Rufiji-Ruvuma

Rufiji-Ruvuma is a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken between the Rufiji and Ruvuma rivers in southern Tanzania, with related varieties reaching northern Mozambique and the southern end of Lake Malawi. It joins the Rufiji or Matandu cluster, including Matumbi and Ndengereko, to the Ruvuma cluster of Yao-Mwera and Makonde, together with Ngindo, Ndendeule and Ngoni.

Matumbi, called Kimatuumbi by its speakers, is heard south of the Rufiji around Kilwa. The Yao tongue was carried west by caravan traders who exchanged ivory and grain for cloth and weapons with Arab and Swahili merchants on the coast; around 1830 Yao groups began settling toward the southern shore of Lake Malawi, taking their language with them.