| Kwangali | |
| Nativename: | Rukwangali |
| States: | Namibia, Angola |
| Region: | Kavango West |
| Speakers: | 152,000 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam5: | Bantoid |
| Fam6: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam7: | Bantu |
| Fam8: | Kavango–Southwest |
| Fam9: | Kavango |
| Iso3: | kwn |
| Glotto: | kwan1273 |
| Glottorefname: | Kwangali |
| Guthrie: | K.33 |
Kwangali, or RuKwangali, is a Bantu language spoken by 85,000 people along the Kavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Angola. It is one of several Bantu languages of the Kavango which have click consonants; these are the dental clicks c and gc, along with prenasalization and aspiration.
Maho (2009) includes Mbunza as a dialect, but excludes Sambyu, which he includes in Manyo.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| prenasal vl. | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| prenasal vd. | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| prenasal vl. | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| prenasal vd. | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
A dental click type pronounced as /[ǀ]/ may also be heard, being adopted from the neighboring Khoisan languages. The clicks may also tend to be heard as alveolar pronounced as /[!]/.[2]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /link/ |
Short vowels of /i e o u/ may also be pronounced as [ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ].[3]