// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Aushi language say to its friend? "You can aush in anytime

Aushi
Ikyaushi
Native to	Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region	Luapula Province, (Haut-)Katanga Province
Native speakers	100,000 in Zambia (2010 census) widespread as L2 in DR Congo
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Sabi South Aushi
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Zambia DR Congo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	auh
Glottolog	aush1241
Guthrie code	M.402

Aushi, known by native speakers as Ikyaushi, is a Bantu language primarily spoken in the Lwapula Province of Zambia and the (Haut-)Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although many scholars argue that it is a dialect of the closely related Bemba, native speakers insist that it is a distinct language. Nonetheless, speakers of both linguistic varieties enjoy extensive mutual intelligibility, particularly in the Lwapula Province.

Phonology

Aushi distinguishes consonants according to five manners and four places of articulation. Although nasal consonants are individually phonemic, prenasalized consonants also arise in conjunction with the voiced and voiceless counterparts of the plosives, affricates, and fricatives.

Consonants

			Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal			m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	plain		p	t	t͡ʃ	k
	prenasal	voiceless	ᵐp	ⁿt	ⁿt͡ʃ	ᵑk
		voiced	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿd͡ʒ	ᵑɡ
Fricative	plain	voiceless	f	s
		voiced	β
	prenasal		ᶬf	ⁿs
Lateral				l
Approximant					j	w

Aushi has five canonical vowels that are distinguished segmentally according to vowel height and backness and suprasegmentally according to length (short/long) and tone (low/high). The front and central vowels are unrounded, while the back vowels are rounded. In environments where vowels arise before a nasal consonant, the vowels may adopt nasality, but this is not a distinctive feature, i.e. it is phonetic, not phonemic.

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
High	i	iː			u	uː
Mid	e	eː			o	oː
Low			a	aː

Grammar

Nominal Classes

Class	Proto-Bantu	Augment	Prefix	Example	Gloss
1a	*mo-	u-	mu-	umuntu	"person"
1b	*∅-	∅-	∅-	mayo	"mother"
2	*βɔ-, *βa-	a-	ba-	abantu	"people"
3	*mo-	u-	mu-	umuti	"tree"
4	*me-	i-	mi-	imiti	"trees"
5a	*le-	i-	shi-	ishina	"name"
5b	*le-	i-	∅-	isabi	"fish"
6	*ma-	a-	ma-	amana	"names"
7	*ke-	i-	ki-	ikitabu	"book"
8	*βi-, *li-	i-	fi-	ifitabu	"books"
9	*ne-	i-	N-	imfinsi	"darkness/night"
10	*li-ne	i-	N-	insiku	"days"
11	*lʊ-	u-	lu-	ulutambi	"proverb"
12	*ka-	a-	ka-	akalulu	"rabbit"
13	*to-	u-	tu-	utunwa	"mouths"
14	*βo-	u-	bu-	ubwaato	"canoe"
15a	*ko-	u-	ku-	ukuya	"to go"
15b	*ko-	u-	ku-	ukuboko	"arm"
16	*pa-	∅-	pa-	pa ng'anda	"in (the/a) house"
17	*ko-	∅-	ku-	ku mushi	"to (the/a) market"
18	*mo-	∅-	mu-	mu sukulu	"in/inside (the/a) school"

Further reading

• Bickmore, Lee (2018). "Contrast Reemergence in the Aushi Subjunctive". Africana Linguistica. 24: 123–138.
• Doke, Clement Martyn (1933). "A Short Aushi Vocabulary". Bantu Studies. 7 (1): 284–295. doi:10.1080/02561751.1933.9676323.
• Ilunga, Nkimba Kafituka (1994). Les Formes Verbales de l'Ikyaushi, M42b (MA thesis). Institute Supérieur Pédagogique de Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Kankomba, G.M.; Twilingiyimana, C.H. (1986). "M421 Aushi". Annales, Sciences Humaines. Tervuren, Belgium: Royal Museum for Central Africa.
• Spier, Troy E. (2016). "A Survey of the IcAushi Language and Nominal Class System". Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States (LACUS).
• Spier, Troy E. (2020). A Descriptive Grammar of Ikyaushi (PhD thesis). Tulane University.
• Spier, Troy E. (2022). "Nominal Phrase Structure in Ikyaushi (M.402)". Studies in African Languages and Cultures. 56: 31–47.
• The Women of Mabumba (Autumn 2021). "Four Trickster Tales from Lwapula Province, Zambia". World Literature Today. Translated by Spier, Troy E. pp. 68–71.