Sena language

{{Short description|Bantu language of central Mozambique}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Sena

| states = Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe

| ethnicity = Sena

| speakers = 2,869,000

| date = 2017–2020

| ref = e26

| familycolor = Niger-Congo

| fam2 = Atlantic–Congo

| fam3 = Benue–Congo

| fam4 = Southern Bantoid

| fam5 = Bantu

| fam6 = Nyasa

| fam7 = Sena (N40) ?

| nation = {{flag|Zimbabwe}} (as 'Chibarwe')

| minority = {{flag|Malawi}}

| dia1 = Rue (Barwe)

| dia2 = Podzo

| lc1 = seh

| ld1 = Mozambiquean Sena

| lc2 = swk

| ld2 = Malawian Sena

| lc3 = bwg

| ld3 = Barwe

| guthrie = N.44,441 (N.45,46)

| lingua = [http://linguasphere.info/?page=linguascale&linguacode=99-AUS-xi 99-AUS-xi]; also 99-AUS-xj (Chi-Rue), 99-AUS-xk (Gombe), 99-AUS-xl (Sangwe), & 99-AUS-xm (Chi-Podzo)

| glotto = nucl1396

| glottoname = Nuclear Sena

| glottorefname = Sena

| glotto2 = mala1475

| glottoname2 = Malawi Sena

| glotto3 = barw1243

| glottoname3 = Barwe

}}

File:WIKITONGUES- Cristiano speaking Barwe and Portuguese.webm

Sena is a Bantu language spoken in the four provinces of central Mozambique (Zambezi valley): Tete, Sofala, Zambezia and Manica. There were an estimated 900,000 native Sena speakers in Mozambique in 1997, with at least 1.5 million if including those who speak it as a second language. It is one of the Nyasa languages.

Sena is spoken in several dialects, of which Rue (also called Barwe or Cibalke) and Podzo are divergent. The Sena of Malawi may be a distinct language. Barwe (Chibarwe) has official recognition in Zimbabwe.

Some remarks on Sena tenses can be found in Funnell (2004),Funnell, Barry J. (2004).[http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/1830/01dissertation.pdf?sequence=2 "A Contrastive Analysis of Two Varieties of Sena".] MA dissertation, University of South Africa; ([http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/1830/00front.pdf?sequence=1 Introduction]) Barnes & Funnell (2005)Barnes, Lawrie; Funnell, Barry (2005) [https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10228190508566234 "Exploring the cross-border standardisation of Chisena"]. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa. Vol. 36. and in Kiso (2012).Kiso, Andrea (2012), [http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:546594/FULLTEXT01.pdf "Tense and Aspect in Chichewa, Citumbuka, and Cisena"]. Ph.D. Thesis. Stockholm University.