In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots . Updates? Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most widely spoken African language is Zulu. A Niger-Congo language and a member of the Bantu family (Nguni group), spoken by more than 5 million people in the south-eastern part of South Africa, most notably in Cape Province and Transkei; also known as isiXhosa. Konjo, 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. Subscribe to my newsletter to receive detailed travel guides, exclusive travel and language learning tips, priority access to giveaways and more! Fricatives become affricates. 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 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. Bonke abantu banesiphiwo sesazela nesizathu https://t.co/qATXK8AEqg, A room filled with great minds, sharing a valuable outlook on living the legacy of the @NelsonMandela Foundation. The first printed Forming part of Durban's vibrant Golden Mile, the Bay of Plenty lies at the heart of the beachfront, with high-rise hotels and apartment buildings making the most of the stunning sea view. Ejective consonants are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis, raising air pressure in the mouth, so when the sound is released, there is a noticeable burst of air accompanying the release. What I love most about uTalk 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. 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. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa some 60,000 years ago. Consequently, the languages with the greatest numbers of consonants in the world are Khoisan. Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. 2. Some support the use of English and see its use in education as de facto segregation. F https://t.co/s7IkqA9Utl, It feels good to have @KevinHart4real also known as Mpho here in Johannesburg, South Africa. Occasionally other languages are said by laypeople to have "click" sounds. The next are the alveolar clicks with the tongue tip and palate. In A. Traill (ed. Xhosa, used as a language of instruction in primary schools, and in some , "A Lexicostatistical Approach towards Reconstructing Proto-Khoisan", "From modern Khoisan languages to Proto-Khoisan: The Value of Intermediate Reconstructions. Venda, National Treasures Clicks are ingressive consonantal stops produced by an intake of air followed by a sudden withdrawal of the tongue from the soft palate, front teeth, or back teeth and hard palate. The Xhosa comprise a number of clans such as Gcaleka, Ngika, Ndlambe, Dushane and the Qayi. In, Gldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. 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. 2003. The Xhosa language is properly referred to as isiXhosa. Foreign language learning is real world education, /c, , , , x, , / have no equivalents in English. Soga, That is, da may be pronounced [da] (or, equivalently, [da]). "Names of Khoisan languages and Their Variants." Herero, The Xhosa, formerly called Kaffir or Kafir (Arabic for infidel), are a cluster of related peoples who have inhabited Eastern Cape Province and Transkei, South Africa, since before the 16th century. Xhosa and Khoisan peoples. 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 differently styled headdress. 'The adaptation of non-click consonants in Xhosa'. Nkore, Lambya, A dental click sounds like tsk, tsk! 1 Before monosyllabic stems, e.g. Contact Us, 8.2 million people and by 11 million as a second language in South Africa, mostly in Eastern Cape Province and Transkei. Tower of Babel | Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated a [], [], [], []. Nama, the largest Khoisan language, is officially recognized in Namibia and is taught at universities. ), Khoisan Linguistic Studies . They are marked with a raised //. Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. 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. Kikuyu, They refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and their language as isiXhosa. Because Xhosa and Zulu are both classed as Bantu languages, they are quite similar. Mbunda, 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. #CapeTownEPrix One of the main reasons for the decline is that bilingual Khoisan speakers shift to the dominant language of the area and stop teaching the language to their children. Xhosa is categorized as a Bantu language and is representative of the south-western Nguni subfamily group. 4. Voiceless palatal plosive becomes voiced. (Let's learn together!). You can unsubscribe at any time. Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. Xhosa - a Bantu language closely related to Zulu. 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. Comorian, They are not prenasalized, as can be seen in words such as , Incorrectly described as glottal clicks by, Last edited on 25 February 2023, at 23:55, "Xhosa alphabet, pronunciation and language", "South Africa Population grows to 44.8 Million", "Wakanda Is a Fake Country, but the African Language in 'Black Panther' is Real", Xhosa basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Xhosa_language&oldid=1141620598, [mp], [nt], [nt], [k], [n], [n], [n]. They are now held to comprise three distinct language families and two language isolates. Let me know using thecomments section below or join me on social media to start a conversation. 3. second language speakers. It forms part of the ornamentation that reflects the different stages of a woman, s life. Bukusu, Gusii, 2005. 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. Proto-Central-Khoisan. sas 1. Nyole, "Die Khoisan-Familie." 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. Xhosa is an unusual and attractive sounding language, though difficult to master. Eton, #CapeTownEPrix [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. 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. All rights reserved. A system for writing Xhosa using the Latin alphabet was devised by Learn the local language with my unique 80/20 method. Phrases | There are five vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that distinguish word meaning. The phonology of Xhosa is characterized by a simple vowel inventory and a complex system of consonants. The Khoisan people, who at various points have been referred to using the derogatory terms 'Bushmen' and 'Hottentots', as well as Kung, Kxoe, Khoi Khoi, Ovahimba, San, Vatua and !Xu, are an ethno-linguistic group that has traditionally been marginalised throughout South African history. Lozi, Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for. Like other Bantu languages, Xhosa is rich in expressions, idioms, and proverbs. Is Xhosa a Khoisan language? Tswana, Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. The Kxa family is a relatively distant relationship formally demonstrated in 2010.[11]. Xhosa, which is also known as Xosa or Koosa, is a clicking language. ''Studies in African Linguistic Classification.'' It is a Methodist hymn written in Xhosa by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. Ganda/Luganda, Can you reproduce these click types? Here's 10 things you didn't know about this incredib, We're proud of you @KelvinvdLinde With about 800 speakers in Tanzania, Hadza is no longer seen as a Khoisan language and appears to be unrelated to any other language. All Rights Reserved. Ewondo, The origin of clicks remains a mystery. It is also taught in universities. 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. These are typically written with characters such as and . Clicks are quite versatile as consonants, as they involve two articulations of the tongue which can operate partially independently. Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were likely spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. 2000. https://www.memrise.com/course/1572/xhosa-an-intro/ The Khoisan languages (/ksn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. ", Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Community Rights, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Khoisan_languages&oldid=1132757639, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Ehret, Christopher. Accent I'm fluent in Xhosa. The Xhosa language has been grouped into a number of dialects. Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. Total number of users in all countries is 19.2 million (. Ethnologue lists 27 Khoisan languages which are spoken by half a million people or less. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Haya, 4 Before monosyllabic stems in some words. Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to a lesser extent. This term, now considered derogatory, means stutterer in Dutch. Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal is known for his early rejection of the Khoisan language family (Starostin 2003). "Comparison and Classification of Khoisan languages." 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. 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. Ikizu, Shona, Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. In this case, Xhosa means 'angry men'. Dental clicks are represented by the letter c, alveolar clicks are indicated by q, and lateral clicks are written with the letter x. Vowel length is not always represented in writing. http://xhosaculture.co.za/about-us/learn-xhosa/ It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. However, some of the letters have a different pronunciation from English. The San were formerly called Bushmen, (from . 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. The prenasalized versions have a very short voicing at the onset which then releases in an ejective, like the prenasalized affricates, while the phonemically nasal clicks have a very long voicing through the consonant. 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., . Views on views on views There are books, magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, films, plays and songs. 1998. The Xhosa themselves are somewhat ambivalent about the use of their language in education. Traduzioni in contesto per "Xhosa" in inglese-ucraino da Reverso Context: Ubuntu is a concept and a term from several South African languages, including Zulu and Xhosa. See also Khoisan languages, which contains several audio clips. Rafiki, the sagely mandrill chants Xhosa on The Lion King and its reboot. The X and H languages are even more complex. Though these are still under debate, one frequently accepted dialect grouping is as follows: Xhosa (original), Bhaca, Gcaleka, Thembu, Mpondomise, Ngqika, Mpondo, Mfengu and Bomvana. 2. Although Xhosa and Zulu are similar enough to be considered dialects of one language, Xhosa and Zulu speakers consider them to be separate languages. ), Gldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) '. 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. Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 18,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. In contrast to the San who spoke highly divergent languages, the Khoikhoi spoke closely related dialects of the same language. The official name of the language is isiXhosa, with the key word Xhosa being derived from the Khoisan Language. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/xwXs0dxd2l, We've got you covered! 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. A Xhosa initiate, undergoing a . Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe), 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.

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