Rongan.adj.
/ˈrɒŋ(ɡ)ə/, U.S. /ˈrɑŋɡə/ A. n.
1. A language belonging to the south-east Bantu group and the Tsonga subgroup, spoken by a people living in the Delagoa Bay area of southern Mozambique. Cf. Tsonga n.
ΘΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > African languages > Niger-Kordofanian > [noun] > Niger-Congo > Niger-Congo proper languages > Kwa family > Bantu languages > Tsonga
Ronga1897
Tsonga1905
Shangaan1968
1910 J. Buchan Prester John iii. 56 Sesuto is the chief [language] hereabouts... Then there's the thing the Shangaans speak—Baronga, I think they call it.]
1897 Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Soc. 413 A Vocabulary in Ronga, Portuguese, French, and English.
1899 Folk-lore 10 283 The Rabbit's name..in Ronga (Delagoa Bay) mpfundla, in Zulu unogwaja!
1917 Bull. School Oriental Stud. (1964) 1 106 Sw and zw appear to be attempts at the peculiar labial sibilant also found in Ronga and other Delagoa Bay dialects.
1989 Christian Sci. Monitor 1 Mar. 13/3 One of the main purposes of the day-care centers is to teach the children Portuguese (they speak Ronga or Changana at home) so they will be able to attend the state-run primary schools.
2004 New Yorker 27 Sept. 129/3 Teresa's father compiled a handwritten dictionary of Ronga, a local language, that she inherited and keeps by her bedside.
2. A member of a Bantu-speaking people living in the Delagoa Bay area of southern Mozambique.
ΘΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > peoples of Africa > peoples of Southern Africa > [noun] > Bantu peoples
Xhosa1801
amaXhosa1809
Matabele1823
Amapondo1824
amaZulu1829
Bapedi1835
Basotho1835
knobnose1848
Ovambo1853
Sotho1883
Tonga1891
Ronga1899
Venda1901
Pedi1912
Mopedi1928
Ndebele1930
Lobedu1933
Tsonga1937
Pondo1950
Nguni1957
1899 Folk-lore 10 228 Moloungo, which is used for God in many Bantu languages, and is applied by the Zulus and the Thonga (including the Ronga) to white men of all shades.
1927 H. A. Junod Life S. Afr. Tribe I. i. 16 The real Rongas are, I think, the Mpfumo and the Matjolo clans, who are settled on the west of the Bay.
1957 C. G. Seligman Races of Afr. (ed. 3) viii. 168 The Tsonga, sub-divided into Tsonga, Ronga, and Tswa, are found chiefly in Mozambique, with offshoots in Eastern and Northern Transvaal.
2003 Internat Jrnl. Afr. Hist. Stud. 36 174 Henri-Alexandre Junod, well-known for his ethnological research among the Ronga.
B. adj.
Of or relating to the Ronga or their language.
ΘΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > African languages > Niger-Kordofanian > [adjective] > of or relating to Bantu languages
Kaffir1588
Kongo1597
Xhosa1812
Amapondo1830
Zulu1839
Sesotho1844
Swahilian1846
Kikuyu1850
Bantu1858
Fan1861
Amandebele1872
Nyamwezi1872
Wagogo1878
Lunda1879
Luganda1882
Sotho1883
Gogo1891
Tonga1891
Chichewa1897
Ronga1897
Bemba1904
Ila1907
Tsonga1907
Meru1908
Chewa1909
Venda1913
Lingala1922
Luba1922
Pedi1922
Nyanja1923
Nguni1929
Ndebele1930
Lobedu1937
Tiv1939
Mongo1961
Siswati1964
1897 Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Soc. 413 The Ronga language is spoken by the Natives of the Districts adjacent to Lorenzo Marquez in the Portuguese Colony of the East Coast of South Africa.
1910 Encycl. Brit. III. 360/1 The Ronga (Tonga) languages of Portuguese South-East Africa..are almost equally related to the Nyanja group..and to Zulu.
1919 H. H. Johnston Compar. Study Bantu & Semi-Bantu Langs. ii. 24 The arrival of the Bantu hordes (the ancestors of the Karaña, Becuana, Zulu-Kafir, Mas̩añgane, and ?oñga peoples), may have been the cause of the abandonment of the stone fortresses.
1978 T. H. Henriksen Mozambique iii. 48 Relations among the Rhonga chieftaincies were at times stormy.
2004 Internat. Jrnl. Afr. Hist. Stud. 37 358 But for understanding of..the region of Matalana where Malangatana grew up in Ronga culture, one must search out the work of other scholars.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1897