Past Broadcasts
06 September 2022
Courses 777
16 sec
Kirundi Basic Course - Unit 01
- Kirundi, together with its companion language, Kinyarwanda, is one of the most important of Bantu languages.
- Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language spoken by nine million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Tanzania and Congo-Kinshasa, as well as in Uganda. It is the official language of Burundi. (The Kinyarwanda dialect is the official language of neighboring Rwanda.) The inhabitants of Rwanda and Burundi belong to several different ethnic groups: Hutu (84%), Tutsi, including Hima (15%), and Twa (1%) (a pygmy people). The fact that these ethnic groups share the same language is assumed to be the result of the Hutu outnumbering the latter two groups (see Hutu for a more complete historical perspective). Neighboring dialects of Rundi are mutually intelligible with Ha, a language spoken in western Tanzania. Rundi is frequently cited as a language where Meeussen's rule, a rule describing a certain pattern of tonal change in Bantu languages, is active.
- This Kirundi Basic course is a short basic course in Kirundi. The other necessary part of the course is a speaker of the language who can serve as tutor. In addition, there is a set of tape recordings which you will find useful.
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