Kimbundu
/kĩˈbũndu/noun
A Bantu language spoken mainly in northwestern Angola, especially around Luanda and Malanje.
Did you know?Kimbundu was one of the major languages encountered by Portuguese colonizers in Angola and strongly influenced Brazilian Portuguese, contributing words such as “moleque” and “cafuné.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Bantu
Proto-Bantu
*ki-
“Noun-class prefix associated with languages, artifacts, and other singular objects”
Precolonial Angola
Kimbundu
Mbundu
“The ethnonym for the Mbundu people, also called the Ambundu”
Precolonial Angola
Kimbundu
ki-Mbundu
“The Mbundu language; literally, the language associated with the Mbundu”
17th Century
Portuguese
Quimbundo
“Portuguese spelling used for the Kimbundu language”
19th Century
English
Kimbundu
“English scholarly form for the Bantu language of Angola”
Modern English
English
Kimbundu
“A major Angolan Bantu language spoken particularly in the Luanda region”