Mwanga language

{{Short description|Bantu language spoken in Zambia and Tanzania}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Namwanga

|nativename=Ichinamwanga

|states=Zambia, Tanzania

|ethnicity=Mwanga people

|speakers={{sigfig|227,000|2}}

|date=1987– 2010 census

|ref = e18

|familycolor=Niger-Congo

|fam2=Atlantic–Congo

|fam3=Benue–Congo

|fam4=Bantoid

|fam5=Bantu

|fam6=Rukwa

|fam7=Mbozi

|fam8=Mwika

|dia1=Iwa

|dia2=Tambo

|iso3=mwn

|glotto=nyam1275

|glottorefname=Nyamwanga

|guthrie=M.22,26,27

}}

Mwanga, or Namwanga (Nyamwanga), is a Bantu language spoken by the Mwanga people in the Muchinga Province of Zambia{{cite web|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=B7959E101F2BE6F5F41CB35569064D8B.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=78061#fn1|title=Downstep and fusion in Namwanga|work=Cambridge Journals (Cambridge University Press)|author=Lee S. Bickmore|year=2000|access-date=2007-02-24}} (mainly in the districts of Isoka and Nakonde) and in Mbeya Region, Tanzania. The 2010 Zambian census found 140,000 speakers. The current number in Tanzania is unknown; Ethnologue cites a figure from 1987 of 87,000.

There are also some speakers of Namwanga in the north-west part of Chitipa District in northern Malawi.[http://unima-cls.org/Docs/MappingNorthernMalawi/lm-northernmalawi.pdf University of Malawi Language Mapping Survey (2006)], p. 29.

The Namwanga language is similar to the Mambwe language spoken by the Mambwe people of Mbala and Mpulungu districts and the Lungu people also found in Isoka. Other similar smaller peoples include the Lambyas, the Nyikas and the Wandyas.