Introduction

 
With a population of more than 952,000, the Chuwabo people group reside along the coast in central Mozambique. Their specific location is Zambezia province: central coast between the Mlanje and Quelimane mountains. They occupy an area around 150 km North-South and East-West.

Alternate names for the Chuwabo are Chichwabo, Chuabo, Chuwabo, Chwabo, Cicuabo, Cuabo, Cuwabo, Echuabo, Echuwabo, Echuwabu, Txuwabo. The linguistic classification is Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, P, Makhuwa (P.34). They have determined five dialects: Central Chuwabo, Nyaringa, Marale, Karungu, and Maindo. There is a noteworthy lexical similarity of 78% between Chuwabo of Makusi district and Marrare. The Ethnologue code is chw.

Language development in Chuwabo has been ongoing. A grammar has been written. The New Testament was done in 1978–2003. For writing in Chuwabo, the Latin script is used.