The languages of this blog

Bantu is a group of some 500 languages within the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family (also see this interactive tree of the languages). The most popularly spoken are Rundi, Rwanda, Shona, Xhosa, Zulu, and Swahili.

The Bemba Language, or iciBemba, is a Bantu language spoken mostly in north-eastern Zambia, and to a lesser extent in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Botswana. It is spoken by almost 4 million people, mostly the Bemba people and related ethnic groups. BaBemba means the people of the lake, referring to Lake Bangweulu in Northern Zambia, now the Luapula Province.

Lala-Bisa is a language closely related to Bemba but not considered a dialect of. It has between 200,000-500,000 speakers in Central Zambia (source: MultiTree). Due to the proximity to the DRC, Lala is also spoken there.

Nyanja/Chewa, or ciNyanja/ciChewa, is the national language of Malawi and the tongue spoken in the Eastern Province of Zambia and the capital city, Lusaka. Nyanja differs from Chewa in its influence from Bemba and English; in fact, Lusaka Nyanja is beginning to be considered its own dialect. CiNyanja also refers to a lake, in this case Lake Malawi.