Hehe language

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Hehe
Kihehe
Native toTanzania
EthnicityHehe
Native speakers
810,000 (2006)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3heh
Glottologhehe1240
G.62[2]
Linguasphere99-AUS-ua

Hehe, also known by its native name Kihehe [kihehe], is a Bantu language that is spoken by the Hehe people of the Iringa region of Tanzania, lying south of the Great Ruaha River.[3] In the 1970s, it was estimated that 190,000 people spoke Hehe.[4] A more recent estimate puts the number at 1,200,000.[5] There has been some Bible translation (British and Foreign Bible Society). Hehe may be mutually intelligible with Bena.[3]

There are four main dialects: Kalenga (in the centre of the region, north-west and west of Iringa), Koisamba (in the Rift Valley to the north-west), Sungwa (east of Iringa round the Udzungwa Mountains), and Mufindi (south of Iringa). Among other differences, Sungwa has sounds /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ which are absent from other dialects.[6]

Grammar

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Hehe has 15 noun classes, marked with prefixes.[7]

Hehe has a complex tense-aspect-mood system.[8]

Phonology

[edit]

Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop/
Affricate 		voiceless p t t͡ʃ k
implosive ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ⁿdʑ ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless f s h
voiced (z)
prenasal ⁿz
Approximant ʋ l j w
  • In the "stop/affricate" group, /t͡ʃ/ and /ⁿdʑ/ are described by Nyamahanga as affricates, the others being stops. /t͡ʃ/ is described as palato-alveolar, and /ⁿdʑ/ as palatal.[9]
  • The labio-velar approximant /w/ changes to /ᵐbʷ/ when nasalised, e.g. ku-weːⁿda 'to like' > ᵐbʷeːⁿda 'I'll like'.[10]
  • The phoneme /ʋ/ is described by Nyamahanga as a labio-dental approximant. When nasalised it becomes ᵐb, e.g. ku-ʋalila 'to count' > ᵐbalila 'I'll count'.[11] It cannot be followed by the vowel /o/ but changes to /w/ in this situation.[12]
  • The lateral approximant /l/ changes to /ⁿd/ when prenasalised, e.g. ku-lima 'to till' > ⁿdima 'I'll till'.
  • The five prenasalised consonants (/ᵐb/, /ⁿd/, /ⁿdʑ/, /ᵑɡ/, /ⁿz/) are voiced but not implosive. If they are preceded by a vowel, the vowel is usually (but not always) long.[13] When an implosive consonant is preceded by a nasal prefix such as N- 'I, me', the prefix assimilates with the following consonant and causes the implosive to become plosive, e.g. ku-ɗeta 'to lie', ⁿdeta 'I'll lie'; ku-ɠeːⁿda 'to walk' > ᵑgeːⁿda 'I'll walk'.[14] The combination of N- + a voiceless stop, however, does not result in a prenasalised consonant but a simple nasal, e.g. ku-pepa 'to smoke' > mepa 'I'll smoke'.[15]
  • [z] occurs in the language, but is mainly heard in Swahili loanwords.[16]
  • In addition, most consonants (with the exception of /ʋ/, /j/, and /w/) can be velarised, that is, followed by a glide [w].[17] Nyamahanga treats these velarised consonants as separate phonemes to the unvelarised consonants. Velarised consonants tend to be followed by a long vowel, except in the final syllable of a word, e.g. muhʷeːhʷe 'fear'.[18]
  • Most consonants (with the exception of /w/, /j/, /k/, /ɠ/, /ŋ/, /s/, /h/) can be followed by the glide vowel [j] ⟨y⟩ in the same way.[19] In situations where /ki/ and /ɠi/ might be expected to form a glide vowel, they are transformed into the affricates /t͡ʃ/ and /ʄ/: e.g. ki- (class 7 prefix) + uɠípa 'sharpen' becomes ʧ-uːɠípa 'it will sharpen', with compensatory lengthening of the vowel.[20]

Vowels

[edit]
Front Central Back
High i iː u uː
Mid e eː o oː
Low a aː

In addition to these ten vowels, Kihehe also has a syllabic /m̩/ (sometimes pronounced [mu] by some speakers). This can occur initially, medially, or finally, and can bear a tone, e.g. ḿtalám̩ 's/he is a tough person' (four syllables, with a high tone on the first and third). Unlike the nasal in the nasalised consonants, this syllabic /m̩/ does not assimilate to the following consonant or cause a following implosive consonant to become plosive.[21]

Syllable structure

[edit]

Apart from /m̩/, and the fact that words may begin with a vowel, every syllable in Kihehe consists of the form C(G)V, where C = consonant, V = vowel (long or short), and G = glide (/w/ or /y/). Two different vowels normally cannot follow each other. When a prefix such as tu- 'we' is added to a verb starting with a vowel, the vowels are combined into one syllable conforming to this pattern, e.g. tu + íᵐba becomes tʷíːᵐba 'we sing', with lengthening of the /i/ to compensate for the shortening of the /u/.[22] An exception is the prefix ĕː (rising tone), which is added to 3rd person singular verbs without assimilation of the vowels, e.g. ĕː-alyá 's/he would have eaten'.[23]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Hehe at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ a b Dwyer, David J.; Yankee, Everyl (January 1985). African Language Resource Handbook: A Resource Handbook of the Eighty-two Highest Priority African Languages (PDF) (Prepublication ed.). East Lansing: Michigan State University. ED256170.
  4. ^ Voegelin, C. F.; Voegelin, F. M. (1977). "Bantu Proper = Narrow Bantu". Classification and Index of the World's Languages. Elsevier. p. 57. ISBN 0-444-00155-7.
  5. ^ Eberhard et al. in Ethnologue 2016.
  6. ^ Nyamahanga, Richard Mathias (2025). Aspects of the Phonology of Kihehe. Indiana University PhD thesis (open access), pp. 1–2.
  7. ^ Odden, David (2005). "Doing an Analysis". Introducing Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 177. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511808869.009. ISBN 978-0-521-53404-8.
  8. ^ Mtavangu, Norbert (2008). "Tense and aspect in Ikihehe". Occasional Papers in Linguistics. 3: 34–41.
  9. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), pp. 6, 37.
  10. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), p. 134.
  11. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), p. 134.
  12. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), p. 32.
  13. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), pp. 16, 68–71.
  14. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), pp. 10, 117–8.
  15. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), p. 128.
  16. ^ Johnson, Martha B. (2015). A Contribution toward a Kihehe Grammar (Report).
  17. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), pp. 12–14.
  18. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), p. 14.
  19. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), pp. 14, 52.
  20. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), pp. 58–9.
  21. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), pp. 49–51.
  22. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), pp. 54–5.
  23. ^ Nyamahanga (2025), p. 65.


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