Symbols
56Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Kivunjo alphabet
One row per letter, in alphabetical order: 24 letters, no q and no x, and no accents. C appears in ch; ky, ny and lyi are written with these same letters.
Quotation marks
Double curly quotes, with single quotes inside them, and ’ as the apostrophe.
Where it's spoken
Tanzania, on the central southern slopes of Kilimanjaro around Marangu, where coffee grows among banana groves. The shilling has no sign of its own: write TSh.
On the map
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Kivunjo writing: Latin letters and marked r forms
Unicode's CLDR lists these as the 24 main exemplar characters for Vunjo: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v w y z, each in lowercase and uppercase form. That is CLDR's 24-character main set, with q and x listed separately as auxiliary characters. The letter c turns up in the pair ch, as in Kyichina (Chinese), Kyichecki (Czech) and Machi (March).
The usual vowels are written without accents, but published Kivunjo Bible spelling uses marked consonants such as ṙ and ṟ. Kivunjo is a tonal Bantu language; published Kivunjo Bible spelling includes ṙ and ṟ, which a basic English keyboard does not provide directly. The symbol grid above holds 48 upper- and lowercase forms of CLDR's 24 main characters, the standard curly quotation marks, the flag, for Kilimanjaro, and and for the coffee and bananas of the Chaga homegardens on its slopes.
Kyi-, lyi and nyi: how Kyivunjo looks on the page
In CLDR's Vunjo locale, the labels for language names take the prefix Kyi- where Swahili has Ki-: Kyingereza (English, Swahili Kiingereza), Kyifaransa (French), Kyihispania (Spanish), Kyiarabu (Arabic), Kyichina (Chinese), Kyirusi (Russian), Kyireno (Portuguese), Kyijerumani (German). The language's own name follows the same pattern: Kyivunjo. In speech and in search it is often Kivunjo, or in Swahili Kichaga cha Marangu, after a well-known place where it is spoken.
Another trait is a y after l, n or k at the end of a word. The days of the week begin with Jumapilyi (Sunday, Swahili Jumapili), and the months include Aprilyi, Junyi and Julyai; language names give Kyisomalyi (Somali) and Kyiturukyi (Turkish). Some vowels change too: Jumatatuu for Monday and Jumatanu for Wednesday. Morning and afternoon have words of their own, utuko (a.m.) and kyiukonyi (p.m.), and the era names are Kabla ya Kristu and Baada ya Kristu, shortened to KK and BK. Countries mostly keep their Swahili names: Marekani for the United States, Uingereza for Britain, Misri for Egypt.
How to type Kivunjo letters, quotes and the shilling
The CLDR main letters and spellings such as ky and nyi use basic Latin characters, but published Kivunjo Bible spelling also uses ṙ and ṟ, which may require character insertion. For curly quotes on Windows, hold Alt and type 0147 for “, 0148 for ”, 0145 for ‘ and 0146 for ’ on the number pad; on a Mac, Option[ gives “, OptionShift[ gives ”, Option] gives ‘ and OptionShift] gives ’. Phones curl straight quotes by themselves in most apps, or long-press the quote key.
The Tanzanian shilling has no Unicode sign of its own; it is written TSh (code TZS). CLDR's Vunjo locale puts it straight before the amount with no space, TSh1,000.00, with a comma between thousands and a full stop for decimals, and names it Shilingi ya Tanzania. The Kenyan currency is Shilingi ya Kenya, the US dollar Dola ya Marekani and the euro Yuro ().
Where the Vunjo language is spoken
Vunjo is the speech of the Chaga people of the central southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, in Moshi Rural District of Kilimanjaro Region, in the area around Marangu, Mamba, Mwika and Kilema whose name it shares with the Vunjo constituency. Marangu is the starting point of the Marangu Route up the mountain and home of the Kilimanjaro National Park gate of the same name; families here grow coffee and bananas side by side in Chagga home gardens still irrigated through traditional furrows. CLDR estimates roughly 500,000 speakers, all in Tanzania; it gives Machame and Rombo the very same figure, so treat it as a rough estimate. Most speakers also speak Swahili, the national language.
Chaga is not one language but a chain of related Bantu varieties around the mountain. In Swahili they are all Kichaga, told apart by place: Kichaga cha Machame, cha Kibosho, cha Marangu, cha Rombo. Vunjo sits in the middle of that chain, with Machame to the west and Rombo to the east. Each has its own collection, as do Kipare (Asu) of the Pare Mountains to the south-east, Masai of the plains around the mountain, Swahili, and Tanzania for the flag, the shilling and the country's emoji.
How to use them
4 situationsClick to copyKivunjo (Vunjo Chaga) Alphabet combos
11Worth knowing
- Unicode's Vunjo and Machame locales are word for word the same in their day, month, language and era names, except for the language's own name: Kyivunjo with Kyi-, but Kimachame with a plain Ki-.
- Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct (1994) picks Kivunjo to show how much grammar one word can carry: a single Kivunjo verb means “He is eating it for her”, and the language sorts its nouns into sixteen genders (noun classes).
- The Marangu Route, the one Kilimanjaro trail with huts to sleep in, starts in Vunjo country at Marangu Gate.
- The 1999 Kivunjo New Testament uses marked r characters such as ṙ and ṟ.
Questions people ask
7What is the Vunjo language?
Vunjo, also called Kivunjo, Kyivunjo in its own CLDR locale and Kichaga cha Marangu in Swahili, is one of the Chaga languages, the Bantu languages of the Chaga people on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It has its own ISO code, vun.
What is the Kivunjo alphabet?
Kivunjo is written in Latin script; the published New Testament uses marked r forms ṙ and ṟ. Spellings such as ch, ky and ny use two letters.
Does Kivunjo use accents?
The published Kivunjo New Testament uses marked r characters such as ṙ and ṟ.
Vunjo ipo wilaya gani?
Vunjo ipo Wilaya ya Moshi Vijijini, Mkoa wa Kilimanjaro: Vunjo is in Moshi Rural District, Kilimanjaro Region, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro around Marangu, Mamba, Mwika and Kilema.
Is Kichaga cha Marangu the same as Vunjo?
Yes. Marangu is a well-known place in the Vunjo area, and Swahili speakers name Chaga varieties by place, so Kichaga cha Marangu is the everyday name for Vunjo Chaga.
Is Kichaga the same as Swahili?
No. Chaga languages are separate Bantu languages, though most speakers also speak Swahili and many words are close. Kivunjo often writes ky where Swahili has ki: Kyingereza for English, Kyifaransa for French.
How many people speak Vunjo?
Unicode's CLDR estimates roughly 500,000 speakers, all in Tanzania. It gives the same figure to Machame and Rombo, so it is best read as a rough estimate.
