is xhosa a khoisan language

[12] However, this classification is not widely accepted. 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. The term Bushman as it is used to describe certain southern African hunter-gatherers is somewhat controversial because it is perceived as racist. Xhosa, Zulu, Ndelebele and Swati share most of their basic vocabulary as well as grammar. Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. 4 Before monosyllabic stems in some words. The linguistic use of clicks, whether original or borrowed, is restricted to these few African languages, with one exception: Damin. https://www.ethnologue.com/language/xho, Online Xhosa lessons 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., . Swati and Ndebele, and mutually intelligible with them to some extent. Views on views on views Various parts of speech that qualify a noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. Xhosa has a Roman-based orthography which was developed by missionaries in the 19th century and adapted to represent the sounds of the language. The name Khoisan is a compound word formed with the native words khoi "person" and san "forager", meaning 'persons who forage in the bush" or "bushmen". Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. Vowels can be either short or long. secondary schools. Both Xhosa and Zulu are an official languages in South Africa and Lesotho. 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. A Haiom language is listed in most Khoisan references. On external genealogical relationships of the Khoe family. Northern Sotho, Xhosa is closely related to Zulu, Choose your English to Xhosa translation service. Aspiration is lost on obstruents; ejection is added on voiceless consonant. Omniglot is how I make my living. Tsonga, 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. http://www.gononda.com/xhosa/, Xhosa phrases 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. Forms of "Nga" ##. (Click here for an audio sample of the extinct !Ora language.) All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. An estimated 15% of Xhosa vocabulary is of Khoisan origin. It is also 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. This came about because South African actor John Kani, a native of the Eastern Cape province who plays Wakandan King T'Chaka, speaks Xhosa and suggested that the directors of the fictional Civil War incorporate a dialogue in the language. Is Xhosa a Khoisan language? Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal is known for his early rejection of the Khoisan language family (Starostin 2003). Ever since Xhosa and Zulu were reduced to a written form in the early 19th century, Xhosa and Zulu writers have produced various works of fiction, ranging from poetry to novels. 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. Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. Xhosa is also heard in Johannesburg and the Western Cape. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. Xhosa has the following clicks consonants which can be modified in a variety of ways, such as aspirated, breathy-voiced or nasalized. 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 ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. 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. The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people (/ k s , k o s /; Xhosa pronunciation: [ksa] ()) are a Nguni ethnic group whose traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa.They are the second largest ethnic group in Southern Africa and are native speakers of the IsiXhosa language. #CapeTownEPrix Venda, Agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which the word agrees. The pocket of air produced by the resulting enclosure is rarefied by the sucking action of the tongue. The first printed A dental click sounds like tsk, tsk! The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". Some scholars speculate that they might represent an earlier stage in the evolution of human language. Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. As an example, the composition of the verb In the sentence Un-ntwana u-ya-wa-sel-a ama-nzi One child drinks water is shown below. All rights reserved. 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. Language use is quite strong among the 20,000 speakers of Naro,[clarification needed] half of whom speak it as a second language. Learn how your comment data is processed. Genetically, the Hadza people are unrelated to the Khoisan peoples of Southern Africa, and their closest relatives may be among the Pygmies of Central Africa. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Some corrections to this page by Michael Peter Fstumum, Information about Xhosa | The release of the forward closure results in a pop-like sound. Here's 10 things you didn't know about this incredib, We're proud of you @KelvinvdLinde Omissions? According to this hypothesis, clicks might have originally served as onomatopoetic imitations of naturally occurring sounds. That is, da may be pronounced [da] (or, equivalently, [da]). OshiWambo, [8] Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 10 million people and as a second language by another 11 million, mostly in South Africa, particularly in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng, and also in parts of Zimbabwe and Lesotho. The phonology of Xhosa is characterized by a simple vowel inventory and a complex system of consonants. Linguistics 112 lecture, Department of Linguistics. Although all the Khoisan languages use click sounds, Sandawe and Hatsa are . Grammatically, the southern Khoisan languages are generally analytic, having several inflectional morphemes, but not as many as the click languages of Tanzania. We have loved having you in our country ! 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. 2003. 1998. When plain voiceless clicks (c, x, q) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal (ngc, ngx, ngq). Read More; development. Contact Us, 8.2 million people and by 11 million as a second language in South Africa, mostly in Eastern Cape Province and Transkei. It is a Bantu language closely related to Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele. (Free PDF Download). Gusii, Northern Ndebele (South Africa), tsk! 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. One puzzling feature of the Khoisan languages is that, despite some uniformity in their use of clicks, they differ considerably among themselves in aspects such as word formation, sentence structure, and vocabulary. Makhuwa, For the Mande language spoken in Burkina Faso, see, Map showing the distribution of the Khoisan languages (yellow), Grammatically, the southern Khoisan languages are generally, Greenberg, Joseph H. 1955. 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. are about 8.2 million native speakers of Xhosa, and another 11 million Learn the local language with my unique 80/20 method. However, some of the letters have a different pronunciation from English. Like other Southern Bantu languages, Xhosa has borrowed words from the Khoisan languages, as well as from English and Afrikaans. 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. Tradues em contexto de "Khoisan" en portugus-ingls da Reverso Context : Palavras-chave: Khoisan; reconciliation; identity; narrative; communication. Kiga, Anthony Traill noted the Khoisan languages' extreme variation. Nyamwezi, Mwani, Kimbundu, Unfortunately, many of these languages have left behind no written records, so their loss is permanent. 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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, Most of the languages are unwritten, but Nama and Naro have Latin-based orthographies. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most widely spoken African language is Zulu. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Mbunda, Amongs https://t.co/Un48auA2t0, South African Tourism's initiatives and projects within the "growing green economy" are highlighted through partner https://t.co/BlBqEBi0pj, Were proud and excited to be associated with @CapeTownEprix in hosting the first ABB FIA Formula E World champions https://t.co/0prwWK7DrC, It is great to hear you are feeling our vibe Mpho! Khoisan languages, characterised by implosive consonants or 'clicks', belonged to a totally different language family from those of the Bantu speakers. Herero, XXhosa tradition is an extremely powerful social force binding together these people of Eastern Cape province, most evident in Xhosa beliefs revering their ancestors. The Xhosa language has been grouped into a number of dialects. Breathy-voiced consonants Umbundu, This term, now considered derogatory, means stutterer in Dutch. Tswana, All education at the university level is in English or Afrikaans. Chichewa, They are better described as slack voiced than as breathy voiced. [15], The role of indigenous languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. They are marked with a raised //. Voiceless palatal plosive becomes voiced. ''Studies in African Linguistic Classification.'' The first two columns include words from the two Khoisan language isolates, Sandawe and Hadza. Tshiluba, Southern Khoisan languages have a very high ratio of words containing clicks as compared to those that do not contain them. Southern Ndebele, The Khoisan languages ( / ksn /; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. But those simple 5 clicks can add a lot to a sentence. However, not all noun classes can be so easily defined. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. Ethnologue lists 27 Khoisan languages which are spoken by half a million people or less. The word lives on, however, in the names of several African animal and plant species, such as the Hottentot Fig or Carpobrotus. In this case, Xhosa means 'angry men'. Its great for beginners getting started in a language and invaluable for intermediates looking to fill in gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation. The first is dental clicks with the tongue pressing against the back of the teeth. The onset cluster /kl/ from phonologized loanwords such as, The unwritten glottal stop is present in words like, In informal writing, this murmured consonant can sometimes be seen spelled as, sebenz + -is + -el +wa -> setyenziselwa [setenziselwa] (used for), This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 23:55. http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/xhosa.php Most have no written record. Today, the few scholars working on these languages treat the three [southern groups] as independent language families that cannot or can no longer be shown to be genetically related" (p.841). https://www.twinkl.co.za/resources/south-africa-resources/isixhosa-foundation-phase-english-south-africa-suid-afrika/2, Online Xhosa dictionaries 2014 - 2023. 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). Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. The word order is subjectverbobject, like in English. uku-sebenz-is-el + wa -> ukusetyenziselwa "be used for"), but does not affect morpheme-initial consonants (i.e. Today, the Khoisan languages are spoken only in southwestern Africa, in the region around the Kalahari Desert extending from Angola to South Africa, and in one small area of Tanzania. 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. Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. Bonke abantu banesiphiwo sesazela nesizathu Traill demonstrated this linguistic diversity in the data presented in the below table. A system for writing Xhosa using the Latin alphabet was devised by Xhosa, Xhosa - a Bantu language closely related to Zulu. These sounds were borrowed from the Khoisan languages of the original inhabitants of the area. Kamba, Pair them with vowels, tones, and other constants and you've got a wide variety of sounds and meanings. 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. "Types of sound correspondence patterns in Khoisan languages." Janina Brutt-Griffler claims, "given that such colonial borders were generally arbitrarily drawn, they grouped large numbers of ethnic groups that spoke many languages." Xhosa. Nyemba, The Khoe family appears to have migrated to southern Africa not long before the Bantu expansion. Nama, in particular, has a long tradition of literacy. These famous click sounds are found in Khoisan languages (alternative names include Khoesaan or Khoesan). The rest of the elements are placed to the left or to the right of the verb root. Xhosa, which is also known as Xosa or Koosa, is a clicking language. The Xhosa language is a member of the Bantu family and is closely related to Zulu. Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. By Mark Dingemanse [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons. Start learning here! In, Khler, O. "Comparison and Classification of Khoisan languages." 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. All Rights Reserved. Zinza, A member of a Bantu people inhabiting the eastern part of Cape Province, South Africa. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Xhosa-language. Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. Group of African language families with click consonants, "San language" redirects here. Translate files. Other languages have little more than 1,000 speakers while several are known to have become extinct. 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 last is a lateral click with the tongue at the side of the mouth. Ejective consonants This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. Xhosa is a Bantu language spoken in South Africa, mainly in the It is a Methodist hymn written in Xhosa by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. Implosive consonants are produced by inhaling rather than exhaling the air. 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. The Bantu languages adopted the use of clicks from neighboring, displaced, or absorbed Khoisan populations (or from other Bantu languages), often through intermarriage, while the Dahalo are thought to have retained clicks from an earlier language when they shifted to speaking a Cushitic language; if so, the pre-Dahalo language may have been something like Hadza or Sandawe. [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. There are some exceptions, for instance, the Sandawe language in Tanzania whose speakers have maintained a relatively stable linguistic community. Punu, Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. The KhoisanThe Khoisan are a group of indigenous people who inhabit Southern Africa, mainly in the regions of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Zambia. Xhosa is part of the branch of Nguni languages, which also include Zulu, Southern Ndebele and Northern Ndebele, called the Zunda languages. #CapeTownEPrix Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe), Snyman, Jan Winston. [8] Despite their shared clicks, the Khoisan languages diverge significantly from each other. Prenasalisation occurs in several contexts, including on roots with the class 9 prefix /iN-/, for example on an adjective which is feature-matching its noun: /iN- + / [int] "beautiful" (of a class 9 word like inja "dog"). Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. In A. Traill (ed. Khoisan / k s n /, or Khoe-Sn (pronounced [kxoesan]), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the Khoekhoen (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the Sn or Skhoen (Saake in the Nng language).. Phrases | Lambya, https://t.co/qATXK8AEqg, A room filled with great minds, sharing a valuable outlook on living the legacy of the @NelsonMandela Foundation. 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 Khoikhoi were once called Hottentots by Europeans. They 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. Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. Xhosa beliefs dictate that people turn to a diviner or healer, usually attired in a headdress and shawl of fur, when needing advice on how to deal with the spirits, help with illnesses, or to ward off evil from unnatural forces such as thetokoloshe a potentially malevolent goblin who attacks at night. 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. South African Culture and Tradition Explored. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika is part of the national anthem of South Africa, national anthem of Tanzania and Zambia, and the former anthem of Zimbabwe and Namibia. On commence, ce tour d'horizon des onze langues officielles en Afrique du Sud par le xhosa. The Khoisan languages (/ksn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. The number of Khoisan speakers has declined drastically in the last three centuries due to European colonisation, demographic pressures and changing lifestyles. The sound system of Xhosa contains three types of click sounds borrowed from the neighbouring Khoisan languages. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa some 60,000 years ago. Family words | Some support the use of English and see its use in education as de facto segregation. nangokweemfanelo. We use the verb "have" to denote possession, ownership, and other related meanings. By creating an account, I agree to theTerms of service and Privacy policy. Kongo, ), palatal (), and lateral (). Xhosa is an agglutinative language that expresses grammatical functions by adding prefixes and suffixes to roots. Their language is often called the click, language because of its three dominant clicks, which. 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. Xhosa, derived from the Khoisan language, refers to "angry men." The majority of the South African languages that use tongue-clicking have roots in the indigenous Khoisan . Copyright 1995-2023 Southafrica.com. Comorian, 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. sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho. Ganda/Luganda, According to the 2011 census there Day 1 and 2 highlights of the Africa Green Economic Summit In fact, these differences are so pronounced as to suggest that in a linguistic discussion the term Khoisan should be used only in a loose typological sense to refer to a group of languages that share some features of sound structure (mainly involving clicks) and not as the name of a language family in the strict sensesuch as Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, or Bantuin which some shared features are found at all levels of structure and these features are assumed to have been inherited from a common ancestral language. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, clicks are represented by placing the assigned symbol for the place of click articulation to the left of a symbol for a nonclick sound at the same place of articulation. No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal. Because I believe in uTalk so much, I reached out to them and weve teamed up to offer you an exclusive 30% OFF reader discount across all of uTalks 140 languages! The Khoisan languages share some similarities in their extremely complex sound systems. The Nguni languages are unique among Bantu languages in that they have imploded "clicking" phonemes. 9 reasons youre not fluentYET & how to fix it! Please check your inbox to confirm your email. Thus, a more correct spelling is Khoesaan. Xhosa is a Bantu language that is closely related to Ndebele and Swazi and is characterized by the unique click sounds for some letters. A Xhosa initiate, undergoing a . 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. Other Southeastern Bantu languages are Zulu, Swati (Swazi), Sotho, Tswana, Venda, and Ndebele. Most of the languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. 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. 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. / They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. How difficult is it to learn Xhosa? But without a shift in language policy and government . Gwere, The name Khoisan is a compound word formed with the native words khoiperson and sanforager, meaning persons who forage in the bush or bushmen. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 1 Before monosyllabic stems, e.g. Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. Eton, C'est la deuxime langue la plus parle du pays. 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. The Xhosa number approximately 7.1-million, the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people.

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