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Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language spoken by some 9 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in Uganda. It is the official language of Burundi. Kirundi is mutually intelligible with Kinyarwanda, an official language of Rwanda, and the two form part of the wider dialect continuum known as Rwanda-Rundi.[3]

Rundi
Ikirundi
Native to	Burundi
Ethnicity	Hutu, Tutsi, Twa and Ganwa
Native speakers	11,244,750 (2017)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu Rwanda-Rundi (D62) Rundi
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Burundi
Language codes
ISO 639-1	rn Rundi
ISO 639-2	run Rundi
ISO 639-3	run Rundi
Glottolog	rund1242  Rundi rund1241  Rundi-Kitwa
Guthrie code	JD.62[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Person	Umurundi
People	Abarundi
Language	Ikirundi
Country	u Burundi

Kirundi is natively spoken by the Hutu, including Bakiga and other related ethnicities, as well as Tutsi, Twa and Hima among others have adopted the language. Neighbouring dialects of Kirundi are mutually intelligible with Ha, a language spoken in western Tanzania.

Kirundi is one of the languages where Meeussen's rule, a rule describing a certain pattern of tonal change in Bantu languages, is active.

In 2020, the Rundi Academy was established to help standardize and promote Kirundi.[4]

Phonology

Consonants

Although the literature on Rundi agrees on 5 vowels, the number of consonants can vary anywhere from 19 to 26 consonants.[5] The table below is compiled from a survey of academic acceptance of Rundi consonants.[6]

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k
	voiced	b	d		ɟ	ɡ
Affricate		p͡f	t͡s	t͡ʃ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ			h
	voiced	v	z	ʒ
Approximant					j	w
Flap			ɾ
Trill			r

Vowels

The table below gives the vowel sounds of Rundi.

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

All five vowels occur in long and short forms. The distinction is phonemic.[7]

Tone

Rundi is a tonal language. There are two essential tones in Rundi: high and low (or H and L). Since Rundi has phonemic distinction on vowel length, when a long vowel changes from a low tone to a high tone it is marked as a rising tone. When a long vowel changes from a high tone to a low tone, it is marked as a falling tone.[8]

Rundi is often used in phonology to illustrate examples of Meeussen's rule[9][10] In addition, it has been proposed that tones can shift by a metrical or rhythmic structure. Some authors have expanded these more complex features of the tonal system noting that such properties are highly unusual for a tone system.[11]

Phonotactics

Syllable structure in Rundi is considered to be CV, that is having no clusters, no coda consonants, and no complex vowel nuclei. It has been proposed that sequences that are CVV in the surface realization are actually CV in the underlying deep structure, with the consonant coalescing with the first vowel.[12]

Consonant harmony

Rundi has been shown to have properties of consonant harmony particularly when it comes to sibilants. Meeussen described this harmony in his essay and it is investigated further by others.[13] One example of this harmony is triggered by /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ and targets the set of /s/ and /z/ in preceding adjacent stem syllables.

Official use

Kirundi was recognized an official language in Burundi by the 1962 Constitution of the Kingdom of Burundi. In accordance with the constitution, many Burundian government orders, especially those printed in the Bulletin Officiel du Burundi from 1962 to 1963, were written in both French and Kirundi. After the constitution was suspended in 1966, Kirundi remained a de facto official language in the county, though its use in government documents declined.[14] In 1972 Kirundi was adopted as the official language of instruction in Burundian primary schools.[15]

Notes

References

• Broselow, E. & Niyondagara, A. (1990) "Feature geometry of Kirundi palatalization". Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 20: 71-88.
• de Samie. (2009) Dictionnaire Francais-Kirundi. L'Harmattan. Paris.
• Goldsmith, J. & Sabimana, F. (1989) The Kirundi Verb. Modèles en tonologie. Editions du CNRS. Paris.
• Meeussen, A.E. (1959) Essai de grammaire Rundi. Annales du Musée Royal du Congo Belge, Série Sciences Humaines – Linguistique, vol. 24. Tervuren.
• Myers, S. (1987) Tone and the structure of words in Shona. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Garland Press. New York.
• Ntihirageza, J. (1993) Kirundi Palatization and Sibilant Harmony : Implications for Feature Geometry. Master thesis, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois.
• Philippson, G. (2003) Tone reduction vs. metrical attraction in the evolution of Eastern Bantu tone systems. INALCO. Paris.
• Sagey, E. (1986) The Representation of Features and Relations in Non-Linear Phonology. Doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
• Verdoodt, A. (2011). "Social and Linguistic Structures of Burundi, a Typical 'Unimodal' Country". Language and Society: Anthropological Issues (reprint ed.). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110806489.
• Weinstein, Warren (1976). Historical Dictionary of Burundi. Metuchen: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810809628.
• Zorc, R. D. & Nibagwire, L. (2007) Kinyarwanda and Kirundi Comparative Grammar. Dunwoody Press. Hyattsville.

External links

• Online Kirundi/English dictionary, revised
• Free English-Kirundi Dictionary
• Free Kirundi selfstudy course
• Free Kirundi grammar study book
• PanAfrican L10n page on Kirundi...
• Learning Kirundi (in Spanish)
• Online Kirundi/English dictionary
• USA Foreign Service Institute Kirundi basic course

На других языках

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[de] Kirundi

Kirundi, auch Rundi und Rundisch, ist eine in Burundi verbreitete (und von etwa 95 % der Bevölkerung als Muttersprache gesprochene) Bantusprache und neben dem Französischen Amtssprache des Landes.

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- [en] Kirundi

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[es] Kirundi

El idioma kirundi, también conocido como rundi, es una lengua bantú hablada por 9 millones de personas en Burundi y en partes de Tanzania, Congo-Kinshasa y Uganda. El 85 % de los hablantes son hutu y el 15 % son tutsi.

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[fr] Kirundi

Le kirundi (ou roundi ou rundi) est une langue bantoue parlée nativement au Burundi par 97 % de la population (11 045 000 personnes), dans les zones adjacentes du Rwanda (576 000), de la Tanzanie (512 000) et de la république démocratique du Congo, ainsi qu'en Ouganda (246 000), ce qui totalise 12,5 millions de locuteurs[1],[2].

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[it] Lingua kirundi

Il kirundi o lingua kirundi, chiamata anche rundi o urundi (in kirundi ikirundi) è una lingua rwanda-rundi parlata in Burundi.

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[ru] Рунди (язык)

Рунди (кирунди) — язык народа рунди, один из языков банту, на котором говорит 6 миллионов человек в Бурунди и прилегающих районах Танзании и Конго, а также в Уганде.

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