(Let's learn together!). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language Swati and Ndebele, and mutually intelligible with them to some extent. The first printed Xhosa, Zulu, Ndelebele and Swati share most of their basic vocabulary as well as grammar. Xhosa is a Bantu language spoken in South Africa, mainly in the Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not written except for and , which are each sequences of two vowels with different tones that are realized as long vowels with contour tones ( highlow = falling, lowhigh = rising). This offer isnt available anywhere else! and is made by putting the tongue just behind the front teeth. Planning a trip? Xhosa (/ks, kos/,[5][6][7] Xhosa pronunciation:[ksa]), formerly spelled Xosa and also known by its local name isiXhosa, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Kikuyu, The sound system of Nama is characterized by an abundance of click consonants. When plain voiceless clicks (c, x, q) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal (ngc, ngx, ngq). The 'X' in Xhosa, for example, represents a type of . There are books, 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. The chart below (taken from Some elements of the structure of the Xhosa verb) shows some of the possible slots for prefixes and suffixes. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were likely spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San. 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. The Khoisan people have a unique language that is characterized by clicking sounds made with the tongue and mouth. Tumbuka, 1998. The verb is modified by affixes to mark subject, object, tense, aspect and mood. The Xhosa comprise a number of clans such as Gcaleka, Ngika, Ndlambe, Dushane and the Qayi. As an example, the composition of the verb In the sentence Un-ntwana u-ya-wa-sel-a ama-nzi One child drinks water is shown below. In, This page was last edited on 10 January 2023, at 12:02. 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. 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. Fricatives become affricates. Xhosa's click consonants were most likely borrowed from the Khoisan Proto-Central-Khoisan. In, Treis, Yvonne. Every single click in Miriam Makebas Click Song, which is in Xhosa, is a sound that was borrowed from a neighbouring language and swapped into existing words and not all that long ago, either. "Names of Khoisan languages and Their Variants." The Origins of the Xhosa Language The Xhosa Language has its roots in South Africa from an ethnic group known as the amaXhosa. Swati, As with other South African languages, Xhosa is characterized by respectful forms of address for elders and in-laws. Believed to be the oldest of the four language families, it is the smallest of the four and is found mainly in Southern Africa. 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. Tswana, If a woman has children, whom she has raised to be adults, then it is usual to find her seated among her peers smoking a long-handled pipe. #CapeTownEPrix The fact that many of the surviving languages are endangered and some are even on the point of extinction bears testimony to inexorable social, economic, linguistic, and demographic forces that continue to marginalize and consume indigenous linguistic and cultural minorities. The Xhosas started facing serious trouble during the 18th and 19th Centuries when they engaged in frequent conflicts with the European settlers attempting to annex their native lands. Nama, the largest Khoisan language, is officially recognized in Namibia and is taught at universities. Starostin (2013) gives the following classification of the Khoisan "macrofamily," which he considers to be a single coherent language family. Aspiration is lost on obstruents; ejection is added on voiceless consonant. 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. [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]. In, Gldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. Corrections? [11] Zunda languages effectively form a dialect continuum of variously mutually intelligible varieties. Although all the Khoisan languages use click sounds, Sandawe and Hatsa are . Kuria, People who speak Xhosa as their second language number about 11 million. Masaaba, A century ago the Haiom people spoke a Ju dialect, probably close to Kung, but they now speak a divergent dialect of Nama. Anthony Traill noted the Khoisan languages' extreme variation. Khoisan languages Bushman languages, also called San languages, loose grouping of languages that confusingly have been considered to be a separate group within the Khoisan languages. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The language is an important part of Khois. It's a wrap! Hadza (Hatsa), one of the East African Khoisan languages, is a remarkable exception to this, having retained its vitality through a pattern of stable bilingualism with Swahili, the dominant Bantu language in the area. Interestingly, the word Xhosa is from the Khoisan language and means "The angry men". Author of, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The last is a lateral click with the tongue at the side of the mouth. The language is also rich in idioms. Can you reproduce these click types? 2000. Corrections? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the language spoken in the fictional African nation of Wakanda is Xhosa. It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. South Khoisan includes a couple of endangered and several extinct languages of the Kalahari Desert. 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. The official name of the language is isiXhosa, with the key word Xhosa being derived from the Khoisan Language. Ewondo, [12], Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most widely spoken African language is Zulu. The verb "nga" has a variety of forms . Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. This produces something like the English tut-tut. It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. All Rights Reserved. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site. second language speakers. Implosive consonants Xhosa beliefs dictate that people turn to a diviner or healer, usually attired in a headdress and shawl of fur, when needing advice on how to deal with the spirits, help with illnesses, or to ward off evil from unnatural forces such as thetokoloshe a potentially malevolent goblin who attacks at night. As a balance to consonant complexity, strict rules restrict clicks and most of the non-clicks to the beginning of a word being followed always by a vowel. Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. The more notable characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable.[19]. The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa was Miriam Makeba, whose Click Song #1 (Xhosa Qongqothwane) and "Click Song #2" (Baxabene Ooxam) are known for their large number of click sounds. #CapeTownEPrix Mwani, They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Soga, 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. Khoisan languages, characterised by implosive consonants or 'clicks', belonged to a totally different language family from those of the Bantu speakers. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. iliso (eye), uluhlu (list). Nyakyusa, The language is marked by the large number of click consonant sounds used. sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho. Privacy Policy work in Xhosa was published in 1823. Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives come after the noun they modify. The Tuu family consists of two language clusters, which are related to each other at about the distance of Khoekhoe and Tshukhwe within Khoe. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa 60,000 years ago. nangokweemfanelo. Bulu, Most others are neighboring Bantu languages in southern Africa: the Nguni languages (Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi, Phuthi, and Northern Ndebele); Sotho; Yeyi in Botswana; and Mbukushu, Kwangali, and Gciriku in the Caprivi Strip. Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent phonemic tones: low and high. for $0.07/word. Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated a [], [], [], []. The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". Includes English and Italian translations with pronuncation guide. in parts of Lesotho and Zimbabwe. For much of the 20th century, they were thought to be genealogically related to each other, but this is no longer accepted. A bilabial click is a pop made by bringing the lips together and releasing them, just like the sound of a kiss. Agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which the word agrees. Zigula, . The click consonant sounds are a typical and unique feature of the San and Khoikhoi languages. Ikizu, Ejective consonants Making the Khoisan languages amongst the most ancient of all human tongues. Their language is often called the click, language because of its three dominant clicks, which. Want my "9 Steps to Reach Fluency Faster" playbook? (Click here for an audio sample of the extinct !Ora language.) if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'omniglot_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_1',141,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-medrectangle-4-0'); Download an alphabet chart for Xhosa (Excel). [13] There is a small but significant Xhosa community of about 200,000 in Zimbabwe. 1: . Therefore, Xhosa and Zulu people frequently understand one another, even if they are each speaking their mother tongue. Phrases | Both Xhosa and Zulu are an official languages in South Africa and Lesotho. Because Xhosa and Zulu are both classed as Bantu languages, they are quite similar. 0 characters. Besides clicks, Khoisan languages have non-click consonants, giving rise to very complex consonantal systems which are amongst the largest in the world. Southern Ndebele, Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. In 1996[update], the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%.[15]. A member of a Bantu people inhabiting the eastern part of Cape Province, South Africa. Duala, The Xhosa language (Isixhosa), of which there are variations, is part of the Nguni language group. Xhosa - a Bantu language closely related to Zulu. Punu, Copyright 19982023 Simon Ager | Email: | Hosted by Kualo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language, https://www.memrise.com/course/1572/xhosa-an-intro/, http://xhosaculture.co.za/about-us/learn-xhosa/, https://www.twinkl.co.za/resources/south-africa-resources/isixhosa-foundation-phase-english-south-africa-suid-afrika/2, http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/xhosa.php, http://www.salanguages.com/isixhosa/xhowrd.htm, http://www.southafricalogue.com/travel-tips/south-african-phrases-xhosa.html. The origin of Khoisan click consonants and their peculiarly African provenance therefore remains a mystery. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/A4fSLf2jvP, Hello Cape Town 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. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. At the secondary level, instruction in schools serving Xhosa-speaking students is in English. Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. Songe, Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for. In this case, Xhosa means 'angry men'. Author of. Tower of Babel | The Bantu languages adopted the use of clicks from neighboring, displaced, or absorbed Khoisan populations (or from other Bantu languages), often through intermarriage, while the Dahalo are thought to have retained clicks from an earlier language when they shifted to speaking a Cushitic language; if so, the pre-Dahalo language may have been something like Hadza or Sandawe. Group of African language families with click consonants, "San language" redirects here. The /i/ vowel is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable.[16]. 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. Most have no written record. Ethnologue lists 27 Khoisan languages which are spoken by half a million people or less. Omissions? [12] However, this classification is not widely accepted. "Types of sound correspondence patterns in Khoisan languages." https://t.co/qATXK8AEqg, A room filled with great minds, sharing a valuable outlook on living the legacy of the @NelsonMandela Foundation. Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. Mende, . While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Konjo, Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal is known for his early rejection of the Khoisan language family (Starostin 2003). http://glosbe.com/en/xh/ The numerous click consonants have been borrowed from Khoi or San words. [3] Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and the San (Bushmen). A Haiom language is listed in most Khoisan references. [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. Language use is quite strong among the 20,000 speakers of Naro,[clarification needed] half of whom speak it as a second language. No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal. Breathy-voiced consonants The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people (/ k s , k o s /; Xhosa pronunciation: [ksa] ()) are a Nguni ethnic group whose traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa.They are the second largest ethnic group in Southern Africa and are native speakers of the IsiXhosa language. This produces an audible noise. 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. Kinyarwanda, 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. Tshiluba, Grazie! The name Khoisan derives from the name of the Khoikhoi (people people or real people) group of South Africa and the San (Bushmen) group of Namibia. Read More; development. The branches that were once considered part of so-called Khoisan are now considered independent families, since it has not been demonstrated that they are related according to the standard comparative method. Tuu: A New Name for the Southern Khoisan Family, in Tom Gldemann (ed.). When consonants are prenasalised, their pronunciation and spelling may change. Total number of users in all countries is 19.2 million (Ethnologue). Jita, Nguni - a group of southern Bantu languages . We have loved having you in our country ! The Khoisan languages (/ksn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. 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. It is also spoken in Botswana and Lesotho. Although mutually intelligible, they are considered to be separate languages for political and cultural reasons. Makonde, 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. Emeritus Professor of African Studies; former Director, Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne. A Beginners Guide Khoisan: Africas Clicking Languages. The Khoisan languages were once spoken across all of southern Africa from southern Angola in the west to Swaziland in the east and the Cape of Good Hope in the south (see the map). Like other Southern Bantu languages, Xhosa has borrowed words from the Khoisan languages, as well as from English and Afrikaans. Their language is often called the 'click ' language because of its three dominant clicks, which entered the isi Xhosa language when the Nguni arrivals mixed with the Khoisan. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. In Nguni. 4. 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. Eton, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State and Northern Cape. A preliminary classification of the !X and u'hasi dialects. 2. National Treasures However, some of the letters have a different pronunciation from English. This term, now considered derogatory, means stutterer in Dutch. http://learn101.org/xhosa.php The sustainability village focused on boo https://t.co/BDeRnlGHot, Experience the most exciting electric street racing here in Cape Town as the world's best street racers battle. https://t.co/ZihxkpWwe7, Undoubtedly the best spots to experience unbridled views of the Mother City. Family words | Learn more about the Nilo-Saharan language family on Ethnologue. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots . Learning materials, Information about the Xhosa language Chokwe, This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. 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. / It is also taught in universities. Xhosa is listed amongst South Africa's 11 official languages and is spoken by approximately 18% of the country's population (plus-minus 7.9 million individuals). 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. High tone is represented in writing by an acute accent over the vowel, i.g., , low tone is indicated by by a grave accent, i.g., . 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. Release of the forward closure results in a pop-like sound. Traill demonstrated this linguistic diversity in the data presented in the below table. Accent I'm fluent in Xhosa. "History of Click-Speaking Populations of Africa Inferred from mtDNA and Y Chromosome Genetic Variation", "The Kxa Family: A New Khoisan Genealogy", . 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 different, Xhosa beliefs recognise the presence of ancestral spirits and a supreme authority. MustGo.com. . Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe), ), Gldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) '. The various parts of the sentence must agree in both class and number.[12]. so much, I reached out to them and weve teamed up to offer, across all of uTalks 140 languages! Views on views on views Learn the local language with her 80/20 method for less than the cost of eating at a tourist trap restaurant Start learning today! 1998. By Mark Dingemanse [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons. Linguistics 112 lecture, Department of Linguistics. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by 8.2 million people and by 11 million as a second language in South Africa, mostly in Eastern Cape Province and Transkei. Tswa, In this lesson, we will be focusing on the different uses of "nga" and how to use it correctly in different contexts. 2. http://xhosaculture.co.za/about-us/learn-xhosa/ Bemba, They are marked with a raised //. North Khoisan is spoken by hunter-gatherers mainly in Namibia. There is also the South Cushitic language Dahalo in Kenya, which has dental clicks in a few score words, and an extinct and presumably artificial Australian ritual language called Damin, which had only nasal clicks. Swahili, Nyemba, 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. Although little Kwadi data is available, proto-KhoeKwadi reconstructions have been made for pronouns and some basic vocabulary. Beadwork similar to the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. 15000 characters left today. Indeed, the use of the term 'Khoikhoi' meaning . Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. The Nguni languages are unique among Bantu languages in that they have imploded "clicking" phonemes. The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. Gusii, The number of Khoisan speakers has declined drastically in the last three centuries due to European colonisation, demographic pressures and changing lifestyles. Languages such as Zulu and Xhosa make use of three of the five kinds of clicks. Khoisan Last but not least is the Khoisan family with between 40 - 70 members. Gogo, The first two columns include words from the two Khoisan language isolates, Sandawe and Hadza. In keeping with many other Bantu languages, Xhosa is an agglutinative language, with an array of prefixes and suffixes that are attached to root words. 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. Xhosa is an agglutinative language that expresses grammatical functions by adding prefixes and suffixes to roots. The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. They are called upon for guidance, support, or to turn the tide of fortune. XXhosa tradition is an extremely powerful social force binding together these people of Eastern Cape province, most evident in Xhosa beliefs revering their ancestors. 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! http://www.salanguages.com/isixhosa/xhowrd.htm By creating an account, I agree to theTerms of service and Privacy policy. Watch this video of Miriam Makebas singQongqothwane in Xhosa, also known as The Click Song. The word order is subjectverbobject, like in English. Southern Khoisan has a fifth click, the bilabial . Day 1 and 2 highlights of the Africa Green Economic Summit Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. Aspirated clicks become prenasalized ejected clicks. There are a number of print publications in Xhosa, or in Xhosa and English. Some scholars speculate that they might represent an earlier stage in the evolution of human language. Other figures are the huge lightning bird (impundudu), and the gentleabantubomlambo aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. The term Bushman as it is used to describe certain southern African hunter-gatherers is somewhat controversial because it is perceived as racist. The Khoisan languages share some similarities in their extremely complex sound systems. [14] Also, a small community of Xhosa speakers (18,000) live in Quthing District, Lesotho.[15]. ), palatal (), and lateral (). the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. They are thought to have migrated to this region along the east coast of Africa and through central Africa. Photography and infographics cannot be used without permission.Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Terms and Conditions, Language Learning for Travellers & Heritage Learners, Italian Travel Phrases Cheat-Sheet! 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.