Chibemba
/tʃɪˈbɛm.bə/noun
Chibemba is a Bantu language spoken chiefly in Zambia and neighboring parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Did you know?The opening element chi- belongs to a widespread Bantu grammatical pattern used in names for languages, linking Chibemba structurally with forms such as Chichewa and Kiswahili.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Bantu
Proto-Bantu
*ki-
“Noun-class prefix associated with certain objects, including languages and cultural forms; the reconstructed ancestor of forms such as chi- and ki-.”
Early Bantu
Bantu
*ki-Bemba
“A developing compound meaning approximately “the Bemba language”; the exact origin of the ethnonym Bemba is uncertain.”
Precolonial period
Bemba
iciBemba
“A Bemba-language form meaning “the Bemba language,” using ici-, the language prefix in a Bemba orthographic tradition.”
19th–20th Century
English
Chibemba
“An English rendering of the Bemba-language name, especially common in descriptions of Zambia and the Congo region.”
Modern English
English
Chibemba
“The established English name for the Bemba language.”
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