Tonga (Chitonga), also known as Zambezi, is a Bantu language primarily spoken by the Tonga people (Batonga) who live mainly in the Southern province, Lusaka province, Central Province and Western province of Zambia, and in northern Zimbabwe, with a few in Mozambique. The language is also spoken by the Iwe, Toka and Leya people, and perhaps by the Kafwe Twa (if they are not Ila), as well as many bilingual Zambians and Zimbabweans. In Zambia Tonga is taught in schools as first language in the whole of Southern Province, Lusaka and Central Provinces. It is one of the major lingua francas in Zambia, together with Bemba, Lozi and Nyanja. The Tonga of Malawi, which is classified by Guthrie as belonging to zone N15, is not particularly close to Zambian Tonga, which is classified as zone M64, and can be considered a separate language. The Tonga-speaking inhabitants are the oldest Bantu settlers, with the Tumbuka, a small ethnic group in the east, in what is now known as Zambia. There are two distinctive dialects of Tonga; Valley Tonga and Plateau Tonga. Valley Tonga is mostly spoken in the Zambezi valley and southern areas of the Batonga (Tonga people) while Plateau Tonga is spoken more around Monze District and the northern areas of the Batonga. Tonga (Chitonga or isiTonga) developed as a spoken language and was not put into written form until missionaries arrived in the area. The language is not standardized, and speakers of the same dialect may have different spellings for the same words once put into written text. At least some speakers have a bilabial nasal click where neighboring dialects have /mw/, as in mwana 'child' and kunwa 'to drink'. Maho (2009) removes Shanjo as a separate, and not very closely related, language. Phonology Consonants /l/ can also be heard as a tap sound [ɾ] in free variation. Post-alveolar affricates /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ⁿd͡ʒ/ can also be heard as palatal stops [c, ɟ, ᶮɟ] in free variation among dialects. /w/ can also be heard as a labio-palatal [ɥ] when occurring before /i/. /f, v/ can also be heard as glottal fricatives [h, ɦ] in the Plateau dialect. /sʲ, zʲ/ are heard as voiceless and breathy palatal approximants [j̊, j̤] in the Northern dialects. Vowels Verbs Tonga or Chitonga follows the standard Bantu language structure. A single word may incorporate a subject-marker, a tense-marker, a direct object, and even an indirect