Haya language

Haya (Oruhaya) is a Bantu language spoken by the Haya people of Tanzania, in the south and southwest coast of Lake Victoria. In 1991, the population of Haya speakers was estimated at 1,200,000 people. Its closest relative is the Nyambo language and it is also closely related to the languages of southwest Uganda such as Nkore-Kiga, Rutooro and Runyoro which all form a group called Rutara.

Maho (2009) classifies JE221 Rashi as closest to Haya. It has no ISO code, but is covered by the ISO 639-3 code.

Vowels
When a high vowel precedes a non-high vowel, it is realized as an approximant sound.

Tones
Two tones are present in Haya; high /v́/ and low /v̀/.

Tense
Haya has nine tenses. These are the present progressive, the present habitual, the past habitual and the perfect, alongside two future tenses and three past tenses. The future tense F2 refers to the distant future whilst F1 refers to the near future. P1 refers to the most recent past - events that have occurred earlier in the day, P2 refers to events that happened yesterday and P3, the most distant past, refers to events that happened before yesterday.