Basic Pronunciation

First of all, a commentary on writing and reading Bantu languages. The first grammars and dictionaries were written by Western missionaries; very few African languages have writing systems, and most of them are found in Northern African societies. So each attempt at recording a Bantu language using the Latin script may differ in its approach and use of special characters. In this blog I will try to restrict myself to normal characters and offer explanations where needed.


The vowels


The vowels of these three languages (Bemba, Lala, Nyanja) are shared, and are pronounced as follows:

a = as a in far
e = as a in fare
i = as ee in see
o = as o in sore
u = as oo in root

The consonants


Most consonants are pronounced the same or similar English. Some are non existent (r, q, v, and x) and z is used in Nyanja but not Bemba nor Lala. Here are some special pronunciations:

-b  except when following an m, is like a v except the lips are together like an English b (Mann calls this a "voiced bilabial fricative phonetic" if you're interested)

-l   is generally interchangable with r, and pronouncing either sounds like a combination of both, similar to Japanese

-h  only occurs in sh or ch


-c   is pronounced like ch in church

-ng   has the sound of ng in singer. It is sometimes seen as η or ñ.

(Sources: Hetherwick, A Practical Manual of the Nyanja Language; Mann, An Outline of Icibemba Grammar; Hoch, Bemba Pocket Dictionary)