languages and area spoken for chitipa - Centre for Language Studies

are also speakers of Cindali, Cimabwe and Cisukwa especially in areas that border with
Chitipa along the Misuku hills and Songwe valley.
One interesting finding is the relationship between Nyakyuska, Kyangonde and
Chinkhonde. Nyakyuska, though spoken by very few people, mainly at Iponga in Sub T/
A Mwakawoko’s area, is regarded as the parent language from which Kyangonde and
Chinkhonde originated. Kyangonde, on the other hand, is regarded as the most
prestigious and standard language/dialect of the district. Although Citumbuka is spoken
by many people in the district, it is not regarded as one of the main languages of the
district and preference goes to Kyangonde. Cinkhonde too, is not regarded as the main
language/dialect because it is seen to be largely influenced by Citumbuka. As such, it is
basically seen as a dialect of Kyangonde which has been heavily influenced by
Citumbuka, an influence detested by many people who recognize Kyangonde as the
language of Karonga. Because of these feelings,, deliberate efforts have been made to
promote Kyangonde in various domains such as the media (national radio), religion
(religious literature) etc. In addition, the district has the Kyangonde Language
Association whose main objective is to promote the language. What is true, however, is
that Citumbuka and Cinkhonde have large numbers of speakers and their influence is
growing. Details of languages spoken in Karonga are shown in Table 2 in Appendix 1.
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