Tonga language (Malawi)
| Tonga | |
|---|---|
| Malawi Tonga | |
| ChiTonga | |
| Native to | Malawi |
| Ethnicity | Tonga |
Native speakers | 165,000 (2018) |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | tog |
| ISO 639-3 | tog |
| Glottolog | tong1321 |
N.15 | |
Tonga is a Tumbuka offshoot Bantu language that emerged in 18th Century when the Nkhamanga Kingdom started to decline and was split. Before the arrival of missionaries in what is now known as Malawi, Tonga was the Tumbuka dialect. It was after the missionaries established their churches when they treated the two as separate languages.
Tonga is grouped in the Glottolog classification along with Tumbuka in a single group.
The Tonga language as a legacy offshoot, has been described as "similar" to Tumbuka, and Turner's dictionary (1952) lists only those words which differ from the Tumbuka.
Malawian Tonga is classified by Guthrie as being in Zone N15, whereas the Zambian Tonga is a different language classified as Zone M64. Therefore, the two languages are not the same but they only share a similar name.