The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Nyanja

(also Chinyanja or Manganja), the language of the Malawi people (Maravi, including the Nyanja) and the closely related Mbo, Tonga, Makanga, Tumba, and Matengo peoples in Malawi and the neighboring regions of Zambia and Mozambique. The Manganja, Peta, Chewa, Eastern (Nyasa), Mbo, and Mazaro dialects are distinguished. The Nyanja (Chinyanja) literary language is based on the Manganji, Chewa, and Peta dialects spoken in southern Malawi. According to the classification of C. Doke (Republic of South Africa), Nyanja belongs to the east central zone of the Bantu languages.

REFERENCES

Hetherwick, A. A Practical Manual of the Nyanja Language, 6th ed. London, 1922.
Scott, D. C, and A. Hetherwick. Dictionary of the Nyanja Language. London, 1951.

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References in periodicals archive

A Case Study of Nyanja Speaking Pupils from Porta and Kintyrere Primary Schools in Zvimba Vol.

Challenges and Complexities Faced by Teachers and Learners in the Teaching and Learning of Cultural Aspects of the Ndebele Language in the Gwanda South District of Zimbabwe

The interviews, each lasting 30-40 minutes, were conducted in English or the local languages (Bemba, Lozi and Nyanja), and audio recorded, transcribed and translated into English.

Rights-based services for adolescents living with HIV: adolescent self-efficacy and implications for health systems in Zambia

One such volume of missionary scholarship, the Dictionary of the Nyanja Language (1929) by Alexander Hetherwick et al., which established a linguistic benchmark, was itself based on an earlier work by David C.

Dictionary/Mtanthauziramawu: Chichewa/Chinyanja-English, English-Chichewa/Chinyanja. 3rd ed

The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area.

The World History Shelf

Bemba and Nyanja are the main African languages spoken in Lusaka.

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And some Zambian languages have huge populations like the Bemba with 3.5 million, Tonga (one million) and Nyanja (800,000) which are also spoken by millions of others as second languages.

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Ethnic groups: Chewa, Nyanja, Tumbuka, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni, Ngonde, Asian, European.

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Bob Nyanja, chairman of the Kenyan Film and Television Producers Assn., feels it's the broadcasters themselves who are to blame.

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The language used this time is Nyanja, which has a few speakers in Zimbabwe, mainly immigrants from neighbouring Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.

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The notion that the ethnic group such as the Bemba, opposing Nyanja or Tonga in Zambia, or Kpelle, opposing the Mandingo in war-worn Liberia, can have only conflicting attitudes because of ethnicity is untenable.

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The main ethnic groups are: Chewa, Nyanja, Tumbuka, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni and Ngonde (9).

Malawi