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Kinyarwanda
Spoken in:	Rwanda
Region:	Central Africa
Total speakers:	7 million
Language family:	Niger-Congo  Atlantic-Congo   Volta-Congo    Benue-Congo     Bantoid      Southern       Narrow Bantu        Central         Kinyarwanda
Official status
Official language in:	Rwanda
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	rw
ISO 639-2:	kin
ISO 639-3:	kin
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Kinyarwanda is the chief spoken language in Rwanda. It is also spoken in the east of D.R. Congo and in the south of Uganda (Bufumbira-area). It is a tonal language of the Bantu language family (Guthrie D61). It is closely related to Kirundi, spoken in the neighboring country, Burundi, and to Giha of western Tanzania.

The inhabitants of Rwanda and Burundi belong to three different ethnic groups: Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa (although the validity of the ethnic nature is debatable; see [1]). That these groups share the same language is assumed to be due to the Hutu outnumbering the others (see Hutu for a more complete historical perspective).

Contents 1 Pronunciation 2 Grammar 2.1 Nouns 2.2 Verbs 3 Example translations 4 Genocide-related vocabulary 4.1 References 4.2 External links

	pronunciation	remarks
a	[ɑ]
b	[b/β]
c	[c]
d	[d]
e	[e]
f	[f]
g	[g]
h	[h]
i	[i]
j	[ʤ]
k	[k]
l	[l]
m	[m]
n	[n]
o	[o]
p	[p]	stands alone only in foreign loanwords
r	[ɾ]
s	[s]
t	[t]
u	[u]
v	[v]
w	[w]
y	[j]
z	[z]
sh	[ɕ]
nt	[nh]
mp	[mh]
nk	[ŋx]
cy	[kj]
jy	[gj]
ny	[ɲ]

'ki' and 'ke' can be pronounced interchangeably as [ki] and [ke] or [ci] and [ce] according to speaker's preference

An 'a', 'e', or 'i' at the end of a word followed by a word starting with a vowel often follows a pattern of omission (observed in the following excerpt of the Rwandan anthem) in common speech, though the orthography remains the same.

e.g. 'Reka tukurate tukuvuge ibigwi wowe utubumbiye hamwe twese Abanyarwanda uko watubyaye berwa, sugira, singizwa iteka.' would be pronounced as 'reka tukurate tukuvug' ibigwi wow' utubumiye hamwe twes' abanyarwand' uko watubyaye berwa, sugira singizw' iteka.'

Kinyarwanda has ten noun classes:

	singular	plural	type of words
I	(u)mu-	(a)ba-	humans
II	(u)mu-	(i)mi-
III	(i)(ri)-	(a)ma-
IV	(i)ki- or (i)gi-	(i)bi-
V	(i)n-	(i)n-
VI	(u)ru-	(i)n-
VII	(a)ka-	(u)tu-
VIII	(u)bu-	(u)bu-
IX	(u)ku-	(a)ma-
X	(a)ha-	(a)ha-

When preceded by a demonstrative, the vowel prefix is dropped. (e.g. umu- → mu-). Class I is used for words representing humans.

All Kinyarwanda verb infinitives begin with gu- or ku- (morphed into kw- before vowels). To conjugate, the infinitive prefix is removed and replaced with a prefix agreeing with the subject. Then a tense infix can be inserted.

	singular	singular before vowels	plural
I	a-	y-	ba-
II	u-		i-
III	ri-		a-
IV	ki-	cy-	bi-
V	i-		zi-
VI	ru-		bi-
VII	ka-		tu-
VIII	bu-		bu-
IX	ku-		a-
X	ha-		ha-

The prefixes for pronouns are as follows:

• 'I' = n-
• 'you' (sing.) = mu-
• 'he/she' = y-/a- (i.e. the singular Class I prefix above)
• 'we' = tu-
• 'you' (pl.) = u-
• 'they' (human) = ba- (i.e. the singular Class I prefix above)

Tense markers include the following.

• Present ('I do'): - (no infix)
• Present progressive ('I am doing'): -ra- (morphs to -da- when preceded by n)
• Future ('I will do'): -za-
• Continuous progressive ('I'm still doing'): -racya-

The past tense can be formed by using the present and present progressive infixes and modifying the apect marker suffix.

Yego	Yes
Oya	No
Ndabizi	I know
Simbizi	I don't know
Amazi	Water
Ndashaka amazi	I want water
Urushaka ikawa	Do you want coffee?
Bite Byawe?	How are you? (Informal)
Witwa nde?	What is your name?
Umusarani uri hehe?	Where's the bathroom?
Nitwa…	My name is…
Amahoro	Peace
Murakoze	Thank you
Amakuru	How are you? (formal)
Nimeza	(I'm) fine
Igicucu	Stupid person
Nkunda abaturage b'u Rwanda	I like Rwandan people
Ndi...	I am...
Abana	Children
Igiparu	Good conversation
Inka	Cow
Muraho	Hello
Murabeho	Bye
Ijororyiza	Good night
Mwaramutseho	Good morning (Did you wake up well?)
Izuba	Sun
Imana	God
Ingurube	Pig
Inzu	House

itsembabwoko	genocide
umupanga	machete
inyenzi	cockroach (used as an ethnic slur to refer to abatutsi)
inkotanyi	warrior (refers to RPF)
gutsemba	to exterminate
itsembatsemba	massacre
indangamuntu	identity card
kwica	to kill
kwicwa	to be killed
Urusengero	church

• Jouannet, Francis (ed.) (1983). Le Kinyarwanda, langue bantu du Rwanda. Paris: Société d’Études Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France (SELAF).
• Kimenyi, Alexandre (1980). A Relational Grammar of Kinyarwanda. University of California Press.
• Habumuremyi, Emmanuel et al. (2006). IRIZA-STARTER 2006: The 1st Kinyarwanda-English and English-Kinyarwanda Dictionary. Kigali: Rural ICT-Net

• Ethnologue report on Rwanda
• PanAfrican L10n page on Kinyarwanda ...