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Bemba
Chibemba
Spoken in	Zambia Democratic Republic of the Congo  Tanzania
Total speakers	4,208,940
Language family	Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Central Bantu Zone M Bemba
Official status
Official language in	Zambia (regional language)
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	bem
ISO 639-3	bem

The Bemba language, Chibemba, also known as Cibemba, Ichibemba, Icibemba and Chiwemba, is a Bantu language that is spoken primarily in Zambia by the Bemba people and about 18 related ethnic groups. It is the second-most spoken lanuage in Zambia, after Nyanja. The noun class prefix 'chi-' indicates languages and the prefix 'ba-' indicates people, so 'Babemba' also means the Bemba people. The other close tribe is the Bisa people living in Mpika and Lake Bangweulu areas.

Chibemba is also spoken, to a lesser extent, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Botswana.

It is an SVO language, and is also a tonal language.

[edit] External links

• Links to Bemba Grammatical Description, Texts, and Sound Files
• Bemba Language Resources
• PanAfrican L10n page on Bemba