Chopi language

Chopi
Chopi
Chichopi
Native to	Mozambique
Native speakers	1.1 million (2017)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Chopi (S.60)? Chopi; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Lenge;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cce
Glottolog	chop1243
Guthrie code	S.61,611
Linguasphere	99-AUT-cc ; incl. varieties ; 99-AUT-cca...-ccd

Chopi, (also spelled Copi, Tschopi, and Txopi), is a Bantu language spoken along the southern coast of Mozambique.

Maho (2009) lists the possibly extinct Lenge dialect as a distinct language.^[2]

Phonology

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Voiced fricative sounds are heard mostly as realizations of voiced affricates among modern speakers

Sounds /t͡sᶲ, t͡sᶲʰ, d͡zᵝ, ⁿd͡zᵝ/, are typically heard as labial-alveolar affricates [p͡sᶲ, p͡sᶲʰ, b͡zᵝ, ᵐb͡zᵝ], however in recent years there has been a shift in pronunciation having them pronounced purely as alveolar.
Consonants when preceding /j, w/ are always either palatalized [Cʲ] or labialized [Cʷ].
/ɟ/ may also be heard as an implosive [ʄ] in free variation.
/v/ may also be heard as an affricate [b͡v] in free variation.

^ Chopi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
^ ^a ^b Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
^ Bailey, Richard Anthony (1995). Issues in the phonology and orthography of Chopi (ciCopi S 61). In Traill, A. and R. Vossen and M. M. A. Biesele (eds.), The complete linguist: papers in memory of Patrick J. Dickens: Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. pp. 135–170.