Sena is a Bantu language spoken in the four provinces of central Mozambique (Zambezi valley): Tete, Sofala, Zambezia and Manica. There were an estimated 900,000 native Sena speakers in Mozambique in 1997, with at least 1.5 million if including those who speak it as a second language. It is one of the Nyasa languages.
| Sena | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe |
| Ethnicity | Sena |
Native speakers | 2,869,000 (2017–2020)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Zimbabwe (as 'Chibarwe') |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:seh – Mozambiquean Senaswk – Malawian Senabwg – Barwe |
| Glottolog | nucl1396 Nuclear Senamala1475 Malawi Senabarw1243 Barwe |
N.44,441 (N.45,46)[2] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUS-xi; also 99-AUS-xj (Chi-Rue), 99-AUS-xk (Gombe), 99-AUS-xl (Sangwe), & 99-AUS-xm (Chi-Podzo) |
Sena is spoken in several dialects, of which Rue (also called Barwe or Cibalke) and Podzo are divergent. The Sena of Malawi may be a distinct language. Barwe (Chibarwe) has official recognition in Zimbabwe.
Some remarks on Sena tenses can be found in Funnell (2004),[3] Barnes & Funnell (2005)[4] and in Kiso (2012).[5]
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
- Labialized sounds /sʷ, zʷ/ can also be heard as retroflex [ʂ, ʐ] among different speakers.[6]
- /ɗ/ is heard as palatalized [ɗʲ] when followed by a /j/.
- The following sounds occur as prenasalized when after a homorganic nasal; [ᵐp, ᶬf, ᶬp͡f, ⁿt, ⁿs, ᶮt͡ʃ, ᵑk], [ᵐb, ᵐɓ, ᶬv, ᶬb͡v, ⁿd, ⁿɗ, ⁿz, ᶮd͡ʒ, ᵑɡ].[7]
References
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