The Makua Alphabet

Q: What is the difference between Makua and Makhuwa?

Makua and Makhuwa are the same language (ISO 639-3: vmw) — they are two different spellings of the same word. Makua is the traditional Swahili and colonial-era English spelling; Makhuwa is the modern orthographic spelling that more accurately reflects the language's own pronunciation (the kh represents a sound between /k/ and /x/) [1] . The language's own name for itself is Emakhuwa — with the Bantu E- prefix meaning "language of". All three names — Makua, Makhuwa, Emakhuwa — refer to exactly the same language, spoken by 5–6 million people in northern Mozambique [2] .

Q: What is the Makua language?

Makua (also Makhuwa , Emakhuwa , ISO 639-3: vmw) is a Bantu language spoken by approximately 5–6 million people in northern Mozambique . It is the largest indigenous language of Mozambique and the mother tongue of the Makhuwa people [1] . Makua belongs to the Eastern Bantu branch (Guthrie zone P) of the Niger-Congo family. Its defining phonological features include prenasalized consonants , labialized stops, and a two-tone system that is grammatically and lexically significant [3] .

Q: Where is Makua spoken?

Makua (Makhuwa) is spoken primarily in northern Mozambique — in Nampula Province (the heartland), Cabo Delgado, Niassa, and the northern parts of Zambezia Province. It is the majority language of the entire region north of the Zambezi River [1] . In Nampula city — the third-largest city in Mozambique — Makua (Makhuwa) functions as an urban vernacular alongside Portuguese, the official language. The language is used in primary school education in Nampula Province as part of Mozambique's mother-tongue education policy [2] .

Q: What language family is Makua part of?

Makua (Makhuwa) belongs to the Niger-Congo → Atlantic-Congo → Volta-Congo → Benue-Congo → Bantu family. Within Bantu, it is classified as an Eastern Bantu language in Guthrie zone P, alongside Yao (yao), Mwera (mwe), and Makonde (kde) [3] . The University of Dar es Salaam has contributed comparative Bantu scholarship situating Makua (Makhuwa) within the P-zone cluster. More distantly, Makua shares Bantu cognate vocabulary with Swahili, Zulu, Tumbuka, and hundreds of other Bantu languages [3] .

Q: How is Makua written?

Makua (Makhuwa) is written in a Latin-based orthography standardised for Mozambican education. It uses standard Latin letters plus digraphs: mp, mb, nt, nd, nk, ng, nj for prenasalized stops and ny for the palatal nasal (/ɲ/). The name "Makua" itself uses the older colonial spelling; "Makhuwa" uses the modern orthography [2] . Tones are phonemically important in Makua (Makhuwa) but are not marked in the standard orthography. The Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) has published grammars and dictionaries using the Makhuwa spelling in its educational materials [2] .

Q: How does Makua count to ten?

Makua (Makhuwa) counts: moza (1), wiri (2), tharu (3), nayi (4), thanu (5), thanu na moza (6), thanu na wiri (7), thanu na tharu (8), thanu na nayi (9), khumi (10). The additive pattern from five — "five and one", "five and two" — appears across the Bantu family [2] . The root khumi for ten descends from Proto-Bantu *-kúmì , shared with Swahili kumi , Tumbuka khumi , Zulu ishumi , and Luvale likumi — demonstrating over 3,000 years of stable vocabulary across the Bantu family [3] .

Q: Why does this page use the spelling Makua instead of Makhuwa?

This page uses the spelling Makua because it is still widely used in Swahili-language sources, older English academic literature, and historical documents about the people of northern Mozambique. Many readers searching for information about this language use the Makua spelling [1] . The modern preferred spelling in Mozambican official contexts and academic linguistics is Makhuwa (or Emakhuwa ). Both spellings are correct — they refer to the same language and people. See the main Makhuwa alphabet page for the same content under the modern spelling [2] .

Q: What is the ISO 639-3 code for Makua?

The ISO 639-3 code for Makua (the same language as Makhuwa / Emakhuwa) is vmw . The Makua spelling is used in older English and Swahili sources, while modern Mozambican usage prefers Makhuwa or Emakhuwa. Both spellings refer to the same language and the same ISO code [1] . The related Makhuwa-Meetto variety has its own separate code mgh , and Lomwe has the code ngl . The Universidade Eduardo Mondlane documents all Makhuwa-group varieties under their respective ISO codes as part of Mozambique's national language studies programme [2] .

Makua (Makhuwa) Language at a Glance

Makua is the Swahili and traditional English spelling of what is today more commonly written as Makhuwa — they are the same language (ISO 639-3: vmw), spoken by approximately 5–6 million people in northern Mozambique. The spelling Makua was used in colonial-era and Swahili sources; the spelling Makhuwa reflects the language's own pronunciation more accurately ^[1]
Makua (Makhuwa, Emakhuwa) is the largest indigenous language of Mozambique, the mother tongue of the Makhuwa people of Nampula, Cabo Delgado, Niassa, and northern Zambezia provinces. It belongs to the Eastern Bantu branch (Guthrie zone P) of the Niger-Congo family ^[2]
The name Emakhuwa — the language's own name for itself — uses the Bantu E- / Ema- noun-class prefix meaning "language of". So Emakhuwa = the language; Makhuwa or Makua = the people or the language in external usage. All three names refer to exactly the same language ^[2]
Makua (Makhuwa) has a rich consonant inventory including prenasalized stops (mp, mb, nt, nd, nk, ng, nj), the palatal nasal ny (/ɲ/), and labialized consonants (kw, gw, mw). These prenasalized consonants function as single phonemes — a defining feature of the Bantu language family ^[3]
Makua numerals follow the Bantu additive counting pattern from five: moza (1), wiri (2), tharu (3), nayi (4), thanu (5), thanu na moza (6), thanu na wiri (7). The root khumi (ten) is cognate with Swahili kumi, Tumbuka khumi, and Zulu ishumi — tracing to Proto-Bantu *-kúmì ^[2]
The Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo and the University of Dar es Salaam have produced grammars, dictionaries, and comparative Bantu studies of Makhuwa / Makua, situating it within the P-zone cluster alongside related languages Yao (yao), Mwera (mwe), and Makonde (kde) ^[3]

Makhuwa Consonants:

[b]

[f]

[h]

[k]

[l]

[m]

[ᵐb]

[ᵐp]

[n]

[ⁿd]

[ⁿdʒ]

[ᵑk]

[ɲ]

[p]

[r]

[s]

[t]

[tʰ]

[ts]

[v]

[w]

[j]

[z]

[b]

Voiced bilabial stop — B as in "bat"; distinct from the prenasalized mb

[f]

Voiceless labiodental fricative — F as in "fun"

[h]

Voiceless glottal fricative — H as in "house"

[k]

Voiceless velar stop — K as in "kite"; Makhuwa: kumi (ten) begins with this consonant

[l]

Alveolar lateral approximant — L as in "lamp"

[m]

Bilabial nasal — M as in "mother"; Makhuwa: mmoja (one) opens with a geminate mm; also functions as syllabic nasal

[ᵐb]

Prenasalized voiced bilabial stop — a single phoneme, not two consonants; nasal onset fused with the bilabial stop; common across Bantu languages of Mozambique

[ᵐp]

Prenasalized voiceless bilabial stop — a single phoneme; nasal onset fused with the p stop; a characteristic Bantu prenasalized consonant

[n]

Alveolar nasal — N as in "night"; also functions as syllabic nasal and first element in prenasalized consonants nd, nj, nk

[ⁿd]

Prenasalized voiced alveolar stop — a single phoneme; nasal onset fused with the alveolar stop; one of the most common prenasalized consonant types in Bantu

[ⁿdʒ]

Prenasalized voiced palato-alveolar affricate — a single phoneme combining nasal onset with the j-affricate; characteristic of many Bantu languages of eastern Africa

[ᵑk]

Prenasalized voiceless velar stop — a single phoneme; nasal onset before the k stop; found across the Bantu family

[ɲ]

Palatal nasal — NY as in "canyon"; a single consonant despite being written as two letters; one of the most widespread Bantu consonants

[p]

Voiceless bilabial stop — P as in "pin"; distinct from the prenasalized mp

[r]

Alveolar trill or flap — R-sound; appears in word-medial and word-final positions in Makhuwa

[s]

Voiceless alveolar fricative — S as in "sun"

[t]

Voiceless alveolar stop — T as in "top"; Makhuwa: tatu (three) and tano (five) begin with this consonant

[tʰ]

Aspirated voiceless alveolar stop — T with a strong puff of air; this is NOT the English TH sound; a digraph representing a single aspirated phoneme in Makhuwa

[ts]

Voiceless alveolar affricate — a T-sound released as a hiss, similar to the "ts" in "hats"; a single phoneme in Makhuwa

[v]

Voiced labiodental fricative — V as in "very"

[w]

Labio-velar approximant — W as in "water"; Makhuwa: wili (two) begins with this consonant

[j]

Palatal approximant — Y as in "yes"

[z]

Voiced alveolar fricative — Z as in "zoo"

Makhuwa Vowels:

[a]

[e]

[i]

[o]

[u]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[1]

One in Makhuwa — mmoja (the initial mm reflects a noun-class prefix merging with the root; cognate with Swahili moja)

[2]

Two in Makhuwa — wili (the -ili/-wili root for two is found across eastern Bantu languages)

[3]

Three in Makhuwa — tatu (-tatu is the pan-Bantu root for three: Swahili tatu, Zulu thathu, Tumbuka vitatu)

[4]

Four in Makhuwa — ne (-ne is the standard eastern Bantu root for four; compare Swahili -ne)

[5]

Five in Makhuwa — tano (-tano is the pan-Bantu root for five; cognate with Swahili tano, Zulu hlanu through regular sound changes)

[6]

Six in Makhuwa — tano na moja (literally "five and one"; Makhuwa counts 6–9 additively from five, a pattern widespread in Bantu)

[7]

Seven in Makhuwa — tano na pili (five and two)

[8]

Eight in Makhuwa — tano na tatu (five and three)

[9]

Nine in Makhuwa — tano na ne (five and four)

[10]

Ten in Makhuwa — kumi (cognate with Swahili kumi, Zulu ishumi, Tumbuka khumi — one of the most stable roots across the Bantu family)

[a]

[b]

[e]

[f]

[h]

[i]

[k]

[l]

[m]

[ᵐb]

[ᵐp]

[n]

[ⁿd]

[ⁿdʒ]

[ᵑk]

[ɲ]

[o]

[p]

[r]

[s]

[t]

[tʰ]

[ts]

[u]

[v]

[w]

[j]

[z]

Expand All Collapse All

What is the difference between Makua and Makhuwa?

What is the Makua language?

Where is Makua spoken?

What language family is Makua part of?

How is Makua written?

How does Makua count to ten?

Why does this page use the spelling Makua instead of Makhuwa?

What is the ISO 639-3 code for Makua?

References:

[1] CIA World Factbook. "Mozambique — People and Society". Retrieved from CIA World Factbook — Mozambique
[2] Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), Departamento de Linguística. "Línguas Bantu de Moçambique — Emakhuwa e Sistemas Linguísticos do Norte". Retrieved from Universidade Eduardo Mondlane — Linguistics
[3] University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Department of Kiswahili and African Languages. "Bantu Languages of the Eastern African Coast — Makhuwa Vowel System and Grammar". Retrieved from University of Dar es Salaam — African Languages