Ndendeule (Tanzania) – Language Snapshot

Ndendeule is a Bantu language spoken in the Namtumbo District of southern Tanzania. It is closely related to Ngindo and Matengo of the Rufiji group of Eastern Bantu. The speakers of Ndendeule are primarily rural people who farm as their main occupation. They are bilingual in Swahili, using the latter in trade, education, worship, administration, and professional communication. Ndendeule is currently losing domains of use, increasingly confined to family interactions. Most speakers are literate in Swahili but do not write in Ndendeule. Speakers are ambivalent regarding the vitality of their language as they view Swahili as the language of education and opportunities. Fewer young people increasingly embrace it as their primary language of communication, even in the home setting. This snapshot surveys the few studies of Ndendeule and describes the author’s current work writing a grammar and archiving language materials.