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Rundi
Ikirundi
Native to	Burundi
Ethnicity	Hutu Tutsi Twa Ganwa
Native speakers	13 million (2021)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu Rwanda-Rundi (D62) Rundi
Dialects	Ikibo Ikirundi Ikiragane Igisoni Ikinyabweru Ikiyogoma Ikimoso
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Burundi
Language codes
ISO 639-1	rn Rundi
ISO 639-2	run Rundi
ISO 639-3	run Rundi
Glottolog	rund1242  Rundi rund1241  Rundi-Kitwa
Guthrie code	JD.62
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Kirundi, also known as Rundi, is a Bantu language and the national language of Burundi. It is a dialect of Rwanda-Rundi dialect continuum that is also spoken in Rwanda and adjacent parts of Tanzania (in regions close to Kigoma), the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, as well as in Kenya. Kirundi is mutually intelligible with Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, and the two form parts of the wider dialect continuum known as Rwanda-Rundi.

Kirundi is natively spoken by the Hutu, including Bakiga and other related ethnicities, as well as Tutsi, Twa and Hima among others have adopted the language. Neighbouring dialects of Kirundi are mutually intelligible with Ha, a language spoken in western Tanzania.

Kirundi is one of the languages where Meeussen's rule, a rule describing a certain pattern of tonal change in Bantu languages, is active.

In 2020, the Rundi Academy was established to help standardize and promote Kirundi.

Phonology

Consonants

Although the literature on Rundi agrees on 5 vowels, the number of consonants can vary anywhere from 19 to 26 consonants. The table below is compiled from a survey of academic acceptance of Rundi consonants.

Vowels

The table below gives the vowel sounds of Rundi.

All five vowels occur in long and short forms. The distinction is phonemic.

Tone

Rundi is a tonal language. There are two essential tones in Rundi: high and low (or H and L). Since Rundi has phonemic distinction on vowel length, when a long vowel changes from a low tone to a high tone it is marked as a rising tone. When a long vowel changes from a high tone to a low tone, it is marked as a falling tone.

Rundi is often used in phonology to illustrate examples of Meeussen's rule In addition, it has been proposed that tones can shift by a metrical or rhythmic structure. Some authors have expanded these more complex features of the tonal system noting that such properties are highly unusual for a tone system.

Phonotactics

Syllable structure in Rundi is considered to be CV, that is having no clusters, no coda consonants, and no complex vowel nuclei. It has been proposed that sequences that are CVV in the surface realization are actually CV in the underlying deep structure, with the consonant coalescing with the first vowel.

Consonant harmony

Rundi has been shown to have properties of consonant harmony particularly when it comes to sibilants. Meeussen described this harmony in his essay and it is investigated further by others. One example of this harmony is triggered by /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ and targets the set of /s/ and /z/ in preceding adjacent stem syllables.

Official use

Kirundi was recognized an official language in Burundi by the 1962 Constitution of the Kingdom of Burundi. In accordance with the constitution, many Burundian government orders, especially those printed in the Bulletin Officiel du Burundi from 1962 to 1963, were written in both French and Kirundi. After the constitution was suspended in 1966, Kirundi remained a de facto official language in the country, though its use in government documents declined. In 1972 Kirundi was adopted as the official language of instruction in Burundian primary schools.

Notes

1. Rundi at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
3. Kirundi at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
4. Rigumye, Mariette. "Longtemps attendue, l'Académie Rundi ouvre sous peu". IWACU (in French). Archived from the original on 2020-11-04. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
5. Zorc & Nibagwire 2007, p. 23.
6. Zorc & Nibagwire 2007, p. 25.
7. Meeussen 1959.
8. de Samie 2009.
9. Myers 1987.
10. Philippson 1998.
11. Goldsmith & Sabimana 1989.
12. Sagey 1986.
13. Ntihirageza 1993.
14. Verdoodt 2011, p. 515.
15. Weinstein 1976, p. 89.

References

• Broselow, Ellen; Niyondagara, Alice (Spring 1990). "Feature geometry of Kirundi palatalization". Studies in the Linguistic Sciences. 20 (1): 71–88. ISSN 0049-2388.
• de Samie, Thierry (2009). Dictionnaire français-kirundi (2nd ed.). Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-296-09185-6.
• Goldsmith, John; Sabimana, Firmard (1989). "The Kirundi Verb" (PDF). Modèles en tonologie: kirundi et kinyarwanda. Paris: Editions du CNRS. ISBN 9782222043232. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-11-24.
• Meeussen, A. E. (1959). Essai de grammaire Rundi. Annales du Musée Royal du Congo Belge, Série Sciences Humaines – Linguistique. Vol. 24. Tervuren.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Myers, Scott P. (1987). Tone and the structure of words in Shona (PhD dissertation). Amherst: University of Massachusetts. ProQuest 303602751.
• Ntihirageza, J. (1993). Kirundi Palatization and Sibilant Harmony: Implications for Feature Geometry (Master thesis). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University.
• Philippson, Gérard (1998). "Tone reduction vs. metrical attraction in the evolution of Eastern Bantu tone systems". In Hyman, Larry M.; Kisseberth, Charles W. (eds.). Theoretical Aspects of Bantu Tone. Cambridge University Press. pp. 315–329. ISBN 1575860953.
• Sagey, Elizabeth Caroline (1986). The Representation of Features and Relations in Non-Linear Phonology (PDF) (PhD dissertation). Cambridge: MIT. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2005-03-22.
• Verdoodt, A. (2011). "Social and Linguistic Structures of Burundi, a Typical 'Unimodal' Country". Language and Society: Anthropological Issues (reprint ed.). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 509–532. ISBN 9783110806489.
• Weinstein, Warren (1976). Historical Dictionary of Burundi. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810809628.
• Zorc, R. David; Nibagwire, Louise (2007). Kinyarwanda and Kirundi Comparative Grammar (PDF). Hyattsville, MD: Dunwoody Press. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-07-14.

External links

• Online Kirundi/English dictionary, revised
• Free English-Kirundi Dictionary
• Free Kirundi selfstudy course
• Free Kirundi grammar study book
• PanAfrican L10n page on Kirundi...
• Learning Kirundi (in Spanish)
• Online Kirundi/English dictionary
• USA Foreign Service Institute Kirundi basic course

• Languages of Burundi
• Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Languages of Tanzania
• Languages of Uganda
• Rwanda-Rundi languages