Chichewa Language

Chichewa also known as Chewa or Chinyanja or Nyanja is a language spoken in Central and Southern regions of Malawi, Tete and Niassa provinces of Mozambique, Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia and Mashonaland Central province of Zimbabwe by the Achewa people.

Chichewa language has approximately 12,000,000 native speakers.

A person who speaks Chichewa is known as Mchewa.

Chichewa is an official language in Malawi.

The language has 7 dialects; Chitumbuka, Chiyao, Chilomwe, Chitonga, Chisena, Chilambia and Chinkhonde.

The language is called 'the language of the Chewa people' in Malawi and 'the language of the lake' in Zambia.

Dictionary of popular Chichewa words

Join the Community

We are on a mission to document and preserve all native languages in Africa and help many people learn these languages while at it.

Join the movement by adding definitions in your mother tongue.

Your name will forever be carved in history as the person who kept that word alive.

Hundreds of native speakers are adding definitions every single day.

Comprehensive instructions on how to contribute are available in the Help Page

If you can help us accomplish this mission in any other way, say you wan't to become a sponsor, provide recordings or written text of your language or suggest corrections/additions to the data on this page, feel free to reach out to us here: ongeanasi@lughayangu.com.

This page was last updated on June 14, 2024

Chewa/Chinyanja/Nyanja/Chichewa

Native to

Botswana , Eswatini , Malawi , Mozambique , Zambia , Zimbabwe

Estimated Native Speakers

12,000,000

Region

Central and Southern regions of Malawi, Tete and Niassa provinces of Mozambique, Central and Eastern Provinces of Zambia and Mashonaland Central province of Zimbabwe

Status

Active

The Atyap People , The Chewa festival of the dead