Why older books look different
Older printed Kimbundu writes ri- and nh- where the standard now writes di- and ny-.
After this unit
Recognise a word in an older book and find it here.
Older Kimbundu books, such as Chatelain's 1889 grammar and the 1940s dictionary this site is built from, spell many words differently from the standard used today. The differences follow a few patterns. This unit shows each one with real words.
In the dictionary, 2,241 entries are spelled differently in the older source.
Three changes you can learn
nh and ni become ny
395 entriesThe sound of ny in canyon has been written three ways. Chatelain in 1889 wrote ni before a vowel. The 1940s dictionary writes nh. The standard writes ny. Two entries in the dictionary still print the older ni.
| Older book | Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| Anha | Anya | |
| Kuinhi | Kwinyi | |
| Ienie | Ienye |
ri becomes di
1,351 entriesThere is no r. The sound is l, and it is pronounced d before i. The standard writes it the way it is pronounced: d before i, l everywhere else. This changes the class 5 prefix, so ri- becomes di-, and it changes the middle of words too.
| Older book | Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| Rijina | Dijina | |
| Ria | Dia | |
| Kiiari | Kiyadi |
i and u before a vowel become y and w
340 entriesOlder books write the glides with the vowel letters i and u. The standard gives them their own letters, y and w. Not every i or u before a vowel changes, so you cannot apply this one by rule. The dictionary shows which words do.
| Older book | Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| Aie | Aye | |
| Akua | Akwa | |
| Bua | Bwa |
Three new letters you cannot predict
Older books did not write these. Nothing in the old spelling tells you which words use them, so a word with a plain b, t or p may be spelled with bh, th or ph today. Look the word up instead of guessing.
Accent marks
Older books use accent marks, for stress and grammar. The standard writes no tone or accent marks, and this course shows words without them. The dictionary pages keep the accents of the 1940s dictionary, about 4,000 of 10,700 headwords, as a guide to pronunciation. Do not treat an accent as part of how a word is spelled.
Finding an old spelling here
Type the word exactly as the older book prints it. The dictionary keeps the older spelling of every re-spelled entry, and search matches it, so Rijina finds Dijina. Search also treats nh, ny and ni before a vowel as the same.
Where this comes from
- Instituto de Línguas Nacionais, Esboço fonológico (Luanda, 1985) — the sounds and the letters for them
- Chatelain, Grammatica elementar do Kimbundu (Loanda, 1889) — the oldest spelling
- The 1940s Kimbundu–Portuguese dictionary this site is built from — the source spelling, and the counts above