Talk:Southern Ndebele language

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Correct me if I'm wrong here, but this seems to be more about the ethnic group than the language itself. Maybe it should go under Ndebele!

  • I've been trying to relieve some of the ambiguity that surrounds the Ndebele peoples and languages of Zimbabwe and South Africa. If nobody has any objections, I'll create a new Ndebele people page and move some of the cultural content from this article there, leaving the language info here Humansdorpie 22:18, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
I think that's a good idea. — mark 07:05, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Huh?? O_o

This article seems awfully confused. Is the language described here a "Sotho-Tswana language" or is it from the "Nguni group of the Bantu languages"??

Also, is this the isiNdebele that's listed in the Constitution, or a different language with the same name? If not then the Languages of South Africa template should be removed.

Zyxoas (talk to me - I'll listen) 20:47, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

It seems to be talking about 3 different languages. One is a Sesotho language, another is an Nguni language belonging to the same sub-family ("Tekela"?) as SiSwati, and the last is an official South African language (which, as personal experience from watching the SABC 1 news at 18:00 proves, does not sound like SiSwati or a Sesotho language, but rather isiZulu with a few extra words and sounds and mispronounced click consonants).

Zyxoas (talk to me - I'll listen) 21:00, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

See IsiNdebele - UNESCO WORLD LANGUAGES REPORT SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE , a good source. The article is confusing and should be changed. I don't think there's a "Sotho" language called "Ndebele". This seems to be confusion due to the fact that most Ndebele speak N. Sotho as well.
I wonder if a local version of the famous aphorism "אַ שפראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט" might be "A language is a dialect with a government-sponsored radio station and TV news bulletin!"
OK, this has been fun, but I've been on WP waaay too much lately —Batamtig 02:02, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

WHEW!! I can't find any references in the article and there is a lot of detail. The genealogies look quite unnecessary in their present format and in any case have no sources. Most of the information is well outside the level of an encyclopedia article and belongs in a monograph or someone's personal homepage anyway. Can we prune this down so that it can retain the interest of a casual as well as close observer????--AssegaiAli 20:09, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

No response so I have pruned the material that has nothing to do with language or has no references--AssegaiAli (talk) 20:07, 27 March 2008 (UTC)