Lozi Language Letters & Words

Lozi (Silozi in the language itself, with the si- prefix that names a language) is written with the Latin alphabet. Almost everything is plain: words like hahulu, hande or Mulimu (God) need nothing beyond an ordinary keyboard. The grid on this page lists the letters of everyday Lozi writing, a b c d e f g h i j k l m n ñ o p s t u w y z, in capital and small form, with ñ in its place right after n. Q, R, V and X are left out because they turn up only in names and borrowed words.

Some sounds are written with two letters, in the way of the Sotho languages Lozi grew from: ny as in Nyambe, the old Lozi name for the creator, and sh as in shoe. The letter c on its own stands for the ch sound, as in cwañi (how) and cwale (now). The vowels a e i o u are said roughly as in Spanish or Italian. Lozi, like most Bantu languages, uses pitch to tell words apart, but its spelling does not mark tone, so a Lozi text never needs an accent mark.

The Lozi ñ: what it means and how to type it

The one letter that sets Lozi spelling apart is ñ (capital Ñ). It is the single nasal sound at the end of English sing, written with one letter where Sotho and Tswana write ng. You meet it in the question every Lozi speaker hears in the morning, Mu zuhile cwañi?, how did you wake up? Quick phone messages can drop the tilde and write cwani, but the full spelling with ñ is what books, the Silozi Bible and school texts use.

Lozi uses the same letter as Spanish, so every keyboard that can write Spanish can write Lozi. On a phone, press and hold n and pick ñ. On Windows, type Alt+164 for ñ and Alt+165 for Ñ on the number pad (or Alt+0241 and Alt+0209), or use the US-International layout and type ~ then n. On a Mac, press Option+N, then n. In HTML the entities are ñ and Ñ. Copying ñ from this page works everywhere too.

Lozi greetings and phrases: Lumela, Ni itumezi

The everyday Lozi hello is Lumela, the same word Sotho speakers use. In the morning people ask Mu zuhile cwañi?, literally how did you wake up, and the usual answer is Ni zuhile hande, I woke well. Ni itumezi means thank you, and Ni itumezi hahulu is thank you very much, since hahulu means very or a lot. These are among the first Lozi phrases most learners pick up, and they fit naturally in messages, often beside 🙏.

As across Zambia, greeting comes first and is done with respect. It is polite to greet elders first, often with a soft clap or a slight bow, and to greet a host before turning to business. Apart from the ñ in cwañi, every one of these phrases is written in plain letters.

Where the Lozi language is spoken

Lozi is the language of the Lozi people of Zambia's Western Province 🇿🇲, the historic kingdom of Barotseland, around the provincial capital Mongu and across the wide floodplain of the upper Zambezi. Unicode's CLDR estimates about 1.1 million speakers in Zambia, and many more use it as the common language of the west, where Luyana, Mbunda, Nkoya and other peoples live side by side. Across the border in Namibia 🇳🇦 it is the shared language of the Zambezi Region (the former Caprivi Strip) and is taught there in schools.

Lozi is one of the seven Zambian languages the state uses in early schooling and on national radio, together with Bemba, Nyanja, Tonga (Zambia), Kaonde, Lunda and Luvale, which all have their own collections here. Its closest relatives are not its Zambian neighbours but Southern Sotho and Tswana, far to the south, for a reason explained below. The Zambia collection has the flag, the kwacha sign K and the country's emoji.

How Lozi grew from Sotho

In the 1840s the Kololo, a Sotho-speaking people who had moved north from the region of today's South Africa and Lesotho, conquered the Luyi kingdom on the upper Zambezi. Their rule lasted only about two decades, ending in 1864 when the Luyi took back power, but their language stayed. Lozi is the result: a Sotho language at its core with many words taken from Luyana, the older language of the kingdom.

That is why a Lozi speaker and a Sotho speaker can often follow each other, why Lozi says Lumela like Sesotho, and why the Lozi language is more closely related to the Southern Sotho and Tswana collections than to Bemba or Nyanja.

Kuomboka, the Litunga and the Silozi hymnal

The best-known Lozi tradition is the Kuomboka ceremony 🛶🥁. When the Zambezi floods the Barotse plain at the end of the rains, the Litunga 👑, the Lozi king, leaves his palace at Lealui for higher ground at Limulunga in the Nalikwanda, a great royal barge with an elephant 🐘 on its roof, paddled by around a hundred men to the beat of the royal drums. The name means to get out of the water. Posts about it pair the word Kuomboka with 🇿🇲🛶🥁👑.

Lozi also has a long written tradition through the church. The Silozi Bible and Silozi hymn books are widely used in church services, and hymns in Silozi are sung in congregations across the west. That is why 📖 and 🙏 sit so naturally beside Lozi text.