ABSTRACT
The name ‘Kilimanjaro Bantu’ (henceforth KB) is here used as a cover term for the languages known as Chaga and Taita, spoken in Tanzania and Kenya respectively. Ethnic labels as well as Guthrie’s classification are particularly misleading here: the numerous tongues (the term is used here purposefully) spoken on Mt Kilimanjaro by the Chaga people form a close linguistic unit with Rwa (known in Tanzania as ‘Meru’) spoken on Mt Meru to the west, as well as Gweno, spoken in the Pare Mountains to the east – speakers of Gweno being subsumed under the ethnic label ‘Pare’ together with their more numerous Asu-speaking neighbors (G22). It should thus be clear from the outset that there is no single ‘Chaga’ language: diversity is greater than for example among the E50 (Central Kenya) languages, in spite of the fact that each of these languages is known under a different ethnic label – Kikuyu, Kamba, Embu, etc. A glance at Nurse (1979b:393) or Philippson (1982) will discover the massive phonological discrepancies among ‘Chaga dialects’ which prevent intercomprehension.
