Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. Other figures are the huge lightning bird (impundudu), and the gentleabantubomlambo aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. However, some of the letters have a different pronunciation from English. 1991). ''Studies in African Linguistic Classification.'' http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/xhosa.php Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 18,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. The word order is subjectverbobject, like in English. Tribal Wars and European Persecution . The orthographic b in mb is the voiced plosive [mb]. African languages: | Infoplease It has therefore been recognized that the Xhosa language formed after historical interaction with the Khoisan. Traill demonstrated this linguistic diversity in the data presented in the below table. This ritual vocabulary of the Lardil of Australia contains some words with clicks together with other peculiar sounds, but the use of clicks is limited, and they have a symbolic value in addition to their linguistic function. Zulu, Languages written with the Latin alphabet, if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_2',147,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_3',147,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0_1'); .large-mobile-banner-1-multi-147{border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:7px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:7px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:50px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;}. Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. work in Xhosa was published in 1823. uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa). All Rights Reserved. You can unsubscribe at any time. 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. In Voeltz, Erhard Friedrich Karl (ed.). Palatalisation is a change that affects labial consonants whenever they are immediately followed by /j/. People who speak Xhosa as their second language number about 11 million. The inventory is taken from Wikipedia. Nyungwe, Xhosa, along with Zulu and other indigenous languages of South Africa, has been a source of many words that were borrowed by South African English and that do not occur in other varieties of English in other parts of the world. The Khoisan People of Southern Africa: Origin, Culture, Tradition and Nguni - a group of southern Bantu languages . The Khoisan, or Click, linguistic family is made up of three branches: the Khoisan languages of the San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoi, spoken in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa; Sandawe, a language found in E Africa; and Hatsa (Hadzane or Hadzapi), also spoken in E Africa. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). / Xhosa nouns belong to 17 different classes, roughly based on semantic categories, e.g., there are classes for human beings, animals, plants, objects of various shapes, etc. Xhosa Language in South Africa | SouthAfrica.com Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. "Khoisan." Their most distinctive linguistic characteristic is the original and extensive use of click consonants, a feature which has spread through cultural and linguistic contact into a number of Bantu (Niger-Congo) languagessuch as Xhosa, Zulu, and Sotho in South Africa and Gciriku (Diriku), Yei (Yeye), and Mbukushu in Botswana and Namibiaand into Dahalo, a Cushitic (Afro-Asiatic) language of Kenya. Xhosa. 1971. In 1996[update], the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%.[15]. Sample basic vocabulary for Khoisan language families: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Want my "9 Steps to Reach Fluency Faster" playbook? The Tanzanian languages, Sandawe and Hadza, use only three basic clicks: |, , and !. Northern Sotho, Some scholars speculate that they might represent an earlier stage in the evolution of human language. The language is marked by the large number of click consonant sounds used. Gogo, It is also taught in universities. Umbundu, In, Honken, Henry. It is believed that the Xhosa language "click" sounds originated from the Khoisan language and that they were assimilated into the Xhosa Language over a long period of amalgamation between Xhosa and Khoisan peoples. [4][5] It has been suggested that the similarities of the Tuu and Kxa families are due to a southern African Sprachbund rather than a genealogical relationship, whereas the Khoe (or perhaps KwadiKhoe) family is a more recent migrant to the area, and may be related to Sandawe in East Africa.[3]. Xhosa: [noun] a member of a Bantu-speaking people of Eastern Cape province. After migrating to southern Africa, the Xhosa and Zulu adopted the click consonants unique to the Khoisan and loaned some words. women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/A4fSLf2jvP, Hello Cape Town 'The adaptation of non-click consonants in Xhosa'. . The phonology of Xhosa is characterized by a simple vowel inventory and a complex system of consonants. We use the verb "have" to denote possession, ownership, and other related meanings. No part of this site shall be reproduced, copied, or otherwise distributed without the express, written consent of SouthAfrica.com. Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. A certain headdress will be a worn by a newly married girl, while a woman who has just given birth to her first child will wear a differently styled headdress. Learn more about the Khoisan language family on Ethnologue. Verbs use the following prefixes for the subject and object: The following is a list of phrases that can be used when one visits a region whose primary language is Xhosa: Xhosa-speaking people have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern Africa since before the 16th century. There is some indication that Sandawe (about 40,000 speakers in Tanzania) may be related to the Khoe family, such as a congruent pronominal system and some good Swadesh-list matches, but not enough to establish regular sound correspondences. As with other South African languages, Xhosa is characterized by respectful forms of address for elders and in-laws. The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. Luchazi, is awesome for learning key words and phrases in Xhosa, especially if you want to use it for travel purposes. I don't know, but I think you can compare them to Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. These are divided into North, Central and South Khoisan groups belonging to southern Africa, plus two Tanzanian isolates, Sandawe and Hadza (Hatsa), which possess a few words, affixes, and particles that justify the assumption of a distant relationship with Khoisan. But, as with any language, Xhosa had a rich history of oral traditions from which the society taught, informed, and entertained one another. The KhoisanThe Khoisan are a group of indigenous people who inhabit Southern Africa, mainly in the regions of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Zambia. Those who speak this language typically form part of the ethnic group called the amaXhosa and refer to their language as isiXhosa. The first two columns include words from the two Khoisan language isolates, Sandawe and Hadza. Sandawe is not related to Hadza, despite their proximity. A certain amount of intermarriage with the Khoisan people they found here also gave rise to clans like the Gqunkhwebe. Ancestors of the Xhosa migrated to the east coast of Africa and came across Khoisan-speaking people; "as a result of this contact, the Xhosa people borrowed some Khoisan words along with their pronunciation, for instance, the click sounds of the Khoisan languages". Watch this video of Miriam Makebas singQongqothwane in Xhosa, also known as The Click Song. This came about because South African actor John Kani, a native of the Eastern Cape province who plays Wakandan King T'Chaka, speaks Xhosa and suggested that the directors of the fictional Civil War incorporate a dialogue in the language. http://glosbe.com/en/xh/ "Phonetic Correspondences among Khoisan Affricates." You can unsubscribe at any time. The Khoisan languages (/ksn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. [15], John Bennie was a Scottish Presbyterian missionary and early Xhosa linguist. films, plays and songs. Learn more about the Nilo-Saharan language family on Ethnologue. Eton, Bonke abantu banesiphiwo sesazela nesizathu It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. Agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which the word agrees. Author of, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. In South Africa a variation of this process allowed the Khoisan languages to exert a powerful linguistic influence on the dominant languages before they disappeared, leaving Afrikaans and some Bantu languages with a number of distinctive Khoisan features. Swati and Ndebele, and mutually intelligible with them to some extent. Densely populated with uncommon consonants, Xhosa consists of the usual pulmonic egressive sounds (used in English), ejectives, 15 clicks and an implosive. Corrections? Xhosa, Amongs https://t.co/Un48auA2t0, South African Tourism's initiatives and projects within the "growing green economy" are highlighted through partner https://t.co/BlBqEBi0pj, Were proud and excited to be associated with @CapeTownEprix in hosting the first ABB FIA Formula E World champions https://t.co/0prwWK7DrC, It is great to hear you are feeling our vibe Mpho! We look forward to https://t.co/QcOGOzgax0, In collaboration with Advertising Week and Hartbeat, the Nelson Mandela foundation presents the Healing Power of La https://t.co/ati9CUOaa0, upon for guidance, support and to turn the tide of favour, , the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, , and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people, A certain amount of intermarriage with the Khoisan people they found here, Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa some 60,000 years ago. [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. As of 2003[update] approximately 5.3million Xhosa-speakers, the majority, live in the Eastern Cape, followed by the Western Cape (approximately 2million), Gauteng (671,045), the Free State (246,192), KwaZulu-Natal (219,826), North West (214,461), Mpumalanga (46,553), the Northern Cape (51,228), and Limpopo (14,225). Consequently, the languages with the greatest numbers of consonants in the world are Khoisan. Although vowel length distinguishes word meaning, the length is not represented in writing, except for and . Xhosa has a complex system of consonants, including some uncommon ones. in a spirit of brotherhood. Although little Kwadi data is available, proto-KhoeKwadi reconstructions have been made for pronouns and some basic vocabulary. In Haacke, Wilfrid and Elderkin, Edward Derek (eds. Swati, The rest of the elements are placed to the left or to the right of the verb root. The other Khoisan languages are unrecognized and marginalized, especially in South Africa. Making the Khoisan languages amongst the most ancient of all human tongues. 1998. That is, da may be pronounced [da] (or, equivalently, [da]). Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho. Xhosa - definition of Xhosa by The Free Dictionary 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. Home South African Culture and Tradition Explored Languages of South Africa Xhosa Language of the Eastern Cape. Fricatives become affricates. The small town of De Aar is located in the central Groot Karoo along the railway line between Cape Town and Kimberley, which was established in the late 1800s. Kirundi, The Khoisan language groups are different in structure and vocabulary although the groups are closely related, unlike the Bantu languages such as the Xhosa and Zulu which are similar to one another. The /i/ vowel is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable.[16]. 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! The word lives on, however, in the names of several African animal and plant species, such as the Hottentot Fig or Carpobrotus. The Khoisan people have a unique language that is characterized by clicking sounds made with the tongue and mouth. However, not all noun classes can be so easily defined. "Comparison and Classification of Khoisan languages." sas 1. The name Khoisan derives from the name of the Khoe-Khoe (also known as the Hottentot) group of South Africa and the San (Bushmen) group of Namibia. Click consonants can be modified in a variety of ways. the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. Thus, a more correct spelling is Khoesaan. Chichewa, 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. It is a Methodist hymn written in Xhosa by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. A Xhosa initiate, undergoing a . This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Xhosa-language. Xhosa traditions; Eastern Cape; Nguni; Khoisan; culture; ancestor Xhosa - Traduzione in ucraino - esempi inglese | Reverso Context Gusii, What I love most about uTalk is that you can jump around their extensive library of topics and choose what you want to learn, when you want, and at your own pace. The original and unique use of clicks in the Khoisan languages has invited speculation that these unusual sounds might reflect an earlier stage in the evolution of language when sounds were natural vocal adaptations to the environment. Khoisan - Wikipedia Below are some common words and sentences in Xhosa. All rights reserved. Tuu: A New Name for the Southern Khoisan Family, in Tom Gldemann (ed.). 2014 - 2023. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/xwXs0dxd2l, We've got you covered! South Khoisan includes a couple of endangered and several extinct languages of the Kalahari Desert. Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. tsk! The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with the pronunciation in IPA on the left and the orthography on the right: In addition to the ejective affricate [t], the spelling tsh may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [ts] and [t].