Werner A. Notes on the Shambala and Some Allied Languages of East Africa

Journal of the African Society, 1906. — pp. 154-166.Werner A. Notes on the Shambhala language and some related languages of East Africa (In English)Swahili in some respects the Bantu tongue best known to Europeans; but less attention has been paid to the group of languages immediately behind the " Mrima " or strip of coast whose inhabitants speak a dialect differing but slightly from that of Zanzibar. These are, taking them from north to south, between the Tana and the Rufiji : Pokomo, Nyika, Shambala, Bondei, Zegula, Nguru, Kami, Zaramo. Behind these last two, as shown on our map, lie the districts where Khutu, Sagara and Gogo are spoken.
Father Torrend, in his provisional arrangement of the Bantu languages, places Shambala, Bondei, Zegula and Nguru in a "Shambala cluster" belonging to the eastern half of his " Main Group "—see the Introduction to his Comparative Grammar of the South-African Bantu Languages (p. xx). It is with these four languages that we are more particularly concerned, though we shall point out affinities with the surrounding groups as occasion arises.