the Benue-Congo
and Luapula provinces of Zambia, as well as in the southern family, a branch of the Niger-Congo family, which is a
parts of both the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and
branch of the Niger-Kordofanian family. The most
Tanzania. Since the Bembas are the dominant ethnic group in
Zambia, Bemba is the most common indigenous language
closely related languages to Bemba are Kaonde (Zambia
used in the country. Almost four million people speak it as a and the DRC), Luba (DRC), Nsenga (Zambia), Tonga
first language, and another two million use it as a second (Zambia), and Nyanja/Chewa (Zambia and Malawi). In
language. Newspapers and magazines are published in Bemba the early 1800s, Portuguese and Arab traders were quite
and there are also radio broadcasts and a few television active in the Bemba-speaking regions and as a result,
programs in the language. Bemba has a number of loan words from both Portuguese Bemba lady preparing food
and Arabic. Many Swahili words have also entered
A knowledge of Bemba is essential to anyone in linguistics, Bemba through direct contact with the Swahili-speaking
anthropology, history, and folklore who wants to study in the
people of the region. When English-speaking missionaries
countries where Bemba is spoken. Individuals working for
international organizations will also find that they can
arrived in the late 1880s, words from their language also
accomplish their day-to-day tasks more easily if they can speak entered the Bemba vocabulary. In recent years, Bemba
Bemba. Tourists, too, will soon discover that a knowledge of has incorporated numerous loan words from Afrikaans
Bemba will allow them to enjoy their holidays more if they and Zulu, via mine workers’ pidgins, such as Fanagala,
can communicate with the Bemba-speaking people of the Kabanga, and Fanakalo.
DRC, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Today, Bemba has a number of dialects which are
distinguished by their association with distinct ethnic
Who Speaks bemba? groups and cultures. Each dialect exhibits minor
differences in pronunciation, phonology, morphology, and
Peopl e and History vocabulary. Because Bemba is a widely used lingua franca,
especially in urban areas of Zambia, the city dialects have
The Bemba-speaking people in Zambia originated from the an unusually large number of lexical borrowings from Two Bemba preachers
Kola region of what is now the Democratic Republic of English, the national language. Among the Bemba
Congo. They are a branch of the ancient Luba Empire and
orthographic rules now officially approved by the
settled in the high plateau area of northeastern Zambia, from
Lake Bangweulu to the Malawi border, sometime during the government are: a)the use of Roman letters, b)the
middle of the 17th century. By the end of the 18th century, symbolization of long vowels with doubled vowel
the Bembas had established a powerful kingdom under the grapheme's, c)the orthographic standardization of certain
central authority of Chitimukulu, the paramount chief. affricates, fricatives, and nasals, d)the non-symbolization
Bemba rule continued to expand widely throughout of tone, despite its semantic functions, and e)the adoption
northeastern Zambia until the end of the 19th century, when of a conjunctive mode of spelling nouns, verbs, adjectives
the first European missionaries and fortune-seekers began to and other grammatical forms which represents them with
vie for power in the area. By 1890, Cecil Rhodes’ British their bound affixes.
South African Company had taken control of all of the Bemba
territory, and in 1924, the British colony of Northern
Rhodesia was established across the entire region of what is
present-day Zambia. Zambia gained its independence from
Great Britain in 1964. Bemba traditional dancers
