#chewa

[folkfashion]

Nyau dancers, Malawi, by Mwabwera Ntchana

[okaydrawboy]

Abyssinian Chewa / Warrior Nobility

[lionofchaeronea]

Mask for the Nyau society of the Chewa people, central or southern Malawi, carved to resemble Elvis Presley. Artist unknown; ca. 1977. Now in the Brooklyn Museum. Photo credit: Brooklyn Museum.

[aic-african]

Storage Vessel (Msuko), Chewa, 1950, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of Africa

Through prior gift of Richard Faletti, the Faletti Family Collection Size: 40.6 x 40.6 cm (16 x 16 in.) Medium: Terracotta and pigment

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/234440/

[gwendolynlerman]

Languages of the world

Chewa/Nyanja (chicheŵa/chinyanja)

Basic facts

Number of native speakers: 12 million

Official language: Malawi, Zambia

Recognized minority language: Mozambique, Zimbabwe

Language of diaspora: Botswana, Eswatini

Script: Latin, 24 letters/Mwangwego, 160 letters

Grammatical cases: 0

Linguistic typology: agglutinative, SVO

Language family: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern Bantoid, Bantu, Nyasa

Number of dialects: 2

History

1830s - first written evidence

1877 - first dictionary

1880 - first grammar

1973 - standardization of the orthography

Writing system and pronunciation

These are the letters that make up the Latin alphabet: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v w ŵ z.

These are the letters that make up the Mwangwego script, which is not yet in Unicode:  

When a word comes at the end of a sentence, its penultimate vowel tends to be lengthened.

Chewa has two tones: high and low. They are used to distinguish between tenses and whether a verb is being used in a main or a dependent clause and to show sentence intonation.

Grammar

Nouns have eighteen classes, two numbers (singular and plural), and no cases. Some nouns do not change between singular and plural.

Adjective, pronouns, and verbs have to agree with nouns, which is done using prefixes.

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood (conditional, indicative, imperative, potential, and subjunctive), aspect, person, and number. A distinction between near and remote tenses is made.

Dialects

A common dialectal division distinguishes between urban and rural dialects. Among the former, Town Nyanja is the most distinctive of all and is used as the lingua franca of Lusaka. However, Standard Nyanja is quite different from Town Nyanja.

[ancestorswatching]

Hello Hannah, I saw your post on the Chewa people and was wondering if you have more information on them? I am writing a fantasy-webnovel where the MC falls in love with a girl who grew up in a land based on Maravi, so I'm trying to find detail information on how dating/marriage would have worked there (pre-colonial times) but it's not going great. I'm white, but both characters are black, and it feels dangerous to just assume stuff.

Hello! 

These are a few sources I have saved from prior research on the Chewa people. I hope they’re helpful!

https://ghi.llu.edu/sites/ghi.llu.edu/files/docs/CultureGram%20-%20Malawi.pdf 

https://www.earth-cultures.com/cultures/people-of-malawi

https://seedglobalhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Culture-and-Customs-of-Malawi.pdf

[ancientoriginses]

El Arte Rupestre de Chongoni Ofrece Una Visión Fascinante de la Misteriosa Sociedad Secreta de la Chewa

Quizás las culturas que tradicionalmente registraron sus vidas y rituales en las rocas y dentro de las cuevas no necesitaban palabras escritas. El arte es universal y nos habla a un nivel más profundo, pero a veces se usa para transmitir mensajes que solo otros miembros de la misma sociedad secreta pueden interpretar.

[folkfashion]

Chewa Nyau Dancer, Zambia, by Vlad Sokhin