Xhosa language

Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. It is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, about 18% of the South African population. Click consonants feature prominently in the sounds of this language. Even the name, "Xhosa", begins with a click. In IPA, the name of the language is pronounced .

Overview

History

The name Xhosa refers to one of their legendary chieftains. The members of the ethnic group that speaks Xhosa refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and call their language isiXhosa. Almost all languages with clicks are Khoisan languages and the presence of clicks in Xhosa demonstrates the strong historical interaction with its Khoisan neighbors. The name Xhosa is Khoisan meaning "The angry men".

Geographic distribution

The language represents the most southwestern branch of the Nguni subfamily of the Bantu languages. As mentioned, Xhosa is natively spoken in South Africa, mostly in the Eastern Cape Province, also in the Western Cape, including Cape Town. Xhosa has been spoken in Cape Town for over a hundred years.

Dialects

In addition to being mostly mutually intelligible with Zulu and closely related Bantu languages, Xhosa has several dialects. There is debate among scholars as to what exactly the divisions between the dialects are. One such grouping is: (original) Xhosa, Ngqika (which is considered "standard"), Bhaca, Mpondo, Gcaleka, Mfengu, Thembu, Bomvana, and Mpondomise.

Language

Sounds

Xhosa has a simple set of vowels, but it is rich in uncommon consonants. Besides normal pulmonic egressive sounds, as in , it has twelve clicks, plus ejectives and an implosive. The four dental clicks 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 four are lateral, made by the tongue at the sides of the mouth, and are similar to the sound used to call horses. The remaining four are alveolar, made with the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth, and sound something like a cork pulled from a bottle. Xhosa is also a tone language with two inherent tones, low and high, and has both long and short vowels. Vowels are murmured after some consonants.

The phonemic distinctions of Xhosa are listed along with its orthography below.

Grammar

The grammar of Xhosa is of a type called agglutinative: suffixes and prefixes are attached to root words and stems to convey grammatical information. Xhosa also has the characteristic noun class, or "gender" system, which is common to all Bantu languages. There are many more classes than the masculine, feminine, and neuter genders of familiar Indo-European languages. The nouns in each class are roughly related in meaning. For example, there are classes for people, relatives, animals, plants, objects, abstract concepts, etc.

Writing system

Xhosa is written using the Latin alphabet. Clicks are written using c for the dental clicks, x for the lateral clicks, and q for the alveolar clicks.

Tones are usually not written, but when they are, they are a [à], á [á], â [áà]. Long vowels are phonemic, but are usually not written, except for â.

Many Xhosa consonants are murmured, aspirated, and ejective. There is also an implosive b, . IPA>

a
b
bh	(written b after m)
c	(written kc after n)
ch
d
dl	(pronounced after an n)
dy
dz	(perhaps only found after n?)
e
f
g
gc
gq
gr
gx
h
hh	(often written h)
hl	(written tl and pronounced after n)
i
j
k
kh
kr
l
lh
m
mh
n	(pronounced before k)
n'
nc
ngc
ngq
ngx
nh
nq
nx
ny
nyh
o
p
ph
q	(written kq after n)
qh
r	(only found in borrowings)
rh
s
sh
t
th
ths	(sometimes written tsh)
tl	(variant of hl after n)
ts
tsh	(two phonemes; is occasionally written thsh)
ty
tyh
u
v
w
wh
x	(written kx after n)
xh
y
yh
z

With breathy voiced clicks, plosives, and affricates, indicated with a in the IPA transcription above, the following vowel is murmured. That is, da is pronounced .

=Changes with prenasalization

=

When consonants are prenasalized, their pronunciation and spelling may change. Murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. A is used to separate prenasalization from voiceless clicks: nkc, nkq, nkx, contrasting with the nasal clicks nc, nq, nx. Fricatives become affricates, and if voiceless become ejectives as well, at least with some speakers: mf is pronounced ; n+hl becomes ntl ; n+z becomes ndz , etc. The orthographic b in mb is a plosive, .

Samples

An example of the written language is a section of the national anthem of South Africa:

Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika;

: Malupakam'upondo lwayo;

: Yiva imithandazo yethu

: Usisikelele.

translation

Lord, bless Africa;

:May her horn rise high up;

:Hear Thou our prayers And bless us.

Another example is Qongqothwane, a song traditionally sung when a young girl is married and well known as performed by Miriam Makeba. It is known in English as "The Click Song":

Igqira lendlela nguqongqothwane

: Igqira lendlela kuthwa nguqongqothwane

: Sebeqabele gqithapha bathi nguqongqothwane

: Sebeqabele gqithapha bathi nguqongqothwane.

translation

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

See also

* The music album Amarok by Mike Oldfield, whose "Sondela" chorus finale is sung in Xhosa.
* Henry Hare Dugmore, the first translator of the Scriptures into Xhosa

External links

* Xhosa language profile (UCLA language materials)
* Ethnologue report for XhosaThis page contains some inaccuracies.
* A very short Xhosa -> English dictionary
* Project translating Free Software into Xhosa

Warning: the Omniglot page on Xhosa is badly inaccurate.