Penn Language Center

Chewa, also known as Nyanja, is a language of the Bantu language family. The gender prefix chi- is used for languages, so the language is also known as Chichewa and Chinyanja.

Chewa is the national language of Malawi. It is also one of the seven official African languages of Zambia, where it is spoken mostly in the Eastern Province and in Lusaka. It is also spoken in Mozambique, especially in the provinces of Tete and Niassa, as well as in Zimbabwe where, according to some estimates, it ranks as the third most widely used local language, after Shona and Northern Ndebele.

The Nyanja spoken in Lusaka is extremely different from rural Chewa, incorporating large numbers of English-derived words, as well as showing influence from other Zambian languages such as Bemba. For example, the plural prefix a- (used for humans and other animates) is ba- (pronounced βa-) in Lusaka Nyanja. 

View the Chichewa Language Program's webpage here.

Source: Wikipedia