# Town Bemba

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Bemba variety of Zambia

Town Bemba Native to Zambia Region Copperbelt Native speakers unknown, but growing; 2–3 million as L2 (2009)[1] Language family Bemba-based Language codes ISO 639-3 None (mis) Glottolog town1238 Guthrie code M.40A[2]

**Town Bemba** is an innovative variety of the [Bemba language](/source/Bemba_language) spoken among migrant populations in central [Zambia](/source/Zambia). It developed in the mines and mining towns, where it replaced the earlier, and foreign, [Fanagalo](/source/Fanagalo).

It has been described as a creole,[1] but this is dubious, since Town Bemba never went through a [pidgin](/source/Pidgin) phase and its phonology and grammar differ only slightly from standard Bemba.[3] Unlike in [Nyanja](/source/Chichewa), whose urban form needs to be treated as a separate language for literary purposes,[*[clarification needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_clarify)*] literacy materials in Bemba such as those produced by iSchool.zm can generally be used by both urban and traditional speakers.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-HPC_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-HPC_1-1) [Kees Versteegh](/source/Kees_Versteegh), 2009, "Non-Indo-European Pidgins and Creoles", in Kouwenberg & Singler, eds., *The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies*

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Guthrie_2-0)** Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. [New Updated Guthrie List Online](https://web.archive.org/web/20180203191542/http://goto.glocalnet.net/mahopapers/nuglonline.pdf)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Andrew Gray & Phallen Bwalya, 2015. *Bemba: a learner's guide to Zambia's largest language*

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