Chewa (N31) is a member of the Nyanjic group (N30-40), spoken principally in Malawi and Zambia, with substantial numbers of speakers in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Name used by speakers: "Chichewa" in Malawi; "Chinyanja/Cinyanja" is common especially in Zambia. “Chewa” and “Nyanja” can refer both to particular regional varieties and, more broadly, to the Chewa–Nyanja language continuum. Modern linguistic classifications normally treat them as a single language.
Number of speakers: More than 10 million native speakers, and a considerable number of second-language speakers. Chewa is the largest ethnic group in Malawi (about 6.0 million people), but Chichewa is used as a lingua franca by people belonging to many other ethnic groups.
Usage: Chichewa is the principal lingua franca of Malawi and is extensively used in broadcasting, education, publishing and everyday interethnic communication. Chewa/Nyanja is also widely spoken in eastern Zambia, especially around Lusaka in its Nyanja form.
Varieties: The principal varieties are conventionally identified as Chewa, Nyanja and Mang'anja, but the boundaries between them are not sharp and terminology varies considerably. Standard Chichewa is based primarily on the Chewa varieties of central Malawi, while Nyanja/Cinyanja, particularly as spoken in Zambia, differs in vocabulary, pronunciation and some grammatical details. Mang'anja, is spoken in southern Malawi and adjacent Mozambique and it was the basis of earlier written forms of the language before the Malawian standard shifted toward Central Region Chewa. The introductory chapter of Downing & Mtenje's The Phonology of Chichewa (2017) is particularly useful for its discussion of dialect variation and the basis of Standard Chichewa. The Zambian urban lingua-franca called Town Nyanja has been strongly affected by multilingual contact and should not simply be equated with traditional Chewa or Standard Malawian Chichewa.
First written: The earliest substantial Chewa vocabulary was collected in the 1850s by the German missionary Johannes Rebmann. It was published posthumously in 1877 as Dictionary of the Kiniassa Language, an early name for Chewa/Nyanja. A grammar of Chichewa was published by Alexander Riddel in 1880, and the first Chichewa version of the Bible came out in 1912.
Contact: Chewa has been in prolonged contact with neighboring Bantu languages, particularly Tumbuka on the north; Yao, Lomwe, Sena on the east; Ngoni, Nsenga and Tonga on the west; as well as with English in the colonial and postcolonial periods.
An excellent discussion of Nyanja/Chewa language names, varieties and history of lexicography is provided by Steven Paas.
the word-list compiled for C-Bold in 2011 by Dr. Al Mtenje based on his Ntcheu dialect (central Malawi). This variety is often considered standard. Work by Mtenje, Hyman and Downing generally reflects the Ntcheu system.
articles by Dr. Sam Mchombo of Nkhotakota (central Malawi) whose variety is similar in segmental phonology to that of Ntcheu but sometimes differs in tones.
A Dictionary of the Nyanja Language (1929) by Scott & Heatherwick, an encyclopedic early resource.
Orthography (from Omniglot) The current orthography of Chichewa was standardised in 1973 when the New Chichewa Orthography Rules were published.
Noun classes From Bresnan & Kanerva (1989) based on the speech of Dr. Sam Mchombo of Nkhotakota, central Malawi.
