Haya language explained

Haya
Nativename:	Luhaya, Oruhaya
Region:	Tanzania
Ethnicity:	Haya people
Speakers:	1.3 million
Date:	2006
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Niger-Congo
Fam2:	Atlantic–Congo
Fam3:	Volta-Congo
Fam4:	Benue–Congo
Fam5:	Bantoid
Fam6:	Southern Bantoid
Fam7:	Bantu
Fam8:	Northeast Bantu
Fam9:	Great Lakes Bantu
Fam10:	West Nyanza
Fam11:	Rutara
Fam12:	South Rutara
Iso3:	hay
Glotto:	haya1250
Glottorefname:	Haya
Guthrie:	JE.22

Haya (Oruhaya) is a Bantu language spoken by the Haya people of Tanzania, in the south and southwest coast of Lake Victoria. In 1991, the population of Haya speakers was estimated at 1,200,000 people http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hay. Its closest relative is the Nyambo language and it is also closely related to the languages of southwest Uganda such as Nkore-Kiga, Rutooro and Runyoro which all form a group called Rutara.

Maho (2009) classifies JE221 Rashi as closest to Haya. It has no ISO code, but is covered by the ISO 639-3 code hay.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	voiced	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Fricative	voiceless	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
	voiced		pronounced as /ink/
Approximant			pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Mid	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Low		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/

When a high vowel pronounced as //i, u// precedes a non-high vowel, it is realized as an approximant sound pronounced as /[j, w]/.

Tones

Two tones are present in Haya; high /v́/ and low /v̀/.^[1]

Grammar

Tense

Haya has nine tenses. These are the present progressive, the present habitual, the past habitual and the perfect, alongside two future tenses and three past tenses. The future tense F₂ refers to the distant future whilst F₁ refers to the near future. P₁ refers to the most recent past - events that have occurred earlier in the day, P₂ refers to events that happened yesterday and P₃, the most distant past, refers to events that happened before yesterday.

See also

• Betbeder, Paul; Jones, John. 1949. A handbook of the Haya language. Bukoba (Tanganyika): White Fathers Printing Press.
• Byarushengo, Ernest Rugwa; Duranti, Alessandro; Hyman, Larry M[ichael]. (Eds.) 1977. Haya grammatical structure: phonology, grammar, discourse. (Southern California occasional papers in linguistics (SCOPIL), no 6.) Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California. Pp 213.
• Herrmann, [Kapitän] C. 1904. Lusíba, die Sprache der Länder Kisíba, Bugábu, Kjamtwára, Kjánja und Ihángiro. Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen, 7 (III. Abt.), pp. 150–200.
• Kaji, Shigeki. (Ed.) 1998. Haya. (Textbooks for language training.) Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
• Kaji, Shigeki. 2000. Haya vocabulary. (Asian and African lexicon series, no 37.) Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Pp 532.
• Kuijpers, Em. 1922. Grammaire de la langue haya. Boxtel (Hollande): Prokuur van de Witte Paters. Pp 294.
• Maho, Jouni & Bonny Sands. 2002. The languages of Tanzania: a bibliography. (Orientalia et africana gothoburgensia, no 17.) Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Pp ix, 428.
• Rehse, Hermann. 1912/13. Die Sprache der Baziba in Deutsch-Ostafrika. Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen, 3, pp. 1–33, 81–123, 201–229.

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20061004195910/http://www.african.gu.se/tanzania/weblinks.html
• http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/CBOLD/Docs/TLS.html (This webpage contains a Haya wordlist.)

Notes and References

1. Book: Haya Grammatical Structure. Byarushengo. Ernest R.. Duranti. Alessandro. Hyman. Larry M.. Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California. 1977. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 6. 3–7.