| Kamba | |
|---|---|
| Kikamba | |
| Native to | Kenya, Tanzania |
| Region | Machakos, Kitui, Makueni, and Shimba Hills |
| Ethnicity | Akamba |
Native speakers | 4.6 million (2019 census)[1] 600,000 L2 speakers |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | kam |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:kam – Kambadhs – Dhaiso |
| Glottolog | kamb1297 |
E.55–56[2] | |
| ELP | Dhaiso |
Kamba/ˈkæmbə/,[3] or Kikamba, is a Bantu language spoken by millions of Kamba people, primarily in Kenya, as well as thousands of people in Uganda, Tanzania, and elsewhere. In Kenya, Kamba is generally spoken in four counties: Machakos, Kitui, Makueni, and Kwale. The Machakos dialect is considered the standard variety and has been used in translation. The other major dialect is Kitui.[4]
Kamba has lexical similarities to other Bantu languages such as Kikuyu, Meru, and Embu, of whom together they form the GEMA community.
The Swedish Museum of World Culture holds field recordings of the Kamba language made by Swedish ethnographer Gerhard Lindblom in 1911–12.[5] Lindblom used phonograph cylinders to record songs along with other means of documentation in writing and photography. He also gathered objects, and later presented his work in The Akamba in British East Africa (1916).