Xhosa language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Xhosa people, see Xhosa.
Xhosa
isiXhosa
Spoken in: Flag of South Africa South Africa
Flag of Lesotho Lesotho 
Region: Eastern Cape Province, Western Cape Province
Total speakers: 7.9 million
Language family: Niger-Congo
 Atlantic-Congo
  Volta-Congo
   Benue-Congo
    Bantoid
     Southern
      Narrow Bantu
       Central
        S
         Nguni
          Xhosa 
Official status
Official language in: Flag of South Africa South Africa
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: xh
ISO 639-2: xho
ISO 639-3: xho
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Xhosa (pronounced [ˈkǁʰoːsa] (Audio (help·info)), isiXhosa) is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonants; "Xhosa," the name of the language itself, begins with a click.

Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet-based system. Three letters are used to indicate the basic clicks: c for dental clicks, x for lateral clicks, and q for palatal clicks (for a more detailed explanation, see the table of consonant phonemes, below). Tones are not indicated in the written form.

Contents

[edit] Affiliation and distribution

Xhosa is the southernmost branch of the Nguni languages, related to Swati, Northern Ndebele[1] and Zulu. There is some mutual intelligibility with Swati, Northern Ndebele and Zulu, a Northern Ndebele and Xhosa share many linguistic features. Nguni languages are in turn part of a larger group of Bantu languages, and as such Xhosa is related to languages spoken across much of Africa [2].

Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, while the most widely spoken is Zulu [3]. Xhosa is the second most common home language in South Africa as a whole. As of 2003 the majority of Xhosa speakers, approximately 5.3 million, live in the Eastern Cape, followed by the Western Cape (approximately 1 million), 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) [4]. A minority of Xhosa speakers (18,000) exists in Quthing District, Lesotho.[1]

[edit] Dialects

Xhosa has several dialects, including

  • Gcaleka
  • Ndlambe
  • Ngqika (Nqqika, considered "standard")
  • Thembu
  • Bomvana
  • Mpondomse (Mpondomise)
  • Mpondo
  • Xesibe
  • Rharhabe
  • Bhaca
  • Cele
  • Hlubi- There's still a debate about the whether the Hlubis belong to the Zulu, the Xhosa or they have their own King
  • Mfengu[2]

There is some debate among scholars as to what exactly the divisions between the dialects are.

[edit] History

Xhosa-speaking peoples have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern Africa since before the sixteenth century. The members of the ethnic group that speaks Xhosa refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and call their language isiXhosa (isi- is a prefix relating to languages), while the language is most commonly known as "Xhosa" in English.

Almost all languages with clicks are Khoisan languages and the presence of clicks in Xhosa demonstrates the strong historical interaction with its Khoisan neighbours. An estimated 15% of the vocabulary is of Khoekhoe (Khoisan) origin [5]. In the modern period, Xhosa has also borrowed from both Afrikaans and English.

[edit] Role in modern society

Henry Hare Dugmore, an Englishman who became fluent in Xhosa and jointly produced the first translation of the Bible into the language in 1859.
Henry Hare Dugmore, an Englishman who became fluent in Xhosa and jointly produced the first translation of the Bible into the language in 1859.

The role of African languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Their use in education has been governed by legislation, beginning with the Bantu Education Act of 1953 [6].

At present Xhosa is used as the main language of instruction in many primary schools and some secondary schools, but is largely replaced by English after the early primary grades, even in schools mainly serving Xhosa-speaking communities. The language is also studied as a subject.

The language of instruction at universities in South Africa is English or Afrikaans, and Xhosa is taught as a subject, both for native and non-native speakers.

Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. The first Bible translation was in 1859, produced in part by Henry Hare Dugmore [7]. 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. The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa is Miriam Makeba, whose Click Song #1 (Qongqothwane in Xhosa) and Click Song #2 (Baxabene Oxamu) are known for their large number of click sounds.

In 1996, the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%, though this may have changed dramatically in the years since the abolition of apartheid [8].

[edit] Linguistic features

Xhosa is an agglutinative language featuring an array of prefixes and suffixes which are attached to root words. As in other Bantu languages, Xhosa nouns are classified into fifteen morphological classes (or genders), with different prefixes for singular and plural. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. These agreements usually reflect part of the original class that it is agreeing with. Constituent word order is Subject Verb Object.

Verbs are modified by affixes which mark subject, object, tense, aspect, and mood. The various parts of the sentence must agree in class and number [9].

Examples
ukudlala - to play
ukubona - to see
umntwana - a child
abantwana - children
umntwana uyadlala - the child plays
abantwana bayadlala - the children play
indoda - a man
amadoda - men
indoda iyambona umntwana - the man sees the child
amadoda ayababona abantwana - the men see the children
Zonke zinto ezilungile zivela kuThixo - all things that are good proceed from God.

[edit] Vowels

Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels: [a], [ɛ], [i], [ɔ] and [u], both long and short, written a, e, i, o and u.

[edit] Tones

Xhosa is a tone language with two inherent tones: low and high. Tones are frequently not marked in the written language, but when they are, they are a [à], á [á], â [áà], ä [àá]. Long vowels are phonemic, but are usually not written, except for â and ä.

South African provinces in which Xhosa is spoken as a home language by a significant proportion of the population
South African provinces in which Xhosa is spoken as a home language by a significant proportion of the population

[edit] Consonants

Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, as in English, it has fifteen clicks (by way of comparison, the Juǀʼhoan language, spoken by roughly 10,000 people in Botswana and Namibia has 48 clicks, while the ǃXóõ language, with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana, has 83 click sounds, the largest consonant inventory of any known language), plus ejectives and an implosive. The same sounds occur in Zulu, but are used less frequently than in Xhosa.

The five dental clicks (represented by the letter "c") are made with the tongue on the back of the teeth, and are similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk" to reprimand someone. The second five are lateral (represented by the letter "x"), made by the tongue at the sides of the mouth, and are similar to the sound used to call horses. The remaining five are alveolar (represented by the letter "q"), made with the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth, and sound something like a cork pulled from a bottle.

The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, giving the pronunciation in IPA on the left, and the orthography on the right:

Labial Dental /
Alveolar		 Postalveolar
/ Palatal		 Velar Glottal
Central Lateral
Click plain [kǀ] c [kǁ] x [kǃ] q
aspirated [kǀʰ] ch [kǁʰ] xh [kǃʰ] qh
breathy voiced [ɡǀʱ] gc [ɡǁʱ] gx [ɡǃʱ] gq
nasal [ŋǀ] nc [ŋǁ] nx [ŋǃ] nq
breathy voiced nasal [ŋǀʱ] ngc [ŋǁʱ] ngx [ŋǃʱ] ngq
Stop ejective [pʼ] p [tʼ] t [tʲʼ] ty [kʼ] k
aspirated [pʰ] ph [tʰ] th [tʲʰ] tyh [kʰ] kh
breathy voiced [bʱ] bh [dʱ] d [dʲʱ] dy [ɡʱ] g
implosive [ɓ] b
Affricate ejective [ʦʼ] ts [ʧʼ] tsh [kxʼ] kr
aspirated [ʦʰ] ths [ʧʰ] thsh
breathy voiced [ʤʱ] j
Fricative voiceless [f] f [s] s [ɬ] hl [ʃ] sh [x] rh [h] h
breathy voiced [v̤] v [z̤] z [ɮ̈] dl [ɣ̈] gr [ɦ̤] hh
Nasal fully voiced [m] m [n] n [nʲ] ny [ŋ] n’
breathy voiced [m̤] mh [n̤] nh [n̤ʲ] nyh
Approximant fully voiced [l] l [j] y [w] w
breathy voiced [l̤] lh [j̈] yh [w̤] wh
Nelson Mandela is a famous Xhosa speaker.
Nelson Mandela is a famous Xhosa speaker.

Two additional consonants, [r] and [r̤], are found in borrowings. Both are spelled r.

Two additional consonants, [ʒ] and [ʒ̈], are found in borrowings. Both are spelled zh.

Two additional consonants, [ʣ] and [ʣ̤], are found in loans. Both are spelled dz.

An additional consonant, [ŋ̈] is found in loans. It is spelled ngh.

In addition to the ejective affricate [ʧʼ], the spelling tsh may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [ʦʰ] and [ʧʰ].

The breathy voiced glottal fricative [ɦ̤] is sometimes spelled h.

The "breathy voiced" clicks, plosives, and affricates are actually plain voiced, but the following vowel is murmured. That is, da is pronounced [da̤].

[edit] Consonant changes with prenasalization

When consonants are prenasalized, their pronunciation and spelling may change. Murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. Fricatives become affricates, and if voiceless, become ejectives as well, at least with some speakers: mf is pronounced [ɱp̪f’]; ndl is pronounced [ndɮ];n+hl becomes ntl [ntɬʼ]; n+z becomes ndz [ndz], etc. The orthographic b in mb is a voiced plosive, [mb].

When voiceless clicks c, x, q are prenasalized, a silent k is added – nkc, nkx, nkq – so as to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq.

[edit] Sample text

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika is part of the national anthem of South Africa, national anthem of Tanzania and Zambia, and the former anthem of Zimbabwe and Namibia. It is a Xhosa hymn written by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. The first chorus is:

Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika;
Malupakam'upondo lwayo;
Yiva imithandazo yethu
Usisikelele.
Lord, bless Africa;
May her horn rise high up;
Hear Thou our prayers And bless us.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Bonke abantu bazalwa bekhululekile belingana ngesidima nangokweemfanelo. Bonke abantu banesiphiwo sesazela nesizathu sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of fellowship.
Miriam Makeba is a famous Xhosa speaker. Her song Qongqothwane is known in English as The Click Song
Miriam Makeba is a famous Xhosa speaker. Her song Qongqothwane is known in English as The Click Song

Qongqothwane ("The Knock-Knock Beetle," known in English as The Click Song) is a Xhosa wedding song best known as performed by Miriam Makeba. Note the frequent occurrence of palatal clicks:

Igqira lendlela nguqongqothwane
Igqira lendlela kuthwa nguqongqothwane
Sebeqabele gqithapha bathi nguqongqothwane
Sebeqabele gqithapha bathi nguqongqothwane.
The diviner of the roadways is the knock-knock beetle
The diviner of the roadways is said to be the knock-knock beetle
It has passed up the steep hill, the knock-knock beetle
It has passed up the steep hill, the knock-knock beetle

[edit] Common words and phrases

Molo - hello (to one person)
Molweni - hello (to more than one person)
Unjani? - how are you? (one person)
Ninjani? - how are you? (more than one person)
Ndiphilile - I am well
Siphilile - we are well
Ngubani igama lakho? - What is your name?
Unangaphi? - How old are you?
Malini na? - How much money?
Yintoni le? - What is this?
Ngubani xesha? - What is the time?
Kuyabanda ngaphandle! - It is cold outside!
Enkosi - thank you
Uxolo - excuse me
Ngxesi - sorry
Nceda - please
Andiqondi/Andikuva - I don't understand
Andiyazi - I don't know
Ndithetha isiXhosa kancinci nje - I only speak a little Xhosa
Ndiyagoduka ngoku - I am going home now
Intwasahlobo ifikile - Spring has arrived
Ndihamba ngebhasi - I go by bus
Ndilahlekile - I am lost
Ndingakwenzela ntoni? - What can i do for you?
Vula iincwadi zakho - Open your books (to one person)
Vulani iincwadi zenu - Open your books (to more than one person)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ethnologue report for language code:xho
  2. ^ Ethnologue report for language code:xho

[edit] External links

Wikipedia
Xhosa language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wiktionary
Xhosa language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus

[edit] Software


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