Southern Ndebele language
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| Southern Ndebele isiNdebele |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: |  South Africa |
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| Region: | Mpumalanga Limpopo Gauteng North West |
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| Total speakers: | 586,961 (1996 census) | |
| Language family: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Narrow Bantu Central S group Sotho-Tswana (S.30) Sotho Northern Southern Ndebele |
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| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | South Africa |
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| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | nr | |
| ISO 639-2: | nbl | |
| ISO 639-3: | nbl | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Southern Ndebele language (isiNdebele or Nrebele in Southern Ndebele) is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the amaNdebele (the Ndebele people of South Africa). There are two dialects of Southern Ndebele in South Africa:
- the Northern Transvaal Ndebele or Nrebele,
- and the Southern Transvaal Ndebele.
There is also another, separate dialect called Northern Ndebele or Matabele spoken in Zimbabwe and Botswana - see Sindebele language. The Zimbabwean Ndebele is closer to Zulu than it is to the two South African Ndebele languages.
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[edit] Overview
The history of the amaNdebele can be traced to Musi, the last monarch of the tribe as a single nation. Researchers still disagree on specific times of the tribe's separation from their main Nguni Group. AmaNdebele are known to be the first Nguni group to enter the hinterland of the southern tip of the African continent, later to be called Transvaal. AmaNdebele lived as one nation at Emhlangeni (today's Randfontein area) under King Mhlanga approximately between 1550-1580. The name of EMhlangeni is today being translated to the Sotho language, Mohlakeng. Most archeologists and historians agree that the amaNdebele settled for a longer period peacefully at Kwamnyamana and Emarula (Wonderboompoort). These areas are in the north and northwest of present day Pretoria. The tribe arrived in this area with Musi, the son of Mhlanga who is in turn the son of Mafana.
One unverified source mentions that the word Matebele/Matabele is a corruption of a Setswana Sentence "Mathebe Telele". Meaning those with long shields. The Zulus (Ndebeles) who made their way through to the northern parts of Southern Africa, were known for their fighting innovations. Short Spears & Long Shields as opposed to Small Shield and Javelin Type Spears that were the norm in those days! This made them the ultimate fighting machine (amongst equals of course)
[edit] Language
IsiNdebele is one of the eleven official languages in the Republic of South Africa. The language is an Nguni or Zunda classification (UN) spoken mostly in the Mpumalanga Province, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Northwest.
The expression "Isikhethu" can be loosely translated to mean 'the Ndebele way of doing or saying'. Isikhethu means isiNdebele the same way sikitsi will mean siSwasi and se harona will mean seSotho. The language has been severely marginalized over the years. Until the formation of the apartheid Ndebele homeland, speaking the language publicly was discouraged. Most isiNdebele speakers preferred isiZulu especially because the latter was learned at school. Today the Ndebele speakers, mostly those who are educated still prefer to use isiNdebele as home language for their children and will use isiNdebele as a language to communicate with other isiNdebele speakers.
[edit] AmaNdebele In Zimbabwe
The shared language name does not imply other close similarities however. It must be borne in mind that amaNdebele who now inhabit Zimbabwe met the amaNdebele of South Africa during Mzilikazi's path to the north of the southern subcontinent between 1828 and 1838. Subsequently, the two peoples have broken contact with one another and have diverged culturally.
[edit] External links
- List links to Ndebele language resources
- The 1971 Pelling lexicon of Ndebele->English (text file) (on a stable Archive.org link)
- Searchable version of the Pelling dictionnary
- CBOLD - Comparative Bantu Online Dictionnary - including Ndebele
- [1]
[edit] Software
- Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Ndebele
- Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into Ndebele
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'NORTHERN TRANSVAAL NDEBELE .'
This group of Ndebele speaking tribes is part of the Nguni groups . That the language is becoming extint and there was and still no orthography leaves much to be desired , as the language is spoken around the towns of Potgietrsrus (Mokopane ),Pietersburg ( Polokwane )Naboomspruit (Mokgoophong ),Warmbad (Belebela),Temba,Matshiding,Rathoke and some townships in Gauteng , whilst information regarding the orthography of this language may be obtained from the organisation known as the Northern Amandebele Movement .
The traditional government of the Northern Transvaal Ndebele composed of the Gegana clan ,Lebelo clan , Langa clan as well as the Mashashane/Ledwaba clan .Vaaltyn (Moshate and district ) is under the kingship of Gegana , Zebediela and district is also under Gegana , Mapela is under Langa , Garasvlei and district is under Lebelo ( Dukankxomo) , Bakenberg is under the kingship of Langa and KaMashashane is under the rule of Mashashane .
