Introduction to Kinyarwanda:

Kinyarwanda (also known simply as Rwanda) is a Bantu language spoken primarily in Rwanda, where it is one of the official languages of the country, as well as in southern Uganda. Kinyarwanda is mutually intelligible with Kirundi, an official language of Burundi.

Tone

Kinyarwanda is a tonal language.

Orthography

'ki' and 'ke' can be pronounced interchangeably as [ki] and [ke] or [chi] and [che] according to speaker's preference

An 'a', 'e', or 'i' at the end of a word followed by a word starting with a vowel often follows a pattern of omission (observed in the following excerpt of the Rwandan anthem) in common speech, though the orthography remains the same. For example, Reka tukurate tukuvuge ibigwi wowe utubumbiye hamwe twese Abanyarwanda uko watubyaye berwa, sugira, singizwa iteka. would be pronounced as "reka tukurate tukuvug' ibigwi wow' utubumiye hamwe twes' abanyarwand' uko watubyaye berwa, sugira singizw' iteka."

In the colloquial language, there are some discrepancies from orthographic Cw and Cy. Specifically, rw (as in Rwanda) is often pronounced /ɾɡw/. The most obvious differences are:

Note that these are all sequences; /bɡ/, for example, is not labio-velar /b͡ɡ/. Even when Rwanda is pronounced /ɾwanda/, the onset is a sequence.

Grammar

Nouns

Kinyarwanda has ten noun classes pairs:

When preceded by a demonstrative, the vowel prefix is dropped. (e.g. umu- → mu-). Class I is used for words representing humans.

Verbs

All Kinyarwanda verb infinitives begin with gu- or ku- (morphed into kw- before vowels). To conjugate, the infinitive prefix is removed and replaced with a prefix agreeing with the subject. Then a tense infix can be inserted.

The prefixes for pronouns are as follows:

'I' = n-

'you' (sing.) = u-

'he/she' = y-/a- (i.e. the singular Class I prefix above)

'we' = tu-

'you' (pl.) = mu-

'they' (human) = ba- (i.e. the singular Class I prefix above)

Tense markers include the following.

Present ('I do'): - (no infix)

Present progressive ('I am doing'): -ra- (morphs to -da- when preceded by n)

Future ('I will do'): -za-

Continuous progressive ('I'm still doing'): -racya-

The past tense can be formed by using the present and present progressive infixes and modifying the apect marker suffix.