Kirundi (íkiRǔndi)

Kirundi or Rundi is a Bantu language with about 4.5 million speakers, most of whom live in Burundi. There are also some speakers of Kirundi in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Congo-Kinshasa. Kirundi is closely related to more or less mutually intelligible with Kinyarwanda.

There has been a standardised spelling system for Kirundi since the 1940s, though Roman Catholic and Protestant missions use slightly different systems.

Kirundi is one of the official languages of Burundi, along with French, and is the spoken mainly by Hutus, but also by Tutsis and Twa people, in most parts of the country.

Kirundi alphabet and pronunciation

Sample text in Kirundi

Abantu bose bavuka bishira bakizana kandi bangana mu gateka no mu ngingo zibubahiriza. Bafise ubwenge n'umutima kandi bategerezwa kwubahana nk'abavandimwe.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Information about Kirundi pronunciation compiled by Wolfram Siegel

Links

Information about the Kirundi language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirundi_language
http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/RwandaRundi
http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-512771/Rundi
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=run

Other Niger-Congo languages

Akan, Bambara, Bemba, Chichewa, Duala, Ewe, Ewondo, Ga, Ganda, Herero, Igbo, Kirundi, Kpelle, Lingala, Mende, Shona, Southern Sotho, Swahili, Twi, Wolof, Xhosa, Yorùbá, Zulu

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet