Ronga

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For the village in Bangladesh, see Ronga, Bangladesh

Ronga (XiRonga; sometimes ShiRonga or GiRonga) is a South-Eastern Bantu language in the Tswa-Ronga family spoken just South of Maputo in Mozambique. It extends a little into South Africa. It has about 650,000 speakers in Mozambique and a further 90,000 in South Africa, with dialects including Konde, Putru and Kalanga.

The French philologist Junod seems to have been the first linguist to have studied it in the late 19th century.

Its alphabet is based on that of Tsonga as provided by Methodist missionaries and Portuguese settlers.

Aa	[a]
Bb	[β]
Bb	[b]
Cc	[t∫]
Dd	[d]
Ee	[ɛ]/[e]
Gg	[g]
Hh	[h]/[ɦ]
Ii	[i]
Jj	[dʒ]
Kk	[k]
Ll	[l]
Mm	[m]
Nn	[n]
Ṅṅ	[ŋ]
Oo	[ɔ]/[o]
Pp	[p]
Rr	[r]
Ss	[s]
Ŝŝ	[ʂ]
Tt	[t]
Uu	[u]
Vv	[v]
Ww	[w]
Xx	[∫]
Yy	[j]
Zz	[z]
Ẑẑ	[ʐ]

[edit] Grammar

Ronga is so close to Tsonga that census officials often get confused; its noun class system is very similar and its verbal forms are almost identical. Its main difference is a much greater influence from Portuguese, by virtue of being centred near the capital Maputo (formerly Lorenço Marques). Its Ethnologue index is [rng].