Lamba language

This article is about the Bantu language. For the Lama language spoken by the Lamba people of Togo, see Lama language.

Lamba
Ichilamba
Native to	Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region	Copperbelt
Ethnicity	Lamba people
Native speakers	200,000 in Zambia (2010 census) unknown but smaller number in DRC
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Sabi South Lamba
Language codes
ISO 639-2	lam
ISO 639-3	lam
Glottolog	lamb1271
Guthrie code	M.54,541,542

Lamba is a language found in Zambia and is commonly spoken in the Copperbelt. There are about 210,000 native speakers in the northern parts of Zambia and southern fringes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lamba is also spoken in Lusaka, mainly because many speakers have migrated there for jobs. Lamba is a Bantu language. (In fact, "mu ntu" means "one person" in Lamba and "ba ntu" means "two or more people".) Depending on who does the counting, Zambia has between 42 and 78 local languages besides English – see Languages of Zambia for further details. Some people might say Lamba is a dialect of Bemba. Though the two languages share many words, they are not as close as say Cockney and Haitian Creole are to English or French.

Maho (2009) lists the Lima (Bulima) and Temba varieties as distinct languages.