| Kwʼadza | |
| Also Known As: | Ngomvia |
| States: | Tanzania |
| Region: | Mbulu |
| Extinct: | 1980s |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam1: | Afro-Asiatic? |
| Fam2: | Cushitic? |
| Fam3: | South |
| Fam4: | Rift? |
| Fam5: | East |
| Iso3: | wka |
| Linglist: | wka.html |
| Glotto: | kwad1248 |
| Glottorefname: | Kwʼadza |
Kwʼadza (Qwadza), or Ngomvia, is an extinct Afroasiatic language formerly spoken in Tanzania in the Mbulu District. The last speaker died sometime between 1976 and 1999.
Kwʼadza is poorly attested, and apart from perhaps being close to Aasax, its classification is not certain. Although it has a large number of identifiably Cushitic roots, the non-Cushitic numerals itame 'one' and beʼa ~ mbɛa 'two' suggest a connection with Hadza, while haka 'four' suggests a connection with Sandawe. It is possible that Kwʼadza borrowed e.g. 'four' from Sandawe, but also that it was a non-Cushitic language whose speakers were undergoing language shift to Cushitic when it was recorded.
The phonology is not certain, but the following has been suggested (Ehret 1980):
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /kʷ/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ɡʷ/ | |||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||||
| Ejective | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /kʼʷ/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /xʷ/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
pronounced as //ɡ// and pronounced as //l// have the allophones pronounced as /[dʒ]/ and pronounced as /[ɽ]/ before front vowels. pronounced as //tʃʼ// is 'mildly' ejective. Ehret reports that pronounced as //kʼ// and pronounced as //kʼʷ// are voiced pronounced as /[ɡ, ɡʷ]/ if a preceding consonant is voiced.
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Close-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ | ||