Gciriku language

Gciriku
Rumanyo
Spoken in	Okavango River
Ethnicity	Vagciriku, Vamanyo, Vashambyu
Native speakers	36,000  (date missing)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Kavango–Southwest Kavango Gciriku
Dialects	Manyo Gciriku Shambyu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	diu
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Gciriku or Dciriku (Diriku), officially Rumanyo, is a Bantu language spoken by 305,000 people along the Okavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, in Botswana, and in Angola. It was first known in the west via the Vagciriku, who had migrated from the main Vamanyo area and spoke Rugciriku, a dialect of Rumanyo. The name Gciriku (Dciriku, Diriku) remains common in the literature, but within Namibia the name Rumanyo has been revived.^[1]

It is one of several Bantu languages of the Okavango which have click consonants, as in [ ǀɛ́ǀˀà] "bed", [mùǀûkò] "flower", and [kàǀûrù] "tortoise". These clicks, of which there are five, are generally all pronounced with a dental articulation, but there is broad variation between speakers. They are especially common in place names and in words for features of the landscape, reflecting their source in an as-yet unidentified Khoisan language.

References

1. ^ Nordic journal of African studies, Volume 12, 2003

External links

• Map of Diriku language from the LL-Map Project
• Information about Diriku language from the MultiTree Project
• Gciriku vocabulary
• Ethnologue report on Gciriku