Southern Sotho, Home South African Culture and Tradition Explored Languages of South Africa Xhosa Language of the Eastern Cape. Clicks Nguni languages are, in turn, classified under the much larger abstraction of Bantu languages. ", Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Community Rights, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Khoisan_languages&oldid=1132757639, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Ehret, Christopher. Anthony Traill at first accepted Khoisan (Traill 1986), but by 1998 concluded that it could not be demonstrated with current data and methods, rejecting it as based on a single typological criterion: the presence of clicks. Xhosa is closely related to Zulu, According to this hypothesis, clicks might have originally served as onomatopoetic imitations of naturally occurring sounds. Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives agree with the noun they modify in class and number. Most of the languages in South Africa that involve tongue-clicking originate from the indigenous Khoisan people, who included plenty of different clicks in their speech and language. Mende, Today, the few scholars working on these languages treat the three [southern groups] as independent language families that cannot or can no longer be shown to be genetically related" (p.841). [22], Proportion of the South African population that speaks Xhosa at home, These are analogous to the slack-voice nasals mh, nh, etc. This offer. The more notable characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable.[19]. Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series of ejective stops and one implosive stop. Learn more about the Nilo-Saharan language family on Ethnologue. Tentative distribution of the Khoisan languages, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khoisan-languages, Fu Jen Catholic University - Graduate School of Linguistics - The Khoisan Language Family. In Nguni. Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. Mandekan, In this case, Xhosa means 'angry men'. OshiWambo, Nyemba, 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. They are truly voiced only after nasals, but the oral occlusion is then very short in stops, and it usually does not occur at all in clicks. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/ncCaKrq4Fa, The Summit includes a Sustainability Village that aims to boost the local economy and power positive economic activ https://t.co/OEOnUXyWdU, Clareb accessories is your one stop shop for all things, unique earrings, necklaces, bracelets. They are better described as slack voiced than as breathy voiced. Other Southeastern Bantu languages are Zulu, Swati (Swazi), Sotho, Tswana, Venda, and Ndebele. Learn how your comment data is processed. The release of the forward closure results in a pop-like sound. The language is also rich in idioms. Eton, / Xhosa, A dental click sounds like tsk, tsk! Tshiluba, The Kxa family is a relatively distant relationship formally demonstrated in 2010.[11]. (Their numbers have been included under Nama above.) Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Xhosa. Clicks are spreading to a few additional neighboring languages. In, Honken, Henry. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site. In all of the Southern African Khoisan languages, a simple rule applies to using the sound. The Tanzanian languages, Sandawe and Hadza, use only three basic clicks: |, , and !. The 15 clicks (which learners tend to battle with the most) are divided into three categories. There are five vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that distinguish word meaning. A bilabial click is a pop made by bringing the lips together and releasing them, just like the sound of a kiss. All education at the university level is in English or Afrikaans. These are typically written with characters such as and . Clicks are quite versatile as consonants, as they involve two articulations of the tongue which can operate partially independently. Khoisan languages, a unique group of African languages spoken mainly in southern Africa, with two outlying languages found in eastern Africa. Sources But, as with any language, Xhosa had a rich history of oral traditions from which the society taught, informed, and entertained one another. 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. Those who speak this language typically form part of the ethnic group called the amaXhosa and refer to their language as isiXhosa. In, Khler, O. 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. They are typologically very similar to the Kxa languages (below), but have not been demonstrated to be related to them genealogically (the similarities may be an areal feature). Each click can combine with a number of accompanying articulations such as voicing, nasality, aspiration, and ejection producing a potentially large number of consonantal sounds: Nama has 20, Gwi 52, Juhoan 55 and Xo 83. Bukusu, The first printed This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Xhosa-language. See also Khoisan languages, which contains several audio clips. Translate files. Tswa, Below are some common words and sentences in Xhosa. Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. Updates? Look up Xhosa or xhosa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The Xhosa noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. Like what you see? 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. This is usually a misnomer for ejective consonants, which are found across much of the world, or is a reference to paralinguistic use of clicks such as English tsk! Xhosa is an official language in South Africa and Zimbabe, and is Omissions? Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. http://www.gononda.com/xhosa/, Xhosa phrases The sociolinguistic story of the South African Khoesan languages is one of language death (Dorian 1989), and finds its place in the discussion of language death in Africa (Dimendaal 1989, Brenzinger 1992, Brenzinger et al. Occasionally other languages are said by laypeople to have "click" sounds. 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. 0 characters. The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. The prenasalized versions have a very short voicing at the onset which then releases in an ejective, like the prenasalized affricates, while the phonemically nasal clicks have a very long voicing through the consonant. Xhosa has the following clicks consonants which can be modified in a variety of ways, such as aspirated, breathy-voiced or nasalized. All languages use sound symbolism to some extent, and, while there are indeed examples of clicks functioning in this way (for example, !, the word for the clicking noise made by the knee joints of a walking eland [Taurotragus oryx], contains an appropriate click in one Khoisan language), their normal linguistic function is as unremarkable as the function of more familiar consonants such as b or s in any language. In this lesson, we will be focusing on the different uses of "nga" and how to use it correctly in different contexts. Lambya, Isewell [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons. It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. 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. Their use in education has been governed by legislation, beginning with the Bantu Education Act, 1953.[12]. Lozi, The Khoisan. Xhosa is an agglutinative language that expresses grammatical functions by adding prefixes and suffixes to roots. Tuu: A New Name for the Southern Khoisan Family, in Tom Gldemann (ed.). The pocket of air produced by the resulting enclosure is rarefied by the sucking action of the tongue. Learning materials, Information about the Xhosa language sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho. Xhosa is one of four sister languages called Nguni Languages (Ndebele, Swati, Xhosa and Zulu) which are all mutually intelligible. 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. The only widespread Khoisan language is Khoekhoe (also known as Khoekhoegowab, Nm or Damara) of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, with a quarter of a million speakers; Sandawe in Tanzania is second in number with some 4080,000, some monolingual; and the Kung language of the northern Kalahari spoken by some 16,000 or so people. For much of the 20th century, they were thought to be genealogically related to each other, but this is no longer accepted. Breathy-voiced consonants The town itself receives an abundant supply of water from an underground source, which is referred to as All trademarks and web sites that appear throughout this site are the property of their respective owners. Michele creates language learning guides and courses for travel. "Die Khoe-sprachigen Buschmnner der Kalahari." For instance, they can be aspirated, nasalised and glottalised. 4 Before monosyllabic stems in some words. Click here to claim your exclusive 30% discount. Makhuwa, Forms of "Nga" ##. 2014 - 2023. Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/EHxIRKzU37, RT @FIAFormulaE: The Rainbow Nation are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another 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. Kimbundu, The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. http://ilanguages.org/xhosa.php It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. 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. [15], The role of indigenous languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Ganda/Luganda, The official name of the language is isiXhosa, with the key word Xhosa being derived from the Khoisan Language. Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. Planning a trip? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). These famous click sounds are found in Khoisan languages (alternative names include Khoesaan or Khoesan). They refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and their language as isiXhosa. A certain amount of intermarriage with the Khoisan people they found here also gave rise to clans like the Gqunkhwebe. With about 800 speakers in Tanzania, Hadza is no longer seen as a Khoisan language and appears to be unrelated to any other language. Aspiration is lost on obstruents; ejection is added on voiceless consonant. This term, now considered derogatory, means stutterer in Dutch. Elsewhere many bilingual Khoisan speakers have tended to shift rapidly to the dominant language, thus ceasing transmission of the mother tongue to children and leaving it to contract and die, sometimes quite abruptly. Voiceless palatal plosive becomes voiced. When visiting the Eastern Cape be sure to ask an amaXhosa to teach you a few phrases, they are certain to be willing to share their unique language with you. Xhosa - a Bantu language closely related to Zulu. Xhosa is considered to be a Category II language in terms of difficulty for speakers of English. 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. [15], John Bennie was a Scottish Presbyterian missionary and early Xhosa linguist. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/A4fSLf2jvP, Hello Cape Town 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).. Corrections? The normal word order in Xhosa is Verb-Object (the subject is part of the verb compound). They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. 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. Colours | 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. 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. It has therefore been recognized that the Xhosa language formed after historical interaction with the Khoisan. second language speakers. Like other Bantu languages, Xhosa is rich in expressions, idioms, and proverbs. Kiga, Clicks are ingressive consonantal stops produced by an intake of air followed by a sudden withdrawal of the tongue from the soft palate, front teeth, or back teeth and hard palate. . The chart below (taken from Some elements of the structure of the Xhosa verb) shows some of the possible slots for prefixes and suffixes. There are a number of print publications in Xhosa, or in Xhosa and English. The first is dental clicks with the tongue pressing against the back of the teeth. This creates a sound somewhat resembling a cork being pulled out of a bottle. Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal. Rafiki, the sagely mandrill chants Xhosa on The Lion King and its reboot. 15% of its vocabulary is estimated to be of Khoekhoe (Khoisan) origin. Nyungwe, In southern Africa, they came into contact with Khoisan-speaking people. Kamba, Most of the languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots . Xhosa is also heard in Johannesburg and the Western Cape. [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. [12] However, this classification is not widely accepted. The other Khoisan languages are unrecognized and marginalized, especially in South Africa. Sena, Gldemann, Tom. Italian for Confident Conversations (A2-B2). Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State and Northern Cape. The numerous click consonants have been borrowed from Khoi or San words. The Xhosa language has been grouped into a number of dialects. But without a shift in language policy and government . In South Africa, 19.1 million speak the language, with 8.1 million speaking it as their first language. http://glosbe.com/en/xh/ Nyakyusa, Phrases | They are now held to comprise three distinct language families and two language isolates. https://www.twinkl.co.za/resources/south-africa-resources/isixhosa-foundation-phase-english-south-africa-suid-afrika/2, Online Xhosa dictionaries Duala, Most of the languages are unwritten, but Nama and Naro have Latin-based orthographies. We use the verb "have" to denote possession, ownership, and other related meanings. Believed to be the oldest of the four language families, it is the smallest of the four and is found mainly in Southern Africa. Bennie, along with John Ross (another missionary), set up a printing press in the Tyhume Valley and the first printed works in Xhosa came out in 1823 from the Lovedale Press in the Alice region of the Eastern Cape. 'The adaptation of non-click consonants in Xhosa'. The following three are languages from the Khoe family, the Kxa family, and the Tuu family, respectively. There are several places of articulation at which click consonants occur, as shown in the table below. [citation needed]Presently, approximately nine million Xhosa . Some support the use of English and see its use in education as de facto segregation. films, plays and songs. 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. #CapeTownEPrix The word lives on, however, in the names of several African animal and plant species, such as the Hottentot Fig or Carpobrotus. Thus, a more correct spelling isKhoesaan. Swati, The KhoisanThe Khoisan are a group of indigenous people who inhabit Southern Africa, mainly in the regions of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Zambia. Shona, It is also taught in universities. Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. Tribal Wars and European Persecution . http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/xhosa.php This click is like the sound people make to call horses. This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, clicks are represented by placing the assigned symbol for the place of click articulation to the left of a symbol for a nonclick sound at the same place of articulation. Xhosa is categorized as a Bantu language and is representative of the south-western Nguni subfamily group. Other figures are the huge lightning bird (impundudu), and the gentleabantubomlambo aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. Some languages have become extinct and others are endangered. https://t.co/qATXK8AEqg, A room filled with great minds, sharing a valuable outlook on living the legacy of the @NelsonMandela Foundation. They Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. "Khoisan." Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most widely spoken African language is Zulu. The language is marked by the large number of click consonant sounds used. Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. The Xhosa number approximately 7.1-million, the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people. Southern Khoisan has a fifth click, the bilabial . "Phonetic Correspondences among Khoisan Affricates." "Toward reconstructing Proto-South Khoisan." Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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][2] Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families.
David Jolly Msnbc Salary, Johnstone Supply Salary, When Is 6 Months Before Memorial Day 2022, Great Wolf Lodge Birthday Package, Proviso West Famous Alumni, Articles I