is xhosa a khoisan language is xhosa a khoisan language

Below are some common words and sentences in Xhosa. Mandekan, The language is marked by the large number of click consonant sounds used. Their most distinctive linguistic characteristic is the original and extensive use of click consonants, a feature which has spread through cultural and linguistic contact into a number of Bantu (Niger-Congo) languagessuch as Xhosa, Zulu, and Sotho in South Africa and Gciriku (Diriku), Yei (Yeye), and Mbukushu in Botswana and Namibiaand into Dahalo, a Cushitic (Afro-Asiatic) language of Kenya. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/xwXs0dxd2l, We've got you covered! 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. 1998. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. "History of Click-Speaking Populations of Africa Inferred from mtDNA and Y Chromosome Genetic Variation", "The Kxa Family: A New Khoisan Genealogy", . Umbundu, 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. Bonke abantu bazalwa bekhululekile belingana ngesidima Kisi, 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. 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. (Their numbers have been included under Nama above.) Mushungulu, Sample basic vocabulary for Khoisan language families: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. ), Gldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) '. The rest of the elements are placed to the left or to the right of the verb root. 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. 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]. Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. uku-sebenz-is-el + wa -> ukusetyenziselwa "be used for"), but does not affect morpheme-initial consonants (i.e. Family words | [15], The role of indigenous languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, Songe, aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. It is also spoken in Botswana and Lesotho. The verb is modified by affixes to mark subject, object, tense, aspect and mood. Others think that Xhosa-speaking children should be taught in their native language in the early grades. 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. When plain voiceless clicks (c, x, q) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal (ngc, ngx, ngq). Want my "9 Steps to Reach Fluency Faster" playbook? New Haven: Compass Publishing Company. The Xhosa language (Isixhosa), of which there are variations, is part of the Nguni language group. Bonke abantu banesiphiwo sesazela nesizathu According to this hypothesis, clicks might have originally served as onomatopoetic imitations of naturally occurring sounds. Emeritus Professor of African Studies; former Director, Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. Most of the languages are unwritten, but Nama and Naro have Latin-based orthographies. Author of. Bonny Sands (1998) concluded that the family is not demonstrable with current evidence. A Haiom language is listed in most Khoisan references. Indeed, the use of the term 'Khoikhoi' meaning . Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. "Toward reconstructing Proto-South Khoisan." Pair them with vowels, tones, and other constants and you've got a wide variety of sounds and meanings. #CapeTownEPrix 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). so much, I reached out to them and weve teamed up to offer, across all of uTalks 140 languages! 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, ward off evil from unnatural forces such as the, a potentially malevolent goblin who attacks at night. In contrast to the San who spoke highly divergent languages, the Khoikhoi spoke closely related dialects of the same language. (Click here for an audio sample of the extinct !Ora language.) 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. second language speakers. Kinyarwanda, is awesome for learning key words and phrases in Xhosa, especially if you want to use it for travel purposes. Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 18,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. The Khoisan languages (/ksn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. In, Treis, Yvonne. As a Bantu language, Xhosa and Zulu people are often able to understand one another. 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! 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. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. On commence, ce tour d'horizon des onze langues officielles en Afrique du Sud par le xhosa. Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. Some languages have become extinct and others are endangered. The original ancestor is Tshawe, but it is direct family members that Xhosa people call upon for guidance, support and to turn the tide of favour. By distribution over land, Xhosa is the most widely spoken African language (while Zulu is most widely spoken in terms of population). 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. 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. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots . In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. Like what you see? Vowels can be either short or long. Although Xhosa and Zulu are similar enough to be considered dialects of one language, Xhosa and Zulu speakers consider them to be separate languages. Learning materials, Information about the Xhosa language See also Khoisan languages, which contains several audio clips. https://t.co/qATXK8AEqg, A room filled with great minds, sharing a valuable outlook on living the legacy of the @NelsonMandela Foundation. Nyemba, #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. Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people. You can unsubscribe at any time. In, Honken, Henry. They are descended from the Nguni, who began migrating south from central and northern Africa more than a thousand years ago. Updates? However, not all noun classes can be so easily defined. Southern Khoisan has a fifth click, the bilabial . It's a wrap! The orthographic b in mb is the voiced plosive [mb]. Xhosa is an agglutinative language that expresses grammatical functions by adding prefixes and suffixes to roots. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. The Khoisan language groups are different in structure and vocabulary although the groups are closely related, unlike the Bantu languages such as the Xhosa and Zulu which are similar to one another. 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. The click consonant sounds are a typical and unique feature of the San and Khoikhoi languages. Translate files. isandla/izandla (hand/hands). These are the only languages known to have clicks in normal vocabulary. 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. Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most widely spoken African language is Zulu. The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". 1998. Soga, Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives agree with the noun they modify in class and number. They are truly voiced only after nasals, but the oral occlusion is then very short in stops, and it usually does not occur at all in clicks. . The Tuu family consists of two language clusters, which are related to each other at about the distance of Khoekhoe and Tshukhwe within Khoe. As with other South African languages, Xhosa is characterized by respectful forms of address for elders and in-laws. In, Winter, J.C. 1981. Like other Southern Bantu languages, Xhosa has borrowed words from the Khoisan languages, as well as from English and Afrikaans. The Zulu refer to the Eastern Cape as KwaXhosa which is translated to place of the Xhosa. The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. See Khoe languages for speculations on the linguistic history of the region. Xhosa is an unusual and attractive sounding language, though difficult to master. 0 characters. http://xhosaculture.co.za/about-us/learn-xhosa/ Let me know using thecomments section below or join me on social media to start a conversation. 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. Digo, Nyakyusa, 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. . 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. The number of Khoisan speakers has declined drastically in the last three centuries due to European colonisation, demographic pressures and changing lifestyles. Learning Xhosa is a challenging, but rewarding experience. Tribal Wars and European Persecution . It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. The 15 clicks (which learners tend to battle with the most) are divided into three categories. Of all the Khoisan languages, only Nama enjoys official recognition. All Rights Reserved. Xhosa may refer to: Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa. The pocket of air produced by the resulting enclosure is rarefied by the sucking action of the tongue. Xhosa is an official language in South Africa and Zimbabe, and is In southern Africa, they came into contact with Khoisan-speaking people. [3] Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and the San (Bushmen). The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with the pronunciation in IPA on the left and the orthography on the right: In addition to the ejective affricate [t], the spelling tsh may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [ts] and [t]. Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives come after the noun they modify. (Free PDF Download). Although mutually intelligible, they are considered to be separate languages for political and cultural reasons. Xhosa is considered to be a Category II language in terms of difficulty for speakers of English. [8] Despite their shared clicks, the Khoisan languages diverge significantly from each other. Tshiluba, The 'X' in Xhosa, for example, represents a type of . Sandawe is not related to Hadza, despite their proximity. 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. (Reprints, with minor corrections, a series of eight articles published in the ''Southwestern Journal of Anthropology'' from 1949 to 1954. In South Africa a variation of this process allowed the Khoisan languages to exert a powerful linguistic influence on the dominant languages before they disappeared, leaving Afrikaans and some Bantu languages with a number of distinctive Khoisan features. Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated a [], [], [], []. sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho. C'est la deuxime langue la plus parle du pays. Here are a few of these words. https://www.ethnologue.com/language/xho, Online Xhosa lessons Photography and infographics cannot be used without permission.Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Terms and Conditions, Language Learning for Travellers & Heritage Learners, Italian Travel Phrases Cheat-Sheet! Lambya, But without a shift in language policy and government . 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. This offer. 1998. 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 . http://learn101.org/xhosa.php Xhosa: [noun] a member of a Bantu-speaking people of Eastern Cape province. Tswa, "Die Khoe-sprachigen Buschmnner der Kalahari." The pocket of air produced by the resulting enclosure is rarefied by the sucking action of the tongue. A bilabial click is a pop made by bringing the lips together and releasing them, just like the sound of a kiss. Author of, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. [1][2] Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. Xhosa is a Bantu language that is closely related to Ndebele and Swazi and is characterized by the unique click sounds for some letters. The basic clicks are four: dental (|), alveolar (! Get her free guide 9 reasons youre not fluentYET & how to fix it! Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. Because Xhosa and Zulu are both classed as Bantu languages, they are quite similar. The Khoisan languages were once spoken across all of southern Africa from southern Angola in the west to Swaziland in the east and the Cape of Good Hope in the south (see the map). [citation needed], Khoisan was proposed as one of the four families of African languages in Joseph Greenberg's classification (19491954, revised in 1963). 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. How difficult is it to learn Xhosa? 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. Omissions? The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. 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.