Zande is a language of the Ubangi subgroup of Adamawa-Ubangi and is spoken in southeastern Central African Republic, southwestern Sudan, and northern Zaire.
Grimes (1996) notes 1,142,000 Zande speakers. UBS (1982) gives these approximate figures: 230,000 Sudan; 730,000 Zaire; 30,000 C.A.R.; or a total of 990,000. Thomas (1981) states there are more than 700,000 speakers of Zande in all, while Heine (1970) believes the number is less than one million.
Zande is a local first language.
An orthography was established for Zande at the 1928 Rejaf Language Conference. Past materials have not consistently marked vowel quality and nasalization; present efforts include these as well as tone on the tense particles (Duerksen, personal communication, 1983).
One set appears to be sufficient, but see 4 above.
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