Kimbundu

Kimbundu
North Mbundu
Native toAngola
RegionBengo Province, Luanda Province, Icolo e Bengo Province, Cuanza Norte Province, Cuanza Sul Province, Malanje Province
EthnicityAmbundu
Native speakers
3.7 million (2024)
Dialects
  • Kimbundu proper (Ngola)
  • Mbamba (Njinga)
Official status
Official language in
Angola ("National language")
Language codes
ISO 639-2kmb
ISO 639-3kmb
Glottologkimb1241
H.21
A Kimbundu speaker, recorded in Angola

Kimbundu, a Bantu language also known as Mbundu or North Mbundu (to distinguish it from Umbundu or South Mbundu), is the second-most-spoken Bantu language in Angola. Its speakers include the Ambundu people , and are mostly concentrated in the north-west of the country, in the Bengo, Luanda, Icolo e Bengo, Cuanza Norte, Cuanza Sul, and Malanje provinces. Around 3.7 million people worldwide speak Kimbundu (as of 2024).

Northern Mbundu
PersonMumbundu
PeopleAmbundu or Akwambundu
LanguageKimbundu
CountryNdongo and Matamba

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop plain p t k
voiced b
prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd (ᵑɡ)
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced v z ʒ
prenasalized ᶬv ⁿz ⁿʒ
Nasal m n (ɲ) ŋ
Approximant w l j

Allophones:

[ɸ] and [β] are allophones of /p/ and /b/, respectively, before /a/ and /u/. The phoneme /l/ is phonetically a flap [ɾ], a voiced plosive [d] or its palatalized version [dʲ] when before the front high vowel /i/. In the same way, the alveolars /s/, /z/ and /n/ are palatalized to [ʃ], [ʒ] and [ɲ], respectively, before [i]. There may be an epenthesis of [g] after /ŋ/ in word medial positions, thus creating a phonetic cluster [ŋg] in a process of fortition.

There is long distance nasal harmony, in which /l/ is realized as [n] if the past morphemes contain /m/ or /n/, but not a nasal sound stops in pronuciations.

Vowels

Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

There are two contrasting tones: a high (á) and a low tone (à). There is also a downstep in cases of tonal sandhi.

Vowel harmony

There is vowel harmony in two groups (the high vowels /i, u/ and the mid and low vowels /e, o, a/) that applies only for verbal morphology. In some morphemes, vowels can be deleted normally to prevent a hiatus.

Kimbundu alphabet

Consonants

B D F G H J K L M N P S T V W X Y Z

Vowels

A E I O U

Loans

Portuguese

There is a small number of words of Kimbundu origin, and many of those are indirect and come via Angolan Portuguese.

bué (pronounced [bwɛ], "very, a lot"),

cota ([ˈkɔtɐ], "old person")

mambo ([ˈmɐ̃bu])

Zumbi ("zombie"; is the name of the quilombo leader or chef Zumbi dos Palmares), it comes from Kimbundu nzumbi ("ghost", "spirit") or even nzambi ("god").

Semba, is a traditional Angolan music and type of dance and it is also related to the Brazilian dance style samba ; it comes from Kimbundu semba ("belly-bump").

Cafuné ("caress", it is usually passing one's fingers softly through someone's hair or some specific parts in the body), comes from Kimbundu kifuné.

Bunda ("buttocks") it is originated from Kimbundu mbunda.

Conjugation

Personal pronouns Translation
Eme I
Eie / Eye You
Muene He or she
Etu We
Enu You
Ene They

Conjugating the verb to be (kuala; also kukala in Kimbundu) in the present:

Eme ngala I am
Eie uala / Eye uala / Eie wala / Eye wala You are
Muene uala / Muene wala He or she is
Etu tuala / Etu twala We are
Enu nuala / Enu nwala You are
Ene ala They are

Conjugating the verb to have (kuala ni; also kukala ni in Kimbundu) in the present :

Eme ngala ni I have
Eie / Eye uala ni You have
Muene uala ni He or she has
Etu tuala ni We have
Enu nuala ni You have
Ene ala ni They have

Notes

  1. ↑ Ambundu is the short form for Akwa Mbundu, where 'Akwa' means 'from', or 'of', or more originally 'originally from' and 'belonging to'. In Kimbundu language, the particle Akwa is shortened into simply A, so that instead of Akwa Mbndu, it becomes Ambundu; similarly the term Akwa Ngola becomes ANgola, then Angola. Ngola was the title for kings in the historic Northern Angolan kingdom, before the Portuguese invasion and colonization.

References

  1. 1 2 "Resultados Definitivos do Recenseamento Geral da População e Habitação - 2024" (PDF) (in Portuguese). 2025-11-20.
  2. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). "Kimbundu". Glottolog . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ A language name 'mbundu' was used by Guthrie in his 1948 classification, for his group R10 (the language is Umbundu, the Ovimbundu's language. Kimbundu is found as Ndongo-H21). This has become obsolete: In his 1971 classification, the group H20 is called the Kimbundu group, and the R10 group is called Umbundu group. See: M. Guthrie, The Classification of the Bantu Languages (OUP, 1948), and M. Guthrie, Comparative Bantu, Vol 2 (Gregg Press, 1971). Glottolog classifies Kimbundu in a Mbundu group, which is in the Northern Njila group, and Umbundu (the Ovimbundu's language) in the Kunene group, which is in the Southern Njila group. see the Glottolog entry
  5. ↑ "Narrow Bantu "H"". International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press. 2003-01-01. p. 115. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195139778.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-513977-8.
  6. ↑ "Mbundu". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 30 November 2025. Mbundu, second largest ethnolinguistic group of Angola, comprising a diversity of peoples who speak Kimbundu, a Bantu language.
  7. ↑ Xavier, Francisco da Silva (2010). Fonologia segmental e supra-segmental do Quimbundo: variedades de Luanda, Bengo, Quanza Norte e Malange (Ph.D. thesis) (in Portuguese). doi:10.11606/t.8.2010.tde-20102010-091425.
  8. ↑ Omniglot - Kimbundu
  9. ↑ S.A, Priberam Informática. "bué". Dicionário Priberam.
  10. ↑ S.A, Priberam Informática. "Cota". Dicionário Priberam.
  11. ↑ "zumbi". Wiktionary. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
  12. ↑ "semba". Wiktionary. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
  13. ↑ "cafuné". Wiktionary. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
  14. ↑ "bunda". Wiktionary. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
  15. ↑ "A língua kimbundu". Ciberduvidas da lingua portuguesa (in Portuguese). Retrieved 30 November 2020.