Copyright 1995-2023 Southafrica.com. 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). . In southern Africa, they came into contact with Khoisan-speaking people. 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. The majority of languages which contain clicks originate with the Khoisan languages. Songe, 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. 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. 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). All rights reserved. "Die Khoisan-Familie." The origin of clicks remains a mystery. Sena, http://www.southafricalogue.com/travel-tips/south-african-phrases-xhosa.html, Basaa, That is, da may be pronounced [da] (or, equivalently, [da]). work in Xhosa was published in 1823. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. 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 various parts of the sentence must agree in both class and number.[12]. A member of a Bantu people inhabiting the eastern part of Cape Province, South Africa. They are thought to have migrated to this region along the east coast of Africa and through central Africa. in a spirit of brotherhood. Like what you see? Xhosa - a Bantu language closely related to Zulu. Swati, They are marked with an apostrophe //. All Rights Reserved. Omissions? 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. Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. A dental click sounds like tsk, tsk! 2014 - 2023. This click is like the sound people make to call horses. Similarly, the tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset time, but that is uncommon. In this view Khoisan hunters might have developed clicks to camouflage their presence as they stalked their prey in an environment of insect and other noises or might have responded to various situations with onomatopoetic vocalizations containing clicks. 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. In, Khler, O. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Tsonga, It forms part of the ornamentation that reflects the different stages of a womans life. "History of Click-Speaking Populations of Africa Inferred from mtDNA and Y Chromosome Genetic Variation", "The Kxa Family: A New Khoisan Genealogy", . It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. Ancestors of the Xhosa migrated to the east coast of Africa and came across Khoisan-speaking people; "as a result of this contact, the Xhosa people borrowed some Khoisan words along with their pronunciation, for instance, the click sounds of the Khoisan languages". Gwere, When consonants are prenasalised, their pronunciation and spelling may change. Maore, Sandawe is not related to Hadza, despite their proximity. Densely populated with uncommon consonants, Xhosa consists of the usual pulmonic egressive sounds (used in English), ejectives, 15 clicks and an implosive. Beadwork similar to the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. http://www.gononda.com/xhosa/, Xhosa phrases Xhosa may refer to: Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa. 'The adaptation of non-click consonants in Xhosa'. In South Africa, 19.1 million speak the language, with 8.1 million speaking it as their first language. Kimbundu, 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. The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. All Khoisan languages but two are indigenous to southern Africa and belong to three language families. Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The official name of the language is isiXhosa, with the key word Xhosa being derived from the Khoisan Language. Several radio stations and one TV station broadcast in Xhosa. In Nguni. "Phonetic Correspondences among Khoisan Affricates." Those who speak this language typically form part of the ethnic group called the amaXhosa and refer to their language as isiXhosa. 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. 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. Although all the Khoisan languages use click sounds, Sandawe and Hatsa are . Most have no written record. Zigula, The term Bushman as it is used to describe certain southern African hunter-gatherers is somewhat controversial because it is perceived as racist. Tswa, Some languages have become extinct and others are endangered. Southern Ndebele, Konjo, As a result of this contact, the Xhosa people borrowed some Khoisan words along with their pronunciation, for instance, the click sounds of the Khoisan languages. Tswana, Northern Ndebele (South Africa), Even though the sound structure of the Khoisan languages is unique, their resemblance to each other in this respect has not provided the evidence needed to unravel all their internal genetic affiliations, let alone their relationships to other African languages. Nama, in particular, has a long tradition of literacy. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In, Gldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. 1998. [3] Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and the San (Bushmen). #CapeTownEPrix They are now held to comprise three distinct language families and two language isolates. 2. Nyakyusa, 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. 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. Interestingly, the word Xhosa is from the Khoisan language and means "The angry men". and is made by putting the tongue just behind the front teeth. 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. Zinza, Lozi, Ewondo, Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. The Kxa family is a relatively distant relationship formally demonstrated in 2010.[11]. Author of, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The Khoisan languages differ in the number of such modifications from a low of 20 in Nama to a high of 83 in Kxoe. 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. Day 1 and 2 highlights of the Africa Green Economic Summit Loma, Fricatives become affricates. 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., . Other figures are the huge lightning bird (impundudu), and the gentleabantubomlambo aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site. 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. XXhosa tradition is an extremely powerful social force binding together these people of Eastern Cape province, most evident in Xhosa beliefs revering their ancestors. There are several places of articulation at which click consonants occur, as shown in the table below. The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. Unfortunately, many of these languages have left behind no written records, so their loss is permanent. But this line of thinking has proved fruitless. The verb "nga" has a variety of forms . 1991). All education at the university level is in English or Afrikaans. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. Damin is an invented ritual language, and has nothing to do with Khoisan. There are five vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that distinguish word meaning. Isewell [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons. Xhosa has the following clicks consonants which can be modified in a variety of ways, such as aspirated, breathy-voiced or nasalized. 2003. Xhosa and Khoisan peoples. Sukuma, 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. Janina Brutt-Griffler claims, "given that such colonial borders were generally arbitrarily drawn, they grouped large numbers of ethnic groups that spoke many languages." This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. The fact that many of the surviving languages are endangered and some are even on the point of extinction bears testimony to inexorable social, economic, linguistic, and demographic forces that continue to marginalize and consume indigenous linguistic and cultural minorities. (Free PDF Download). The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. 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 town itself receives an abundant supply of water from an underground source, which is referred to as All trademarks and web sites that appear throughout this site are the property of their respective owners. Tentative distribution of the Khoisan languages, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khoisan-languages, Fu Jen Catholic University - Graduate School of Linguistics - The Khoisan Language Family. The sociolinguistic story of the South African Khoesan languages is one of language death (Dorian 1989), and finds its place in the discussion of language death in Africa (Dimendaal 1989, Brenzinger 1992, Brenzinger et al. uku-sebenz-is-el + wa -> ukusetyenziselwa "be used for"), but does not affect morpheme-initial consonants (i.e.
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