Herero language

Spoken in

• Niger - Congo languages Volta - Congo languages Benue - Congo languages Bantu languages Herero

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Otjiherero (also Herero or Ochiherero ) is a Bantu language that is spoken by the Herero people in many parts of Namibia and parts of Botswana, and also isolated in Angola. The number of speakers is a total of around 300,000 people.

The Language area includes the so-called Herero country; most of the eastern region of Namibia Omaheke and parts of regions Otjozondjupa and Kunene. The tribe of the Himba speaks a dialect that is very close to the Herero. Namibia's capital Windhoek has no small Herero language minority.

Through the first translation of the Bible into the Herero by the missionary Gottlieb Viehe (1839 - 1901) the language of the late 19th century was a written language based on the Latin alphabet. Even Father Peter Henry Brinckerhoff (1836 - 1904), the great merits acquired by the study of language, made ​​translations of theological writings and songs.

Herero is taught in Namibian primary schools as a mother and a foreign language, and shall be established as a major at the University of Namibia. Herero is also one of six minority languages ​​of the state Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ( NBC). Embo Romambo has published the only dictionary for Otjiherero.