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 western Uganda such as Nyoro-Tooro and Nkore-Kiga 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 <code>hay</code>.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
When a high vowel precedes a non-high vowel, it is realized as an approximant sound .
Tones
Two tones are present in Haya; high /vÃÂ/ and low /vÃÂ/.
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 F<sub>2</sub> refers to the distant future whilst F<sub>1</sub> refers to the near future. P<sub>1</sub> refers to the most recent past - events that have occurred earlier in the day, P<sub>2</sub> refers to events that happened yesterday and P<sub>3</sub>, 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. LusÃÂba, die Sprache der Länder KisÃÂba, Bugábu, Kjamtwára, Kjánja und Ihángiro. Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen, 7 (III. Abt.), pp. 150âÂÂ200.
- 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. 1âÂÂ33, 81âÂÂ123, 201âÂÂ229.
References
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.)