is xhosa a khoisan language is xhosa a khoisan language

Group of African language families with click consonants, "San language" redirects here. Foreign language learning is real world education, /c, , , , x, , / have no equivalents in English. Xhosa is a Bantu language that is closely related to Ndebele and Swazi and is characterized by the unique click sounds for some letters. How difficult is it to learn Xhosa? Learn the local language with my unique 80/20 method. 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. 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. 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. Let me know using thecomments section below or join me on social media to start a conversation. 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). They are called upon for guidance, support, or to turn the tide of fortune. Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 18,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. Xhosa has several dialects, including Mpondo (Pondo), Xesibe, Bomwana, Gaika, Gcaleka, Thembu, Mpondomise, Ndlambe (Ethnologue). the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. 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. In Voeltz, Erhard Friedrich Karl (ed.). . Tuu: A New Name for the Southern Khoisan Family, in Tom Gldemann (ed.). The Xhosa number approximately 7.1-million, the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people. African Click Languages: The Khoisan's Secret Tales - Africa Freak Can you reproduce these click types? and is made by putting the tongue just behind the front teeth. Clicks Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for. Subscribe to my newsletter to receive detailed travel guides, exclusive travel and language learning tips, priority access to giveaways and more! Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were likely spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. Although all the Khoisan languages use click sounds, Sandawe and Hatsa are . The language is also studied as a subject. Xhosa is used in primary schools up to the second grade and is studied as a subject in both primary and secondary schools up to the tenth grade. The Xhosa language employs 26 letters from the Latin alphabet. Northern Ndebele (South Africa), Kirundi, Xhosa - Traduzione in ucraino - esempi inglese | Reverso Context 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. It is also spoken in Botswana and Lesotho. in parts of Lesotho and Zimbabwe. This process can skip rightwards to non-local syllables (i.e. The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". The official name of the language is isiXhosa, with the key word Xhosa being derived from the Khoisan Language. Tswana, . This site is not affiliated with any government entity associated with a name similar to the site domain name. There are five places of articulation at which click consonants occur. Masaaba, Below are some common words and sentences in Xhosa. Thus, a more correct spelling is Khoesaan. Breathy-voiced consonants MustGo.com. The Khoisan (Khoesan) language family is the smallest of the language families of Africa. Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. in a spirit of brotherhood. Chichewa, Sandawe is not related to Hadza, despite their proximity. Ronga, When plain voiceless clicks (c, x, q) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal (ngc, ngx, ngq). Otherwise, they tend to be tenuis (plain) stops. Sukuma, English. [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. 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. Sena, http://www.gononda.com/xhosa/, Xhosa phrases (Free PDF Download). Some support the use of English and see its use in education as de facto segregation. Corrections? Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Xhosa. Impariamo insieme! All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. A member of a Bantu people inhabiting the eastern part of Cape Province, South Africa. Language/Xhosa/Grammar/How-to-Use-Have - polyglotclub.com The Khoisan languages ( / ksn /; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. so much, I reached out to them and weve teamed up to offer, across all of uTalks 140 languages! Several radio stations and one TV station broadcast in Xhosa. Clicks are spreading to a few additional neighboring languages. [8] Despite their shared clicks, the Khoisan languages diverge significantly from each other. Mbunda, XHOSA - South African Language Xhosa - SA-Venues.com In, Khler, O. Please check your inbox to confirm your email. 1991). On commence, ce tour d'horizon des onze langues officielles en Afrique du Sud par le xhosa. [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]. Haya, Want my "9 Steps to Reach Fluency Faster" playbook? Corrections? Although vowel length distinguishes word meaning, the length is not represented in writing, except for and . Xhosa has a complex system of consonants, including some uncommon ones. Zigula, 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. 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. 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). A preliminary classification of the !X and u'hasi dialects. Xhosa. Swati and Ndebele, and mutually intelligible with them to some extent. Aspiration is lost on obstruents; ejection is added on voiceless consonant. Omniglot is how I make my living. Views on views on views Southern Ndebele, The Tuu family consists of two language clusters, which are related to each other at about the distance of Khoekhoe and Tshukhwe within Khoe. The Xhosa language has been grouped into a number of dialects. Tshiluba, The Khoisan I Meeting the Khoisan I Khoisan Click Language Tower of Babel | Are Xhosa and Zulu Bantu, Khoisan or mixed? - Quora Tsonga, Khoisan - Wikipedia The /i/ vowel is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable.[16]. Songe, 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., . Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. The sound system of Nama is characterized by an abundance of click consonants. The Xhosa comprise a number of clans such as Gcaleka, Ngika, Ndlambe, Dushane and the Qayi. The release of the forward closure results in a pop-like sound. That is, da may be pronounced [da] (or, equivalently, [da]). 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. women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. In, Winter, J.C. 1981. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Kisi, 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. 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. Janina Brutt-Griffler claims, "given that such colonial borders were generally arbitrarily drawn, they grouped large numbers of ethnic groups that spoke many languages." Like what you see? The Origins of the Xhosa Language The Xhosa Language has its roots in South Africa from an ethnic group known as the amaXhosa. 1971. The sound system of Xhosa contains three types of click sounds borrowed from the neighbouring Khoisan languages. Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. The language of instruction at universities in South Africa is English or Afrikaans (to a diminishing extent[21]), and Xhosa is taught as a subject, both for native and for non-native speakers. Nguni languages | Britannica OshiWambo, (Reprints, with minor corrections, a series of eight articles published in the ''Southwestern Journal of Anthropology'' from 1949 to 1954. [citation needed], Khoisan was proposed as one of the four families of African languages in Joseph Greenberg's classification (19491954, revised in 1963). Not all languages using clicks as phonemes are considered Khoisan. According to the 2011 census there 3 The placeholder N in the prefixes iN- and iiN- is a nasal consonant which assimilates in place to the following consonant (producing an im- before vowels), but is typically absent in loanwords. Updates? This ritual vocabulary of the Lardil of Australia contains some words with clicks together with other peculiar sounds, but the use of clicks is limited, and they have a symbolic value in addition to their linguistic function. 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. As in other Bantu languages, nouns in Xhosa are classified into morphological classes, or genders (15 in Xhosa), with different prefixes for both singular and plural. Ejective consonants Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another On external genealogical relationships of the Khoe family. However, linguists who study Khoisan languages reject their unity, and the name "Khoisan" is used by them as a term of convenience without any implication of linguistic validity, much as "Papuan" and "Australian" are. This means I earn a commission if you click on any of them and buy something. There are books, magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, films, plays and songs. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. In, Honken, Henry. 0 characters. http://ilanguages.org/xhosa.php 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. http://www.youtube.com/user/XhosaKhaya Mende, They refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and their language as isiXhosa. The term Bushman as it is used to describe certain southern African hunter-gatherers is somewhat controversial because it is perceived as racist. Luvale, 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. ), palatal (), and lateral (). xhosa, cape town, eastern cape, langues | lepetitjournal.com All Rights Reserved. Xhosa is an official language in South Africa and Zimbabe, and is 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. The language is also rich in idioms. Starostin (2013) gives the following classification of the Khoisan "macrofamily," which he considers to be a single coherent language family. The Xhosa noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. The verb "nga" has a variety of forms . South Africa is the native land of Xhosa, which is spoken chiefly in the Eastern Cape Province. The verb is modified by affixes to mark subject, object, tense, aspect and mood. The 15 clicks (which learners tend to battle with the most) are divided into three categories. After migrating to southern Africa, the Xhosa and Zulu adopted the click consonants unique to the Khoisan and loaned some words. Gwere, (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Some corrections to this page by Michael Peter Fstumum, Information about Xhosa | 1 Before monosyllabic stems, e.g. De Aar is the commercial center for the wool production and livestock farming industry in this semi-arid region of South Africa. Kuria, The language is an important part of Khois. African languages: | Infoplease The original and unique use of clicks in the Khoisan languages has invited speculation that these unusual sounds might reflect an earlier stage in the evolution of language when sounds were natural vocal adaptations to the environment. 1998. Get her free guide 9 reasons youre not fluentYET & how to fix it! 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 chart below (taken from Some elements of the structure of the Xhosa verb) shows some of the possible slots for prefixes and suffixes. 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. Breathy-voiced consonants are produced when the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a volume of air escapes between them. The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. All click and most non-click consonants appear at the beginning of words and are followed by a vowel. Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. Nama is used in education and in the media. It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. Xhosa | South African History Online The other Khoisan languages are unrecognized and marginalized, especially in South Africa. 2 is- and iz- replace isi- and izi- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g. 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. Northern Sotho, Xhosa beliefs recognise the presence of ancestral spirits and a supreme authority. Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal is known for his early rejection of the Khoisan language family (Starostin 2003). 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. Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people. The origin of clicks remains a mystery. Xhosa (formerly spelled Xosa) is an official language of South Africa, natively spoken by around 7.9 million people which is about around 16% of the population of South Africa. Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State and Northern Cape. Download your free PDF guide with 125 Italian travel phrases. They are marked with a raised //. The Khoisan, or Click, linguistic family is made up of three branches: the Khoisan languages of the San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoi, spoken in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa; Sandawe, a language found in E Africa; and Hatsa (Hadzane or Hadzapi), also spoken in E Africa. 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. They are descended from the Nguni, who began migrating south from central and northern Africa more than a thousand years ago. Vowels can be either short or long. / Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series of ejective stops and one implosive stop. Consequently, the languages with the greatest numbers of consonants in the world are Khoisan. 4 Before monosyllabic stems in some words. Choose your English to Xhosa translation service. The Khoesan Languages (Chapter 2) - Language in South Africa It is a Methodist hymn written in Xhosa by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. Family words | [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. Xhosa may refer to: Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa. In all of the Southern African Khoisan languages, a simple rule applies to using the sound. The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language At the secondary level, instruction in schools serving Xhosa-speaking students is in English. "Types of sound correspondence patterns in Khoisan languages." Start learning here! Lingala, The first printed We use the verb "have" to denote possession, ownership, and other related meanings. Bulu, 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. Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. used as a language of instruction in primary schools, and in some tsk! In Nguni. for $0.07/word. Tswa, 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. 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. 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. [13] There is a small but significant Xhosa community of about 200,000 in Zimbabwe. It is a national of Namibia, along with English and a number of other regional languages. Unfortunately, many of these languages have left behind no written records, so their loss is permanent. The original stanza was: Additional stanzas were written later by Sontonga and other writers, with the original verse translated into Sotho and Afrikaans, as well as English. 2014 - 2023. Trying to save South Africa's first language - BBC News Copyright The Intrepid Guide Ltd 2022. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. Most have no written record. Other figures are the huge lightning bird (impundudu), and the gentleabantubomlambo aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. Only a few consonants, such as /b/, /m/, /n/, /r/, and /l/ can appear between vowels, and even fewer can appear at the end of words. As of 2003[update] approximately 5.3million Xhosa-speakers, the majority, live in the Eastern Cape, followed by the Western Cape (approximately 2million), 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). Christian missionaries during the early 19th century. Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. 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). Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa 60,000 years ago. Both Xhosa and Zulu are an official languages in South Africa and Lesotho. They are better described as slack voiced than as breathy voiced. The Khoisan language groups are different in structure and vocabulary although the groups are closely related, unlike the Bantu languages such as the Xhosa and Zulu which are similar to one another. are about 8.2 million native speakers of Xhosa, and another 11 million Implosive consonants The Khoisan | South African History Online 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. Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. 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. Zulu, Languages written with the Latin alphabet, if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_2',147,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_3',147,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0_1'); .large-mobile-banner-1-multi-147{border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:7px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:7px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:50px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;}. Xhosa is closely related to Zulu, Khoisan Language Family - Structure & Writing - MustGo Nande, Xhosa uses a system of tones to distinguish words that would otherwise sound the same. Xhosa is a Bantu language spoken in South Africa, mainly in the With about 800 speakers in Tanzania, Hadza is no longer seen as a Khoisan language and appears to be unrelated to any other language. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. Zinza, #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/EHxIRKzU37, RT @FIAFormulaE: The Rainbow Nation Translate English to Xhosa online | Translate.com By distribution over land, Xhosa is the most widely spoken African language (while Zulu is most widely spoken in terms of population). Look up Xhosa or xhosa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Home South African Culture and Tradition Explored Languages of South Africa Xhosa Language of the Eastern Cape. http://www.southafricalogue.com/travel-tips/south-african-phrases-xhosa.html, Basaa, 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.