Xhosa language

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Xhosa
isiXhosa
Native to South Africa, Lesotho
Region Eastern Cape, Western Cape
Ethnicity amaXhosa, amaBhaca
Native speakers
7.6 million (2007)
[1]

Language family
NigerCongo
AtlanticCongo
BenueCongo
Southern Bantoid
Bantu
Southern Bantu
Nguni
Zunda
Xhosa
Writing system
Latin (Xhosa alphabet)
Xhosa Braille
Signed form(s)
Signed Xhosa
[2]

Official status
Official language in
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Language codes
ISO 639-1 xh
ISO 639-2 xho
ISO 639-3 xho
Guthrie code
S.41
[3]

Linguasphere 99-AUT-fa incl.
varieties 99-AUT-faa
to 99-AUT-faj +
99-AUT-fb (isiHlubi)

Proportion of the South African population that speaks Xhosa at home
020%
2040%
4060%
6080%
80100%

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without
proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other
symbols instead of Unicodecharacters.
The Xhosa Language
Person umXhosa
People amaXhosa
Language isiXhosa
Country kwaXhosa
The Xhosa language (English /ks/ or/kos/;
[4][5][6]
Xhosa: isiXhosa

) is one of
the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.6 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; the word "Xhosa" begins with a click.
Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet. Three letters are used to indicate the basic clicks: c for
dental clicks, x for lateral clicks, and q for post-alveolar clicks (for a more detailed explanation,
see the table of consonant phonemes, below). Tones are not indicated in the written form.
Contents
[hide]
1 Affiliation and distribution
2 Dialects
3 History
4 Role in modern society
5 Linguistic features
o 5.1 Vowels
o 5.2 Tones
o 5.3 Consonants
5.3.1 Consonant changes with prenasalisation
6 Anthem
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Affiliation and distribution[edit]


Geographical distribution of the Xhosa in South Africa: density of isiXhosa home-language speakers.
< 1 /km
13 /km
310 /km
1030 /km
30100 /km
100300 /km
3001000 /km
10003000 /km
> 3000 /km


Trilingual government building sign in Afrikaans, English and Xhosa


Sign outside the AmaZink township theatre restaurant in Kayamandiwelcomes visitors in Xhosa


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


Nelson Mandela was a famous Xhosa speaker.
Xhosa is the southernmost branch of theNguni languages, which include Swati,Northern
Ndebele
[7]
and Zulu. There is some mutual intelligibility with the other Nguni languages, all of
which share many linguistic features. Nguni languages are in turn part of the much larger group
ofBantu languages, and as such Xhosa is related to languages spoken across much of Africa.
[8]

Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, while the most widely
spoken is Zulu.
[8]
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 2 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).
[9]
A minority of Xhosa speakers (18,000)
exists in Quthing District, Lesotho.
[10]

Dialects[edit]
Xhosa has several dialects. Maho (2009) lists Mpondo(Pondo), Xesibe,
Bomwana, Gaika (Ngqika), Gcaleka,Thembu, Mpondomise, Ndlambe, Hlubi.
[3]

Hlubi is the dialect in the former Ciskei; there is more distinct Hlubi language further north where
Xhosa meets Sotho. Other varieties traditionally considered Xhosa, such as Bhaca, may be
distinct languages.
History[edit]
Xhosa-speaking people have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern Africa since before the
sixteenth century. They refer to themselves as theamaXhosa, and their language as isiXhosa.
The Bantu ancestor of Xhosa did not have clicks, which attest to a strong historical contact with
someSan language. An estimated 15% of Xhosa vocabulary is of San origin.
[10]
In the modern
period, Xhosa has also borrowed from both Afrikaans and English.
Role in modern society[edit]
The role of African languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Their use in education
has been governed by legislation, beginning with theBantu Education Act of 1953.
[8]

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 for 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.
[10]
TheSouth 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 Ooxam) 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 in the years since the abolition ofapartheid.
[10]

Linguistic features[edit]
Xhosa is an agglutinative language featuring an array of prefixes and suffixes that 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 subjectverb
object.
Verbs are modified by affixes that mark subject, object, tense, aspect, and mood. The various
parts of the sentence must agree in class and number.
[8]

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
Vowels[edit]
Xhosa has an inventory of ten
vowels: [a], , [i], and [u], both long and short,
written a, e,i, o and u.
Tones[edit]
Xhosa is a tonal language with two
inherent, phonemic tones: low and high. Tones are
frequently not marked in the written language, but
when they are, they are a [], [], [], [].
Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not
written, except for and which are the results
of gemination of two vowels with different tones
each and have thereby become long vowels with
contour tones ( high-low = falling, low-high =
rising).
Consonants[edit]
Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants.
Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, as in English,
it has 18 clicks (in comparison, Ju'hon, spoken by
roughly 10,000 people in Botswana andNamibia,
has 48 clicks, and the Taa 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. 15 of
the clicks also occur in Zulu, but are used less
frequently than in Xhosa.
The six 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 six 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 six are alveolar (represented by the
letter "q"), made with the tip of the tongue at the
roof of the mouth, and sound somewhat like a cork
pulled from a bottle.
The following table lists the consonant phonemes
of the language, giving the pronunciation inIPA on
the left, and the orthography on the right:

Lab
ial
Dental/Alve
olar
Postalve
olar
Vela
r
Glot
tal
centr
al
later
al
Click
plain

[k] c [k] x [k] q

aspirated

[k] c
h
[k]
xh
[k] qh

slack
voice

[ ]
gc
[ ]
gx
[ ] gq

nasal

[] n
c
[] n
x
[] nq

slack-
voice
nasal
[11]


[]
ngc
[]
ngx
[] ng
q

glottalise
d
nasal
[12]


[] n
kc
[]
nkx
[] nkq

Plosive
tenuis/eje
ctive
[p]
p
[t] t

[t] ty [k] k

aspirated
[p]
ph
[t] th

[t] tyh
[k] k
h

slack
voice
[ ]
bh
[ ] d

[

] dy [ ] g

implosive [] b

Affricate
ejective

[ts] t
s

[t] tsh
[kx]
kr

aspirated

[ts] t
hs

[t] thsh

slack
voice

[ ]
dz
3


[

] j

Fricative
voiceless [f] f [s] s [] hl [] sh [x] rh [h] h
slack
voice
[ ] v [ ] z [

] dl [ ] zh
2
[ ] gr
[] h
h
Nasal
fully
voiced
[m]
m
[n] n

[ ] ny
[] n
g

slack
voice
[ ]
mh
[ ] nh

[ ] nyh
[ ] n
gh
4


Approxi
mant
fully
voiced

[l] l [j] y [w] w

slack
voice

[] lh [] yh
[ ] w
h

Trill
fully
voiced

[r] r
1


breathy
voiced

[ ] r
1


1. Two additional consonants, [r] and , are
found in borrowings. Both are spelled r.
2. Two additional consonants, and , are
found in borrowings. Both are spelled zh.
3. Two additional consonants, [dz] and ,
are found in loans. Both are spelled dz.
4. An additional consonant, is found in
loans. It is spelled ngh.
In addition to the ejective affricate t, the
spelling tsh may also be used for either of the
aspirated affricates t and t.
The breathy voiced glottal fricative is sometimes
spelled h.
The ejectives tend to only be ejective in careful
pronunciation or in salient positions, and even then
only for some speakers; elsewhere they tend to
be tenuis (plain) stops. Similarly, the tenuis (plain)
clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset
time, though this is uncommon.
The murmured clicks, plosives, and affricates are
only partially voiced, with the following vowel
murmured for some speakers. That is, da may be
pronounced (or, equivalently, ). They are
better described as slack voiced than as breathy
voiced. They are only truly voiced after nasals,
though then the oral occlusion is very short in
stops, and most often does not occur at all in clicks,
so that the absolute duration of voicing is the same
as in tenuis stops. (They may also be voiced
between vowels in some speaking styles.) The
more salient characteristic is their depressor effect
on the tone of the syllable.
[13]

Consonant changes with prenasalisation[edit]
Main article: Fortition
When consonants are prenasalised, 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 p

; ndl is
pronouncedn; n+hl becomes ntl nt; n+z beco
mes ndz [ndz], etc. The orthographic b in mb is a
voiced plosive, [mb].
When voiceless clicks c, x, q are prenasalised, a
silent letter k is added nkc, nkx, nkq so as to
prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq.
Anthem[edit]
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika is part of the national anthem
of South Africa, national anthem
ofTanzania and Zambia, and the former anthem
of Zimbabwe and Namibia. It is a Methodist hymn
written in Xhosa by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. The
original stanza was:
Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika;
Maluphakanyisw' uphondo lwayo;
Yizwa imithandazo yethu
Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo.
Lord, bless Africa;
May her horn rise high up;
Hear Thou our prayers
Lord, bless us, your family.
Additional stanzas
were written later
by Sontonga and
other writers, with
the original verse
translated into
Zulu, Sotho and
Afrikaans, as well
as English.
See also[edit]

South Africa
portal

Lesotho portal

Languages
portal
Xhosa
calendar
Henry Hare
Dugmore, the
first translator
of the
Scriptures into
Xhosa
U-Carmen
eKhayelitsha,
a 2005 Xhosa
film
adaptation of
Bizet's
Carmen
UCLA
Language
Materials
Project, an
online project
for teaching
languages,
including
Xhosa.