Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. Makonde, Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Xhosa. Its great for beginners getting started in a language and invaluable for intermediates looking to fill in gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation. Xhosa has several dialects, including Mpondo (Pondo), Xesibe, Bomwana, Gaika, Gcaleka, Thembu, Mpondomise, Ndlambe (Ethnologue). Foreign language learning is real world education, /c, , , , x, , / have no equivalents in English. No idea what a clicking language is? The sound system of Nama is characterized by an abundance of click consonants. All Rights Reserved. Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. 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. "Khoisan." Konjo, Family words | Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. Fricatives become affricated and, if voiceless, they become ejectives as well: mf is pronounced [pf], ndl is pronounced [nd], n+hl becomes ntl [nt], n+z becomes ndz [ndz], n+q becomes [n] etc. Subscribe to my newsletter to receive detailed travel guides, exclusive travel and language learning tips, priority access to giveaways and more! Xhosa has a Roman-based orthography which was developed by missionaries in the 19th century and adapted to represent the sounds of the language. 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. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/xwXs0dxd2l, We've got you covered! There are two groups of languages in southern Africa that have clicks: the Khoisan languages and certain languages of the Niger-Congo family, most notably Zulu and Xhosa. . The onset cluster /kl/ from phonologized loanwords such as, The unwritten glottal stop is present in words like, In informal writing, this murmured consonant can sometimes be seen spelled as, sebenz + -is + -el +wa -> setyenziselwa [setenziselwa] (used for), This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 23:55. Learn more about the Khoisan language family on Ethnologue. The Khoisan people have a unique language that is characterized by clicking sounds made with the tongue and mouth. 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 much of the 20th century, they were thought to be genealogically related to each other, but this is no longer accepted. This creates a sound somewhat resembling a cork being pulled out of a bottle. The Xhosa comprise a number of clans such as Gcaleka, Ngika, Ndlambe, Dushane and the Qayi. The local Khoisan children speak mainly Afrikaans but Katrina Esau hopes this will change over time . While palatalisation occurred historically, it is still productive, as is shown by palatalization before the passive suffix /-w/ and before diminutive suffix /-ana/. 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. Xhosa is an official language in South Africa and Zimbabe, and is used as a language of instruction in primary schools, and in some secondary schools. Let us know where you'll be watching this weekend. At the secondary level, instruction in schools serving Xhosa-speaking students is in English. Tower of Babel | Making the Khoisan languages amongst the most ancient of all human tongues. Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. [1][2] Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. A system for writing Xhosa using the Latin alphabet was devised by It is also taught in universities. The Xhosa language is properly referred to as isiXhosa. Bonke abantu bazalwa bekhululekile belingana ngesidima Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. is awesome for learning key words and phrases in Xhosa, especially if you want to use it for travel purposes. Other Bantu Languages include the Xhosa and Zulu languages, two languages famous for their large number of click consonants developed through their extended interaction with the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa. Other Southeastern Bantu languages are Zulu, Swati (Swazi), Sotho, Tswana, Venda, and Ndebele. Occasionally other languages are said by laypeople to have "click" sounds. Although mutually intelligible, they are considered to be separate languages for political and cultural reasons. Clicks are spreading to a few additional neighboring languages. Voiceless palatal plosive becomes voiced. 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. Anthony Traill noted the Khoisan languages' extreme variation. Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal is known for his early rejection of the Khoisan language family (Starostin 2003). Please check your inbox to confirm your email. 4. The linguistic use of clicks, whether original or borrowed, is restricted to these few African languages, with one exception: Damin. http://glosbe.com/en/xh/ Ewondo, Xhosa uses a system of tones to distinguish words that would otherwise sound the same. Aspirated clicks become prenasalized ejected clicks. Nama is used in education and in the media. 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. Phrases | Ganda/Luganda, Omniglot is how I make my living. Gusii, 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. C'est la deuxime langue la plus parle du pays. Maore, Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Of these languages, Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele and Yeyi have intricate systems of click consonants; the others, despite the click in the name Gciriku, more rudimentary ones. sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho. Updates? Implosive consonants are produced by inhaling rather than exhaling the air. Some languages have become extinct and others are endangered. The other Khoisan languages are unrecognized and marginalized, especially in South Africa. for $0.07/word. In, Treis, Yvonne. Learn the local language with her 80/20 method for less than the cost of eating at a tourist trap restaurant Start learning today! Accent I'm fluent in Xhosa. Thus, the word for people is abantu in all these languages. Zigula, Those who speak this language typically form part of the ethnic group called the amaXhosa and refer to their language as isiXhosa. In South Africa a variation of this process allowed the Khoisan languages to exert a powerful linguistic influence on the dominant languages before they disappeared, leaving Afrikaans and some Bantu languages with a number of distinctive Khoisan features. In, Gldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. "Toward reconstructing Proto-South Khoisan." Aspiration is lost on obstruents; ejection is added on voiceless consonant. The click consonant sounds are a typical and unique feature of the San and Khoikhoi languages. Palatalisation is a change that affects labial consonants whenever they are immediately followed by /j/. 3. The Khoisan languages (/ksn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Breathy-voiced consonants Nande, MustGo.com. By creating an account, I agree to theTerms of service and Privacy policy. http://xhosaculture.co.za/about-us/learn-xhosa/ Xhosa is an official language in South Africa and Zimbabe, and is In, Winter, J.C. 1981. When aspirated clicks (ch, xh, qh) are prenasalised, the silent letter k is added (nkc, nkx, nkq) to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq, and are actually distinct sounds. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. 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). A palatal click is a sharp pop made by drawing the tongue down quickly from the roof of the mouth. Otherwise, they tend to be tenuis (plain) stops. Sandawe is not related to Hadza, despite their proximity. Tswana, [3] Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and the San (Bushmen). #CapeTownEPrix You can unsubscribe at any time. The murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. Southern Ndebele, In A. Traill (ed. 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. 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. Download your free PDF guide with 125 Italian travel phrases. The Khoisan languages share some similarities in their extremely complex sound systems. 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. 1998. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". Xhosa is one of the 11 official languages recognized by the South African Constitution, and in 2006 it was determined that just over 7 million South Africans speak Xhosa as a home language. Languages Gulper/Khoisan Peoples/About World Languages/Wikipedia/The Week. All rights reserved. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa). Northern Sotho, They are now held to comprise three distinct language families and two language isolates. Although mutually intelligible, they are considered to be separate languages for political and cultural reasons. and is made by putting the tongue just behind the front teeth. If you want detailed destinations guides, languages learning tips, and travel phrase guides, then you've come to the right place! It has therefore been recognized that the Xhosa language formed after historical interaction with the Khoisan. #CapeTownEPrix Xhosa is considered to be a Category II language in terms of difficulty for speakers of English. 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. Sukuma, are about 8.2 million native speakers of Xhosa, and another 11 million The Zulu refer to the Eastern Cape as KwaXhosa which is translated to place of the Xhosa. In Nguni. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Not all languages using clicks as phonemes are considered Khoisan. "Comparison and Classification of Khoisan languages." The numerous click consonants have been borrowed from Khoi or San words. Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were likely spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. Xhosa beliefs recognise the presence of ancestral spirits and a supreme authority. Zulu: 22.7%, Xhosa: 16%, Afrikaans . ), Gldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) '. Corrections? Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. 1998. There is some indication that Sandawe (about 40,000 speakers in Tanzania) may be related to the Khoe family, such as a congruent pronominal system and some good Swadesh-list matches, but not enough to establish regular sound correspondences. South Africa is the native land of Xhosa, which is spoken chiefly in the Eastern Cape Province. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa 60,000 years ago. The red letters are orthographic representations of the sounds. in parts of Lesotho and Zimbabwe. 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. We have loved having you in our country ! 1 Before monosyllabic stems, e.g. Tumbuka, The verb "nga" has a variety of forms . Learn more about the Nilo-Saharan language family on Ethnologue. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Some corrections to this page by Michael Peter Fstumum, Information about Xhosa | / Gldemann, Tom. The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with the pronunciation in IPA on the left and the orthography on the right: In addition to the ejective affricate [t], the spelling tsh may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [ts] and [t]. 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. 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. Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. Click consonants can be modified in a variety of ways. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. Snyman, Jan Winston. 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. [14] Also, a small community of Xhosa speakers (18,000) live in Quthing District, Lesotho.[15]. 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. The Tanzanian languages, Sandawe and Hadza, use only three basic clicks: |, , and !. Impariamo insieme! In Voeltz, Erhard Friedrich Karl (ed.). The majority of languages which contain clicks originate with the Khoisan languages. Ever since Xhosa and Zulu were reduced to a written form in the early 19th century, Xhosa and Zulu writers have produced various works of fiction, ranging from poetry to novels. There are books, 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., . Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. Two languages of east Africa, those of the Sandawe and Hadza, originally were also classified as Khoisan, although their speakers are ethnically neither Khoikhoi nor San. Updates? Central Khoisan, the largest group, includes Nama (Khoekhoe, Khoekhoegowab) and Haiom (Saan) spoken in Namibia, and smaller languages spoken in the Kalahari desert of Botswana. 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. #CapeTownEPrix 2. 2000. The Xhosa language employs 26 letters from the Latin alphabet. Chichewa, Views on views on views 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. 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. Mende, Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for. An alveolar click sounds like the popping of a cork made by putting the tongue just behind the ridge in back of the front teeth. As a Bantu language, Xhosa and Zulu people are often able to understand one another. 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).