Chewa, also known as Nyanja, is a language of the Bantu language
family. The gender prefix chi- is used for languages, so the
language is also known as Chichewa and Chinyanja (spelled
Cinyanja in Zambia), and locally Nyasa in Mozambique. Chewa is
the national language of Malawi. It is also one of the seven
official African languages of Zambia, where it is spoken mostly
in the Eastern Province. It is also spoken in Mozambique,
especially in the provinces of Tete and Niassa, as well as in
Zimbabwe where, according to some estimates, it ranks as the
third-most widely used local language, after Shona and Northern
Ndebele. It was one of the 55 languages featured on the Voyager.
An urban variety of Nyanja, sometimes called Town Nyanja, is the
lingua franca of the Zambian capital Lusaka and is widely spoken
as a second language throughout Zambia. This is a distinctive
Nyanja dialect with some features of Nsenga, although the
language also incorporates large numbers of English-derived
words, as well as showing influe