Symbols
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Umbundu alphabet
The 22 letters of Umbundu spelling, A to Z without Q, R, X and Z. C is the ch of church, K the k sound, W and Y glides. The pairs mb, nd, ng and nj are written with two letters and read as one sound. No accents: tone is not marked in everyday writing.
Quotation marks
Umbundu is usually punctuated like Portuguese, Angola's official language: angle quotes often appear in print and formal writing, curly quotes in everyday typing.
Where it's spoken
Angola: the central highlands of Huambo, Bié and Benguela. The kwanza has no sign of its own; prices are written Kz.
Ndapandula and the highlands
Ndapandula 🙏 is thank you; maize 🌽 is the staple of the plateau, and Morro do Moco ⛰️, Angola's highest mountain, stands in Huambo province.
On the map
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The Umbundu alphabet: plain letters, with c for ch
Umbundu is a Bantu language of Angola's central highlands, the language of the Ovimbundu people. It is written in the Latin alphabet with 22 plain letters, A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P S T U V W Y. The letters q, r, x and z are generally absent from native words, but some orthographic references use ñ and mark nasal vowels with tildes (ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ).
The letter to notice is c. In Umbundu it is always the ch of English church, never a k or an s, so Ocimbundu is said "o-chi-mbundu". Angola writes its other national languages the same way, which is why the Chokwe language is spelled Cokwe in Angolan school books. The k sound is always written k, and w and y are the glides of English we and yes.
Many words contain a nasal fused to the next consonant, written as pairs that are read as one sound: mb, nd, ng and nj, as in Umbundu, onjo (house) and ongombe (cattle). Older books and Portuguese-influenced spelling differ in places, so the village meeting place appears both as ondjango and as onjango. The five vowels a e i o u sound roughly as in Spanish or Portuguese. Umbundu is a tonal language, but everyday writing leaves tone unmarked.
Umbundu words: Ovimbundu, Ndapandula and Suku
The names come in a Bantu family. The language is Umbundu, the people are the Ovimbundu, and one of them is an Ocimbundu; the word Mbundu stays the same and the prefix in front of it changes. Most Umbundu nouns begin with a vowel prefix like this: omunu is a person and omanu people.
Thank you is Ndapandula, from the verb okupandula, to thank. Suku is God, the name of the creator in Ovimbundu belief that Umbundu churches kept for God in prayer and scripture. The ondjango is the open meeting house at the centre of a village, where elders talk, settle disputes and receive visitors; Angolans use the word in Portuguese too, for a place where people gather to talk.
Many place names on the map of Angola are Umbundu in Portuguese spelling. The old Ovimbundu kingdoms of Mbalundu, Viye and Wambu became the town of Bailundo and the provinces of Bié and Huambo.
How to type Umbundu on any keyboard
Umbundu's 22 plain letters fit on an English, Portuguese or French keyboard, but spellings with ñ or nasal-vowel tildes may require special input. On a phone, autocorrect can also change Umbundu words into Portuguese or English ones; add the words you use, such as Ndapandula, to the keyboard dictionary.
Punctuation usually follows Portuguese, the official language of Angola. Print and formal writing often use the angle quotes « » that European Portuguese prefers, and “ ” curly quotes are common in everyday typing. On Windows, « is Alt0171 and » is Alt0187, “ is Alt0147 and ” is Alt0148; on a Mac, Option\ and OptionShift\ give « and », Option[ and OptionShift[ give “ and ”. In HTML they are « » “ ”.
Prices are in the Angolan kwanza; the local abbreviation is Kz, written before the amount as in Kz 5 000, with the two letters from the grid.
Where the Umbundu language is spoken in Angola
Umbundu is the largest African language of Angola . Unicode's CLDR estimates about 11 million speakers, close to a third of the country. Its home is the Planalto Central, the high plateau of Huambo, Bié and Benguela provinces, reaching into Cuanza Sul and Huíla, with the cities of Huambo, Kuito, Benguela and Lobito. Angola's highest mountain, Morro do Moco , rises in Huambo province, and the plateau's red earth is maize country . Many Umbundu speakers also live in Luanda, where Portuguese is the main everyday language.
In the nineteenth century Ovimbundu caravans carried trade goods hundreds of kilometres between the port of Benguela and the interior, and Umbundu travelled with them. Protestant missionaries from North America settled at Bailundo in the early 1880s and began printing grammars, hymns and scripture in the language, and Umbundu has been a language of church, song and family letters ever since.
Umbundu belongs to the Bantu family. It is a neighbour of Kimbundu, spoken to the north around Luanda and Malanje, and of Kongo further north; to the south, in Namibia, Herero and Oshiwambo (Ndonga) belong to the same Guthrie zone R. Each has its own collection here, and so does Portuguese for letters such as ã ç é. For the flag , food, music and the rest of the country's emoji, see our Angola collection.
How to use them
4 situationsClick to copyUmbundu Alphabet & Words combos
9Worth knowing
- Umbundu, Kimbundu and the Mbundu people have similar names, but they are different groups: the Ovimbundu of the highlands speak Umbundu, the Ambundu of the north speak Kimbundu, and the two languages are related but not mutually intelligible.
- Thank you is Ndapandula in Umbundu and Ondapandula in Oshiwambo, spoken across the border in Namibia, where Ndapandula is also used as a given name.
- The city of Huambo, at the heart of the Umbundu-speaking plateau, was called Nova Lisboa, New Lisbon, in colonial times, and took back its Umbundu-derived name at independence.
- In Malcolm Guthrie's classification of the Bantu languages, Umbundu is R11, the first entry of zone R, which also holds Herero and Oshiwambo.
Questions people ask
6How to say thank you in Umbundu?
Ndapandula. It comes from okupandula, to thank.
What is the Umbundu alphabet?
The plain Latin alphabet without q, r, x and z: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P S T U V W Y, though some orthographies also use ñ and nasal-vowel tildes. C is read as the ch of church, and mb, nd, ng and nj are prenasalized consonants.
What does Umbundu mean?
The language of the Mbundu of the highlands. The people are the Ovimbundu, one person is an Ocimbundu, and the language is Umbundu: the prefix changes and Mbundu stays.
Where is Umbundu spoken?
In Angola's central highlands: Huambo, Bié and Benguela provinces, reaching into Cuanza Sul and Huíla, and among Ovimbundu families in Luanda. CLDR estimates about 11 million speakers, the most of any African language in Angola.
Is Umbundu the same as Kimbundu?
No. Both are Bantu languages of Angola with similar names, but Umbundu is spoken in the central highlands around Huambo and Benguela by the Ovimbundu, and Kimbundu in the north around Luanda and Malanje by the Ambundu. They are related but not mutually intelligible.
Who are the Ovimbundu people?
The people of Angola's central highlands and the largest ethnic group in the country. Their language is Umbundu, and their old kingdoms, Mbalundu, Viye and Wambu, gave their names to Bailundo, Bié and Huambo.
