There are no definite or indefinite articles. The pocket of air produced by the resulting enclosure is rarefied by the sucking action of the tongue. It is also spoken in Botswana and Lesotho. [8] Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 10 million people and as a second language by another 11 million, mostly in South Africa, particularly in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng, and also in parts of Zimbabwe and Lesotho. The branches that were once considered part of so-called Khoisan are now considered independent families, since it has not been demonstrated that they are related according to the standard comparative method. Northern Sotho, Xhosa is one of four sister languages called Nguni Languages (Ndebele, Swati, Xhosa and Zulu) which are all mutually intelligible. [6] Dimmendaal (2008) summarized the general view with, "it has to be concluded that Greenberg's intuitions on the genetic unity of Khoisan could not be confirmed by subsequent research. XXhosa tradition is an extremely powerful social force binding together these people of Eastern Cape province, most evident in Xhosa beliefs revering their ancestors. Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe), 15000 characters left today. Zulu: 22.7%, Xhosa: 16%, Afrikaans . The first Bible translation was in 1859, produced in part by Henry Hare Dugmore. Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. However, there is no scientific proof to support this hypothesis since all languages use sound symbolism to a lesser or greater extent. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Mpondo (Pondo), Xesibe, Bomwana, Gaika, Gcaleka, Thembu, Mpondomise, Ndlambe (Ethnologue). in a spirit of brotherhood. Download your free PDF guide with 125 Italian travel phrases. The Khoisan people have a unique language that is characterized by clicking sounds made with the tongue and mouth. The verb "nga" has a variety of forms . The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. The more notable characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable.[19]. Nande, Learn more about the Khoisan language family on Ethnologue. 2003. "Toward reconstructing Proto-South Khoisan." Vowels can be either short or long. Most have no written record. Northern Ndebele (South Africa), A Niger-Congo language and a member of the Bantu family (Nguni group), spoken by more than 5 million people in the south-eastern part of South Africa, most notably in Cape Province and Transkei; also known as isiXhosa. Accent I'm fluent in Xhosa. The Tanzanian languages, Sandawe and Hadza, use only three basic clicks: |, , and !. Bonny Sands (1998) concluded that the family is not demonstrable with current evidence. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Xhosa is categorized as a Bantu language and is representative of the south-western Nguni subfamily group. The normal word order in Xhosa is Verb-Object (the subject is part of the verb compound). It forms part of the ornamentation that reflects the different stages of a woman, s life. Indeed, the use of the term 'Khoikhoi' meaning . Lingala, / The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa was Miriam Makeba, whose Click Song #1 (Xhosa Qongqothwane) and "Click Song #2" (Baxabene Ooxam) are known for their large number of click sounds. Omissions? Zinza, ), Khoisan Linguistic Studies . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language in parts of Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. Densely populated with uncommon consonants, Xhosa consists of the usual pulmonic egressive sounds (used in English), ejectives, 15 clicks and an implosive. Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels: [a], [~e], [i], [~o] and [u] written a, e, i, o and u in order, all occurring in both long and short. 1. Hadza (Hatsa), one of the East African Khoisan languages, is a remarkable exception to this, having retained its vitality through a pattern of stable bilingualism with Swahili, the dominant Bantu language in the area. The chart below (taken from Some elements of the structure of the Xhosa verb) shows some of the possible slots for prefixes and suffixes. Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. Nyungwe, Bushman languages | Britannica XHOSA - South African Language Xhosa - SA-Venues.com #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/EHxIRKzU37, RT @FIAFormulaE: The Rainbow Nation Click here to claim your exclusive 30% discount. Kirundi, [14] Also, a small community of Xhosa speakers (18,000) live in Quthing District, Lesotho.[15]. "Phonetic Correspondences among Khoisan Affricates." [citation needed]Presently, approximately nine million Xhosa . Several radio stations and one TV station broadcast in Xhosa. ), palatal (), and lateral (). Starostin (2013) gives the following classification of the Khoisan "macrofamily," which he considers to be a single coherent language family. http://www.salanguages.com/isixhosa/xhowrd.htm Khoisan languages, characterised by implosive consonants or 'clicks', belonged to a totally different language family from those of the Bantu speakers. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'omniglot_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_1',141,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-medrectangle-4-0'); Download an alphabet chart for Xhosa (Excel). De Aar is the commercial center for the wool production and livestock farming industry in this semi-arid region of South Africa. second language speakers. The Tuu family consists of two language clusters, which are related to each other at about the distance of Khoekhoe and Tshukhwe within Khoe. Author of. Kongo, ), Gldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) '. Umbundu, A Beginners Guide Khoisan: Africas Clicking Languages. I promise not to spam you. Xhosa has the following clicks consonants which can be modified in a variety of ways, such as aspirated, breathy-voiced or nasalized. Central Khoisan, the largest group, includes Nama (Khoekhoe, Khoekhoegowab) and Haiom (Saan) spoken in Namibia, and smaller languages spoken in the Kalahari desert of Botswana. Grammatically, the southern Khoisan languages are generally analytic, having several inflectional morphemes, but not as many as the click languages of Tanzania. http://www.youtube.com/user/XhosaKhaya Let us know where you'll be watching this weekend. Gwere, I'm the 'guide' behind The Intrepid Guide, an Award-Winning site for travellers and language learners with thousands of readers, 1,000+ students, and a popular newsletter. They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San. For the Mande language spoken in Burkina Faso, see, Map showing the distribution of the Khoisan languages (yellow), Grammatically, the southern Khoisan languages are generally, Greenberg, Joseph H. 1955. [12], Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most widely spoken African language is Zulu. The San were formerly called Bushmen, (from . [12] However, this classification is not widely accepted. The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. Every single click in Miriam Makebas Click Song, which is in Xhosa, is a sound that was borrowed from a neighbouring language and swapped into existing words and not all that long ago, either. The origin of clicks remains a mystery. Luvale, For Black Panther, director Ryan Coogler "wanted to make it a priority to use Xhosa as much as possible" in the script, and provided dialect coaches for the film's actors. Their language is often called the click, language because of its three dominant clicks, which. Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. The Nguni languages are unique among Bantu languages in that they have imploded "clicking" phonemes. . The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. (Free PDF Download). Xhosa is considered to be a Category II language in terms of difficulty for speakers of English. The South African Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts in Xhosa on both radio (on Umhlobo Wenene FM) and television, and films, plays and music are also produced in the language. Shona, If a woman has children, whom she has raised to be adults, then it is usual to find her seated among her peers smoking a long-handled pipe. 4 Before monosyllabic stems in some words. Learn how your comment data is processed. Other Southeastern Bantu languages are Zulu, Swati (Swazi), Sotho, Tswana, Venda, and Ndebele. In this view Khoisan hunters might have developed clicks to camouflage their presence as they stalked their prey in an environment of insect and other noises or might have responded to various situations with onomatopoetic vocalizations containing clicks. It forms part of the ornamentation that reflects the different stages of a womans life. Start learning here! #CapeTownEPrix Learn more about the Nilo-Saharan language family on Ethnologue. The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. This produces an audible noise. [15], The role of indigenous languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Tshiluba, Nyamwezi, Christian missionaries during the early 19th century. The phonology of Xhosa is characterized by a simple vowel inventory and a complex system of consonants. 1988. When consonants are prenasalised, their pronunciation and spelling may change. . In, This page was last edited on 10 January 2023, at 12:02. As with other South African languages, Xhosa is characterized by respectful forms of address for elders and in-laws. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. With about 800 speakers in Tanzania, Hadza is no longer seen as a Khoisan language and appears to be unrelated to any other language. Xhosa Language - Dialects & Structure - MustGo Although Xhosa and Zulu are similar enough to be considered dialects of one language, Xhosa and Zulu speakers consider them to be separate languages. Khoisan / k s n /, or Khoe-Sn (pronounced [kxoesan]), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the Khoekhoen (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the Sn or Skhoen (Saake in the Nng language).. There is a series of six dental clicks, represented by the letter c, similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk"; a series of six alveolar lateral clicks, represented by the letter x, similar to the sound used to call horses; and a series of alveolar clicks, represented by the letter q, that sound somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle. We use the verb "have" to denote possession, ownership, and other related meanings. Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not written except for and , which are each sequences of two vowels with different tones that are realized as long vowels with contour tones ( highlow = falling, lowhigh = rising). Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. Updates? The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people (/ k s , k o s /; Xhosa pronunciation: [ksa] ()) are a Nguni ethnic group whose traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa.They are the second largest ethnic group in Southern Africa and are native speakers of the IsiXhosa language. There are five vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that distinguish word meaning. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. They The X and H languages are even more complex. Xhosa is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The majority of languages which contain clicks originate with the Khoisan languages. They are marked with a raised //. Who Are The Xhosa People, And Where Do They Live? - WorldAtlas The origin of Khoisan click consonants and their peculiarly African provenance therefore remains a mystery. Southern Sotho, In this lesson, we will be focusing on the different uses of "nga" and how to use it correctly in different contexts. (Click here for an audio sample of the extinct !Ora language.) Khoisan Language Family - Structure & Writing - MustGo Because I believe in uTalk so much, I reached out to them and weve teamed up to offer you an exclusive 30% OFF reader discount across all of uTalks 140 languages! films, plays and songs. Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. High tone is represented in writing by an acute accent over the vowel, i.g., , low tone is indicated by by a grave accent, i.g., . No part of this site shall be reproduced, copied, or otherwise distributed without the express, written consent of SouthAfrica.com. I don't know, but I think you can compare them to Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Translate files. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. 15% of its vocabulary is estimated to be of Khoekhoe (Khoisan) origin. The Xhosa comprise a number of clans such as Gcaleka, Ngika, Ndlambe, Dushane and the Qayi. National Treasures The debate about these relationships remains a prominent feature in the linguistic study of Khoisan languages, and the disagreements that sustain it have never been satisfactorily resolved. This offer isnt available anywhere else! Other Bantu Languages include the Xhosa and Zulu languages, two languages famous for their large number of click consonants developed through their extended interaction with the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa. MustGo.com. Look up Xhosa or xhosa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. used as a language of instruction in primary schools, and in some Their language is often called the click language because of its three dominant clicks, which entered the isiXhosa language when the Nguni arrivals mixed with the Khoisan. There are five places of articulation at which click consonants occur. By distribution over land, Xhosa is the most widely spoken African language (while Zulu is most widely spoken in terms of population). Loma, 1: . The Zulu refer to the Eastern Cape as KwaXhosa which is translated to place of the Xhosa. the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. The breathy voiced glottal fricative [] is sometimes spelled h. The ejectives tend to be ejective only in careful pronunciation or in salient positions and, even then, only for some speakers. The other Khoisan languages are unrecognized and marginalized, especially in South Africa. Kiga, [13] There is a small but significant Xhosa community of about 200,000 in Zimbabwe. Like other Southern Bantu languages, Xhosa has borrowed words from the Khoisan languages, as well as from English and Afrikaans. The murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series of ejective stops and one implosive stop. Learning Xhosa is a challenging, but rewarding experience. There are books, [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. But without a shift in language policy and government . In fact, these differences are so pronounced as to suggest that in a linguistic discussion the term Khoisan should be used only in a loose typological sense to refer to a group of languages that share some features of sound structure (mainly involving clicks) and not as the name of a language family in the strict sensesuch as Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, or Bantuin which some shared features are found at all levels of structure and these features are assumed to have been inherited from a common ancestral language.