This language belongs to the Nyanja Group of Bantu (Guthrie G30) and is spoken in Malawi (where it is known as Chewa or Chichewa) and in Zambia (where it is known as Nyanja or Chinyanja). It is also spoken in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
UBS (1982) notes 4 million speakers for Malawi only. Zambia's 1969 census states that 755,000 people, or about 17 percent of the population, speak one of the languages of the Nyanja group. Heine (1970) suggests a figure of 2.1 to 2.2 million first and second language speakers. World Almanac (1998) and UBS (1994; cited in Grimes 1996) give ten million total speakers.
No detailed dialect survey has come to our attention.
A standardized orthography for Chewa in Malawi exists, as does one for Nyanja in Zambia, differences are minimal.
Scotton (personal communication, 1983) states that one set of materials would be sufficient for Chewa and Nyanja.
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