However, the Dutch used the word stotteraarto more specifically describe the clicking sounds used in the Khoisan languages. Nama, the largest Khoisan language, is officially recognized in Namibia and is taught at universities. Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. #CapeTownEPrix The Khoisan language family is the smallest of the language families of Africa. In contrast to the San who spoke highly divergent languages, the Khoikhoi spoke closely related dialects of the same language. This offer isnt available anywhere else! Xhosa is categorized as a Bantu language and is representative of the south-western Nguni subfamily group. Xhosa - a Bantu language closely related to Zulu. Khoisan languages, a unique group of African languages spoken mainly in southern Africa, with two outlying languages found in eastern Africa. All Khoisan languages but two are indigenous to southern Africa and belong to three language families. When plain voiceless clicks (c, x, q) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal (ngc, ngx, ngq). She hypothesizes that this took place within efforts to prevent the spread of English during European colonization and prevent the entrance of the majority into the middle class.[7]. http://xhosaculture.co.za/about-us/learn-xhosa/ Xhosa beliefs recognise the presence of ancestral spirits and a supreme authority. http://www.salanguages.com/isixhosa/xhowrd.htm Starostin (2013) gives the following classification of the Khoisan "macrofamily," which he considers to be a single coherent language family. tsk! . Bonny Sands (1998) concluded that the family is not demonstrable with current evidence. Zigula, Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent phonemic tones: low and high. You can unsubscribe at any time. The verb root occupies the 0 position. Makonde, The linguistic use of clicks, whether original or borrowed, is restricted to these few African languages, with one exception: Damin. Tswana, Digo, The Tanzanian languages, Sandawe and Hadza, use only three basic clicks: |, , and !. All rights reserved. MustGo.com. Corrections? Updates? Chokwe, Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to a lesser extent. A certain amount of intermarriage with the Khoisan people they found here also gave rise to clans like the Gqunkhwebe. These famous click sounds are found in Khoisan languages (alternative names include Khoesaan or Khoesan). Numbers | 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. 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). Xhosa is considered to be a Category II language in terms of difficulty for speakers of English. Total number of users in all countries is 19.2 million (Ethnologue). The 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, however, have witnessed the death of many of the recorded languages and dialects, and their distribution is now largely confined to Botswana and Namibia. 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).. uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa). 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., . The Xhosa number approximately 7.1-million, the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people. There are books, magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, films, plays and songs. 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. Loma, the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. Please check your inbox to confirm your email. The next are the alveolar clicks with the tongue tip and palate. The Xhosa language is a member of the Bantu family and is closely related to Zulu. Tone, stress and vowel length are not indicated. Xhosa is part of the branch of Nguni languages, which also include Zulu, Southern Ndebele and Northern Ndebele, called the Zunda languages. Clicks are spreading to a few additional neighboring languages. 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 has the following clicks consonants which can be modified in a variety of ways, such as aspirated, breathy-voiced or nasalized. 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. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Some corrections to this page by Michael Peter Fstumum, Information about Xhosa | People who speak Xhosa as their second language number about 11 million. Nkore, 1998. Soga, (Click here for an audio sample of the extinct !Ora language.) There are no definite or indefinite articles. 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. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. Start learning here! and is made by putting the tongue just behind the front teeth. 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]. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. At present, Xhosa is used as the main language of instruction in many primary schools and some secondary schools, but is largely replaced by English after the early primary grades, even in schools mainly serving Xhosa-speaking communities. [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. Most of the languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. Subscribe to my newsletter to receive detailed travel guides, exclusive travel and language learning tips, priority access to giveaways and more! The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. 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. 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. The various parts of the sentence must agree in both class and number.[12]. used as a language of instruction in primary schools, and in some By creating an account, I agree to theTerms of service and Privacy policy. Maore, Bonke abantu bazalwa bekhululekile belingana ngesidima 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. Xhosa nouns belong to 17 different classes, roughly based on semantic categories, e.g., there are classes for human beings, animals, plants, objects of various shapes, etc. 1997. Zinza, Occasionally other languages are said by laypeople to have "click" sounds. (Their numbers have been included under Nama above.) They are better described as slack voiced than as breathy voiced. Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series of ejective stops and one implosive stop. Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not written except for and , which are each sequences of two vowels with different tones that are realized as long vowels with contour tones ( highlow = falling, lowhigh = rising). Xhosa's click consonants were most likely borrowed from the Khoisan Tshiluba, Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for. isandla/izandla (hand/hands). , "A Lexicostatistical Approach towards Reconstructing Proto-Khoisan", "From modern Khoisan languages to Proto-Khoisan: The Value of Intermediate Reconstructions. Nande, Mandekan, [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 word order is subjectverbobject, like in English. The Khoe family is both the most numerous and diverse family of Khoisan languages, with seven living languages and over a quarter million speakers. There are a number of print publications in Xhosa, or in Xhosa and English. Kuria, The pocket of air produced by the resulting enclosure is rarefied by the sucking action of the tongue. Kongo, Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. 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. A Beginners Guide Khoisan: Africas Clicking Languages. In, Gldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. ), palatal (), and lateral (). 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. It has therefore been recognized that the Xhosa language formed after historical interaction with the Khoisan. Of all the Khoisan languages, only Nama enjoys official recognition. 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. Subscribe using the form below to have all of my posts delivered directly to your email. 4. [15], The role of indigenous languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. http://www.southafricalogue.com/travel-tips/south-african-phrases-xhosa.html, Basaa, 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. 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 . It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. Southern Ndebele, Impariamo insieme! Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives come after the noun they modify. Click consonants can be modified in a variety of ways. 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. Xhosa uses a system of tones to distinguish words that would otherwise sound the same. Xhosa, Zulu, Ndelebele and Swati share most of their basic vocabulary as well as grammar. On commence, ce tour d'horizon des onze langues officielles en Afrique du Sud par le xhosa. The word lives on, however, in the names of several African animal and plant species, such as the Hottentot Fig or Carpobrotus. Jita, 4 Before monosyllabic stems in some words. Konjo, The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa some 60,000 years ago. Omissions? Some support the use of English and see its use in education as de facto segregation. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/EHxIRKzU37, RT @FIAFormulaE: The Rainbow Nation ), Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. Can you reproduce these click types? The Xhosa language has been grouped into a number of dialects. In, Winter, J.C. 1981. Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Xhosa. There are several places of articulation at which click consonants occur, as shown in the table below. 2 is- and iz- replace isi- and izi- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g. 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"). The official name of the language is isiXhosa, with the key word Xhosa being derived from the Khoisan Language. Want my "9 Steps to Reach Fluency Faster" playbook? 3. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site. Other languages have little more than 1,000 speakers while several are known to have become extinct. Some scholars speculate that they might represent an earlier stage in the evolution of human language. 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. Similarly, the tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset time, but that is uncommon. Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. In southern Africa, they came into contact with Khoisan-speaking people. The local Khoisan children speak mainly Afrikaans but Katrina Esau hopes this will change over time . [citation needed]Presently, approximately nine million Xhosa . Colours | Terms of Use De Aar is the commercial center for the wool production and livestock farming industry in this semi-arid region of South Africa. Nama is used in education and in the media. 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. work in Xhosa was published in 1823. Tumbuka, 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. Here are a few of these words. [1][2] Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. The Nguni languages are unique among Bantu languages in that they have imploded "clicking" phonemes. The Khoikhoi were once called Hottentots by Europeans. Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State and Northern Cape. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Beadwork similar to the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. This term, now considered derogatory, means stutterer in Dutch. Learn more about the Nilo-Saharan language family on Ethnologue. Is Xhosa a Khoisan language? Learn how your comment data is processed. The click consonant sounds are a typical and unique feature of the San and Khoikhoi languages. Otherwise, they tend to be tenuis (plain) stops. are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another Xhosa is also heard in Johannesburg and the Western Cape. Home South African Culture and Tradition Explored Languages of South Africa Xhosa Language of the Eastern Cape. ), Gldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) '. Updates? Italian for Confident Conversations (A2-B2). Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated a [], [], [], []. There are books, No idea what a clicking language is? However, not all noun classes can be so easily defined. Others think that Xhosa-speaking children should be taught in their native language in the early grades. It forms part of the ornamentation that reflects the different stages of a woman, s life. 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. Ganda/Luganda, Makhuwa, Forms of "Nga" ##. Zulu, Languages written with the Latin alphabet, if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_2',147,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_3',147,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0_1'); .large-mobile-banner-1-multi-147{border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:7px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:7px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:50px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;}. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Tonga, Languages Gulper/Khoisan Peoples/About World Languages/Wikipedia/The Week. Don't let the learning stop here. Thus, the word for people is abantu in all these languages. The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". Author of. Its great for beginners getting started in a language and invaluable for intermediates looking to fill in gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation. While palatalisation occurred historically, it is still productive, as is shown by palatalization before the passive suffix /-w/ and before diminutive suffix /-ana/. Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. The term is a compound adapted from the words khoekhoe person and saan bush dweller in Nama, one of the Khoisan languages, and scholars have applied the wordseither separately or conjoinedto refer to economic, social, physical, and linguistic features of certain aboriginal groups of southern and eastern Africa. The Xhosa themselves are somewhat ambivalent about the use of their language in education. In, Honken, Henry. / It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. They are now held to comprise three distinct language families and two language isolates. This process can skip rightwards to non-local syllables (i.e. 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. F https://t.co/s7IkqA9Utl, It feels good to have @KevinHart4real also known as Mpho here in Johannesburg, South Africa. 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. http://www.gononda.com/xhosa/, Xhosa phrases It is believed that the Xhosa language "click" sounds originated from the Khoisan language and that they were assimilated into the Xhosa Language over a long period of amalgamation between Xhosa and Khoisan peoples. 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.
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