There are word pairs where Kwambi has /w/ instead of Ndonga /j/ even though both dialects have both phonemes as part of their phonological inventory – for example ‘ekuwa’ vs. ‘ekuya’ for ‘axe’ and ‘uuluwi’ vs. ‘uuluyi’ for ‘brain’.
In some words Kwambi has /h/ where Ndonga has /j/, as in for example ‘hina’ vs. ‘yina’ (=his/her/their mother), ‘ha’ vs. ‘ya’ (=go) and ‘ehego’ vs. ‘eyego’ (=tooth).
(=good) and ‘aahineyi’, ‘uuhineyi’ and ‘iihineyi’ (=bad) are only found in Kwambi, not in Ndonga (compare ‘aawanawa’, ‘uuwanawa’, ‘iiwanawa’ and ‘aawinayi’, ‘uuwinayi’, ‘iiwinayi’ respectively).
Demonstratives with an initial sequence nasal+k in Ndonga are absent from Kwambi, where the forms ‘huka’, ‘hoka’ etc.
However, a phonological rule inserts an initial [h] in front of verbs in certain contexts as described by Magnusson (2003), which means that this difference is not always obvious.
Although both dialects have the words ‘kuutumba’ and ‘kaatumba’ for ‘sit’, Kwambi has a third commonly used variant, namely ‘kiitumba’, which does not exist in Ndonga.
The word ‘yoga’, which in both dialects means ‘swim’, is used in Ndonga also in the sense ‘wash’, for which Kwambi uses ‘kosha’.
For example, grammatical forms associated with Bantu noun class 7 consistently have an affricate in Kwambi where Ndonga has a fricative, which for example can be seen in the local names of the dialects themselves: Otshikwambi vs. Oshindonga.
Most notably, the use of the prefix ee- for noun class 10 (like in Kwanyama) sets Kwambi apart from Ndonga, which uses oo-.
The existence of a form emu- or eemu- co-existing with omi- as a noun class 4 prefix is only found in Kwambi, not in Ndonga.
Lastly, whereas Ndonga has a full set of forms for ‘only’, inflected according to noun class (‘alike’, ‘aguke’ etc.