Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to a lesser extent. Most have no written record. The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. 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. Omissions? The /i/ vowel is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable.[16]. Xhosa is categorized as a Bantu language and is representative of the south-western Nguni subfamily group. 1: . 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. The Khoisan language family is the smallest of the language families of Africa. Nyole, However, some of the letters have a different pronunciation from English. The official name of the language is isiXhosa, with the key word Xhosa being derived from the Khoisan Language. The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/A4fSLf2jvP, Hello Cape Town Click consonants can be modified in a variety of ways. Fricatives become affricates. The click consonant sounds are a typical and unique feature of the San and Khoikhoi languages. According to this hypothesis, clicks might have originally served as onomatopoetic imitations of naturally occurring sounds. In this case, Xhosa means 'angry men'. 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. Masaaba, It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. Implosive consonants 'The adaptation of non-click consonants in Xhosa'. 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"). http://www.youtube.com/user/XhosaKhaya All Rights Reserved. Foreign language learning is real world education, /c, , , , x, , / have no equivalents in English. Xhosa has three basic clicks . [1] [2] Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. Kirundi, Xhosa beliefs recognise the presence of ancestral spirits and a supreme authority. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Bukusu, 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. In, Honken, Henry. Rafiki, the sagely mandrill chants Xhosa on The Lion King and its reboot. 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. Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. (Free PDF Download). Luvale, Unfortunately, many of these languages have left behind no written records, so their loss is permanent. A member of a Bantu people inhabiting the eastern part of Cape Province, South Africa. It is also Xhosa uses a system of tones to distinguish words that would otherwise sound the same. The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated a [], [], [], []. For instance, they can be aspirated, nasalised and glottalised. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. Nama, in particular, has a long tradition of literacy. On external genealogical relationships of the Khoe family. 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. It is spoken by the Xhosa people in South Africa, and has around 8 million speakers. Phrases | The Xhosa language is a member of the Bantu family and is closely related to Zulu. A Beginners Guide Khoisan: Africas Clicking Languages. Most syllables end in a vowel, and there are no consonant clusters. 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). In, Treis, Yvonne. Xhosa is an unusual and attractive sounding language, though difficult to master. Haya, sas 1. Of all the Khoisan languages, only Nama enjoys official recognition. "Khoisan." A preliminary classification of the !X and u'hasi dialects. 2. 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. It is also taught in universities. The Khoe family appears to have migrated to southern Africa not long before the Bantu expansion. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The Xhosa language (Isixhosa), of which there are variations, is part of the Nguni language group. It has 18 click consonants (in comparison, Ju'hoan, spoken in Botswana and Namibia, has 48, and Taa, with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana, has 83). Mende, [8] Despite their shared clicks, the Khoisan languages diverge significantly from each other. Read More; development. Proto-Central-Khoisan. Xhosa is one of the 11 official languages recognized by the South African Constitution, and in 2006 it was determined that just over 7 million South Africans speak Xhosa as a home language. 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. Punu, for $0.07/word. Clicks are spreading to a few additional neighboring languages. All Khoisan languages but two are indigenous to southern Africa and belong to three language families. Lozi, 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). Other Southeastern Bantu languages are Zulu, Swati (Swazi), Sotho, Tswana, Venda, and Ndebele. Occasionally other languages are said by laypeople to have "click" sounds. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. Italian for Confident Conversations (A2-B2). As with other South African languages, Xhosa is characterized by respectful forms of address for elders and in-laws. 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. A palatal click is a sharp pop made by drawing the tongue down quickly from the roof of the mouth. The other Khoisan languages are unrecognized and marginalized, especially in South Africa. https://t.co/qATXK8AEqg, A room filled with great minds, sharing a valuable outlook on living the legacy of the @NelsonMandela Foundation. Makhuwa, Xhosa is closely related to Zulu, The Zulu refer to the Eastern Cape as KwaXhosa which is translated to place of the Xhosa. The debate about these relationships remains a prominent feature in the linguistic study of Khoisan languages, and the disagreements that sustain it have never been satisfactorily resolved. 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. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/ncCaKrq4Fa, The Summit includes a Sustainability Village that aims to boost the local economy and power positive economic activ https://t.co/OEOnUXyWdU, Clareb accessories is your one stop shop for all things, unique earrings, necklaces, bracelets. Indeed, the use of the term 'Khoikhoi' meaning . 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. 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. The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. Nyungwe, Therefore, Xhosa and Zulu people frequently understand one another, even if they are each speaking their mother tongue. How difficult is it to learn Xhosa? Sources isandla/izandla (hand/hands). Learning materials, Information about the Xhosa language 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. Tone, stress and vowel length are not indicated. Nyemba, It forms part of the ornamentation that reflects the different stages of a womans life. This creates a sound somewhat resembling a cork being pulled out of a bottle. 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]. Digo, However, there is no scientific proof to support this hypothesis since all languages use sound symbolism to a lesser or greater extent. "Toward reconstructing Proto-South Khoisan." Khoisan languages, characterised by implosive consonants or 'clicks', belonged to a totally different language family from those of the Bantu speakers. Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State and Northern Cape. There is a series of six dental clicks, represented by the letter c, similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk"; a series of six alveolar lateral clicks, represented by the letter x, similar to the sound used to call horses; and a series of alveolar clicks, represented by the letter q, that sound somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle. Palatalisation is a change that affects labial consonants whenever they are immediately followed by /j/. second language speakers. The various parts of the sentence must agree in both class and number.[12]. Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. [12] However, this classification is not widely accepted. The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". The San were formerly called Bushmen, (from . 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. Please check your inbox to confirm your email. The Khoisan languages differ in the number of such modifications from a low of 20 in Nama to a high of 83 in Kxoe. Terms of Use Bonny Sands (1998) concluded that the family is not demonstrable with current evidence. I promise not to spam you. Starostin (2013) accepts a relationship between Sandawe and Khoi is plausible, as is one between Tuu and Kxa, but sees no indication of a relationship between Sandawe and Khoi on the one hand and Tuu and Kxa on the other, or between any of them and Hadza. Makonde, Linguistics 112 lecture, Department of Linguistics. Ewondo, They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San. Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent phonemic tones: low and high. Don't let the learning stop here. 1998. Shona, ), Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. ''Studies in African Linguistic Classification.'' The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. The small town of De Aar is located in the central Groot Karoo along the railway line between Cape Town and Kimberley, which was established in the late 1800s. National Treasures Group of African language families with click consonants, "San language" redirects here. Anthony Traill at first accepted Khoisan (Traill 1986), but by 1998 concluded that it could not be demonstrated with current data and methods, rejecting it as based on a single typological criterion: the presence of clicks. Breathy-voiced consonants Planning a trip? Konjo, Every single click in Miriam Makebas Click Song, which is in Xhosa, is a sound that was borrowed from a neighbouring language and swapped into existing words and not all that long ago, either. [6] Dimmendaal (2008) summarized the general view with, "it has to be concluded that Greenberg's intuitions on the genetic unity of Khoisan could not be confirmed by subsequent research. Learn the local language with my unique 80/20 method. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Xhosa-language. I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. 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. When plain voiceless clicks (c, x, q) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal (ngc, ngx, ngq). Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. We look forward to https://t.co/QcOGOzgax0, In collaboration with Advertising Week and Hartbeat, the Nelson Mandela foundation presents the Healing Power of La https://t.co/ati9CUOaa0, upon for guidance, support and to turn the tide of favour, , the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, , and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people, A certain amount of intermarriage with the Khoisan people they found here, Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals.