 It is the largest spoken local language in Namibia, particularly the Ovambo people.The language is closely related to that of the Herero and Himba, the Herero language ("Otjiherero").An obvious sign of proximity is the prefix used for language and dialect names, Proto-Bantu "*ki-" (class 7, as in the name of the Swahili language, "Kiswahili"), which in Herero has evolved to "Otji-" and in Ovambo further to "Oshi-".