Learn Chichewa (Nyanja)

Learn Chichewa online with practical, real-life situations! Simple, fast and easy learning. Speak Nyanja language with confidence. Start now with uTalk!


About Chichewa (Nyanja)

Chichewa, also known as Chewa, is an official language of Malawi and is spoken in Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The language used to be called Chinyanja - as it still is in Zambia - but in Malawi it officially became Chichewa in 1968, at which time the President of Malawi was from the Chewa tribe. Chichewa is part of the Bantu language family which spreads across most of sub-Saharan Africa, so it is related to languages as far-reaching as Zulu, Kirundi and Tswana.

Get Started
uTalk Language Logo
Arrow facing left to cycle backwards through text
Play sample text audio Play sample text audio
Arrow facing right to cycle forward through text

Planet Earth
Where is it spoken?

Malawi

Zambia

Mozambique

People Talking
Number of speakers

12,000,000

Family Tree
Language family

Niger-Congo

Atlantic–Congo

Benue-Congo

Bantu

Fun facts — Chichewa (Nyanja)

  • The Chichewa word for shoe polish means 'medicine of shoes'.
  • In Malawi, the language is called 'the language of the Chewa people' and in Zambia it is known as 'the language of the lake'.
  • Like all Bantu languages, nouns are divided into various classes recognisable by the prefix at the beginning of words. Languages belong to the 'chi-' class. This is related to the 'ki-' in Kiswahili and the 'isi-' in IsiXhosa and IsiZulu.

Over 30 million people have started speaking a new language with uTalk

Treasure

Over 2500 words and phrases, across 60+ topics covering everyday situations

Native Speakers

Practise speaking and compare your pronunciation with native speakers

Games

Game-based learning is fun and intuitive

Get Started