Kiga language

Kiga
Kiga
Chiga
Orukiga
Native to	Uganda, Rwanda
Ethnicity	Bakiga, Twa
Native speakers	1.6 million (2002 census)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu West Nyanza Rutara North Rutara Nkore-Kiga-Nyoro-Tooro Nkore-Kiga Kiga; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Standard forms	Runyakitara;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cgg
Glottolog	chig1238
Guthrie code	JE.14

Kiga (also called Rukiga, Ruchiga, or Chiga) is a Great Lakes Bantu language of the Kiga people (Bakiga). Kiga is a similar and partially mutually intelligible with the Nkore language. It was first written in the second half of the 19th century. Kiga is largely spoken in the ancient Kigezi region which includes about 5 districts, namely Rubanda, Rukiga, Kabale, Kanungu and some parts of Rukungiri. As of 2021, Kiga is spoken natively by about 1.3 million people in Uganda.

Kiga is so similar to Nkore (84%–94% lexical similarity) that some argue they are dialects of the same language, called Nkore-Kiga by Charles Taylor.

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