| Herero | |
|---|---|
| Otjiherero | |
| Spoken in | Namibia Botswana |
| Region | Kunene, Omaheke and Otjozondjupa in Namibia; Ghanzi in Botswana |
| Ethnicity | Herero, Himba, Mbanderu, Cimba, Kwisi, Twa |
| Native speakers | 237,000 incl. Hakaona, ca. 270,000 incl. Zemba (2006) |
| Language family | |
| Dialects |
Himba
Kuvale
Zemba (Thimba)
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | hz |
| ISO 639-2 | her |
| ISO 639-3 | her |
| person | |
| people | Ovaherero |
| language | Otjiherero |
The Herero language (Otjiherero) is a language of the Bantu family (Niger–Congo group). It is spoken by the Herero people in Namibia (206,000) and Botswana. The total number of speakers in both countries is approximately 237,000.[1]
Its linguistic distribution covers a zone called Hereroland: this zone is constituted of the region of Omaheke, along with the regions of Otjozondjupa and Kunene. The Himba, who are related to the Herero people, speak a dialect very close to the Herero language. In Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, there exists a considerable minority of hererophones.
Because of missionary Gottlieb Viehe's (1839–1901) translation of the Bible into Herero at the end of the 19th century, the spoken language was transcribed to a script based on the Latin alphabet. Father Peter Heinrich Brincker (1836–1904) translated several theological works and songs.
Herero is taught in Namibian schools both as a native tongue and as a secondary language, and is to be included as a principal material at the University of Namibia. Herero is also one of the six minority languages that are used by the Namibian State Radio (NBC). Gamsberg Macmillan, as of 2008[update], has published the only dictionary in Herero.
The Hakaona "dialect" is now considered a separate language, as sometimes is Zemba.[2]
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||