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Glite Dictionary
🏝️ A Pacific country 🗣️ A Bantu language
Tonga

Tonga

1 9.9
A Bantu language spoken in southern Zambia and northern Zimbabwe
  • noun
translation icon : tonga
  • Understanding Tonga is essential for connecting with the local communities in southern Africa.

Examples

  • Many children in southern Zambia learn the Tonga language as their first tongue at home.

  • - Is this a tonga or a bullet car?

    The Householder (1963)

  • Mrs Lesley, it is a tonga.

    A Passage to India (1984)

  • Every morning, my grandfather returned from his prayers in a tonga with a block of ice speckled with sawdust.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The Tonga language, spoken primarily in Zambia, is rich in cultural expressions and proverbs.

Synonyms

Tonga language
vsTonga
9.6

A language spoken by the Tonga people in southern Zambia and northern Zimbabwe

specifies that those countries lie in south central Africa

Compounds

Kingdom of Tonga
5.0

An island country in the South Pacific with a king

Tonga language
9.6

A language spoken by the Tonga people in southern Zambia and northern Zimbabwe

Surface Forms

Tonga singular
Tongas plural

Etymology

Tonga for the language comes from the name of the Tonga people in southern Zambia and northern Zimbabwe, since many languages are simply named after the people who speak them. So, remembering the Tonga people helps you remember that Tonga is their language.