Hehe, also known by its native name Kihehe[kihehe], is a Bantu language that is spoken by the Hehe people of the Iringa region of Tanzania, lying south of the Great Ruaha River.[3] It was reported to have "Ngoni" features, that is, words of a Zulu-like language introduced when conquered by a Nguni or Zulu-like people in the early 19th century.[citation needed] However, other "Ngoni" speeches seem to have lost most of these distinctive features over the past 150-odd years, the language more resembling those of the neighbouring peoples.[citation needed] In 1977 it was estimated that 190,000 people spoke Hehe.[citation needed] There has been some Bible translation (British and Foreign Bible Society). Hehe may be mutually intelligible with Bena.[3]
Grammar[]
Hehe has 15 noun classes, marked with prefixes.[4]
^ Jump up to: abDwyer, D. J., Yankee, E., & Michigan State Univ., E. r. (1985). African Language Resource Handbook: A Resource Handbook of the Eighty-two Highest Priority African Languages. Prepublication Edition. http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED256170.pdf
^David Odden, Introducing Phonology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 177.
^Mtavangu, Norbert (2008). "Tense and aspect in Ikihehe". Occasional Papers in Linguistics. 3: 34–41.
