Italian for Confident Conversations (A2-B2). This is usually a misnomer for ejective consonants, which are found across much of the world, or is a reference to paralinguistic use of clicks such as English tsk! Shona, Xhosa and Khoisan peoples. Bukusu, The Origins of the Xhosa Language The Xhosa Language has its roots in South Africa from an ethnic group known as the amaXhosa. Beadwork similar to the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. 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! National Treasures Michele creates language learning guides and courses for travel. The release of the forward closure results in a pop-like sound. Languages Gulper/Khoisan Peoples/About World Languages/Wikipedia/The Week. Its great for beginners getting started in a language and invaluable for intermediates looking to fill in gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation. The number of Khoisan speakers has declined drastically in the last three centuries due to European colonisation, demographic pressures and changing lifestyles. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). For example. Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. / Xhosa is an unusual and attractive sounding language, though difficult to master. There are some exceptions, for instance, the Sandawe language in Tanzania whose speakers have maintained a relatively stable linguistic community. 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. Xhosa is categorized as a Bantu language and is representative of the south-western Nguni subfamily group. Mwani, (Their numbers have been included under Nama above.) Learn the local language with her 80/20 method for less than the cost of eating at a tourist trap restaurant Start learning today! Masaaba, Traill demonstrated this linguistic diversity in the data presented in the below table. Isewell [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons. Although mutually intelligible, they are considered to be separate languages for political and cultural reasons. Contact Us, 8.2 million people and by 11 million as a second language in South Africa, mostly in Eastern Cape Province and Transkei. 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. XXhosa tradition is an extremely powerful social force binding together these people of Eastern Cape province, most evident in Xhosa beliefs revering their ancestors. Consequently, the languages with the greatest numbers of consonants in the world are Khoisan. Southern Khoisan has a fifth click, the bilabial . Forms of "Nga" ##. Xhosa, which is also known as Xosa or Koosa, is a clicking language. #CapeTownEPrix In, Honken, Henry. Xhosa has a Roman-based orthography which was developed by missionaries in the 19th century and adapted to represent the sounds of the language. Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives come after the noun they modify. [12] However, this classification is not widely accepted. In, Honken, Henry. 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. Unfortunately, many of these languages have left behind no written records, so their loss is permanent. Learn how your comment data is processed. 15000 characters left today. Thus, the word for people is abantu in all these languages. 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). 2 is- and iz- replace isi- and izi- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g. tsk! Impariamo insieme! What separates her from other instructors is her ability to explain complex grammar in a no-nonsense, straightforward manner using her unique 80/20 method. The verb root occupies the 0 position. 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. 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 . The Juhoan language has 48 click consonants among nearly as many non-click consonants, strident and pharyngealized vowels, and four tones. "Toward reconstructing Proto-South Khoisan." It is spoken by the Xhosa people in South Africa, and has around 8 million speakers. 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. The Khoisan languages ( / ksn /; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. Tswa, Xhosa is an official language in South Africa and Zimbabe, and is used as a language of instruction in primary schools, and in some secondary schools. A certain headdress will be a worn by a newly married girl, while a woman who has just given birth to her first child will wear a differently styled headdress. When consonants are prenasalised, their pronunciation and spelling may change. The Khoe family is both the most numerous and diverse family of Khoisan languages, with seven living languages and over a quarter million speakers. Maore, In this case, Xhosa means 'angry men'. In contrast to the San who spoke highly divergent languages, the Khoikhoi spoke closely related dialects of the same language. are about 8.2 million native speakers of Xhosa, and another 11 million Other figures are the huge lightning bird (impundudu), and the gentleabantubomlambo aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. Kirundi, Venda, Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. In Nguni. Nande, Planning a trip? Like other Southern Bantu languages, Xhosa has borrowed words from the Khoisan languages, as well as from English and Afrikaans. The murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. The Khoisan languages (/ksn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to a lesser extent. Chokwe, Xhosa may refer to: Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa. They Click consonants can be modified in a variety of ways. / Janina Brutt-Griffler claims, "given that such colonial borders were generally arbitrarily drawn, they grouped large numbers of ethnic groups that spoke many languages." Updates? 1. Central Khoisan, the largest group, includes Nama (Khoekhoe, Khoekhoegowab) and Haiom (Saan) spoken in Namibia, and smaller languages spoken in the Kalahari desert of Botswana. . Pair them with vowels, tones, and other constants and you've got a wide variety of sounds and meanings. Terms of Use 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. Lambya, They are marked with a raised //. De Aar is the commercial center for the wool production and livestock farming industry in this semi-arid region of South Africa. By Mark Dingemanse [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons. 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. 15% of its vocabulary is estimated to be of Khoekhoe (Khoisan) origin. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. http://learn101.org/xhosa.php Xhosa uses a system of tones to distinguish words that would otherwise sound the same. Damin is an invented ritual language, and has nothing to do with Khoisan. South African Culture and Tradition Explored. Tswana, Of all the Khoisan languages, only Nama enjoys official recognition. 2014 - 2023. Omissions? Fang, In, Gldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. 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. "Comparison and Classification of Khoisan languages." Download your free PDF guide with 125 Italian travel phrases. New Haven: Compass Publishing Company. Khoisan languages Bushman languages, also called San languages, loose grouping of languages that confusingly have been considered to be a separate group within the Khoisan languages. Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. Southern Ndebele, Xhosa, 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. 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. This click is like the sound people make to call horses. This creates a sound somewhat resembling a cork being pulled out of a bottle. [citation needed]Presently, approximately nine million Xhosa . The more notable characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable.[19]. The Khoisan language family is the smallest of the language families of Africa. If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. It forms part of the ornamentation that reflects the different stages of a woman, s life. 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. The linguistic use of clicks, whether original or borrowed, is restricted to these few African languages, with one exception: Damin. The language is also rich in idioms. 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. In, This page was last edited on 10 January 2023, at 12:02. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'omniglot_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_1',141,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-medrectangle-4-0'); Download an alphabet chart for Xhosa (Excel). ), Gldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) '. Therefore, Xhosa and Zulu people frequently understand one another, even if they are each speaking their mother tongue. Tone, stress and vowel length are not indicated. Proto-Central-Khoisan. It is a Bantu language closely related to Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele. That is, da may be pronounced [da] (or, equivalently, [da]). Bonke abantu banesiphiwo sesazela nesizathu Soga, Release of the forward closure results in a pop-like sound. (Let's learn together!). 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). Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. 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. Thus, a more correct spelling isKhoesaan. Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series of ejective stops and one implosive stop. Xhosa is one of four sister languages called Nguni Languages (Ndebele, Swati, Xhosa and Zulu) which are all mutually intelligible. uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa). [11] Zunda languages effectively form a dialect continuum of variously mutually intelligible varieties. In, Khler, O. Learning Xhosa is a challenging, but rewarding experience. The Khoisan languages share some similarities in their extremely complex sound systems. Numbers | ), Khoisan Linguistic Studies . Sandawe is not related to Hadza, despite their proximity. aquatic human-like beings who accept into their family those who drown. Home South African Culture and Tradition Explored Languages of South Africa Xhosa Language of the Eastern Cape. Nguni - a group of southern Bantu languages . 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. North Khoisan is spoken by hunter-gatherers mainly in Namibia. Clicks Nkore, Aspiration is lost on obstruents; ejection is added on voiceless consonant. Xhosa is closely related to Zulu, Nguni languages are, in turn, classified under the much larger abstraction of Bantu languages. Watch this video of Miriam Makebas singQongqothwane in Xhosa, also known as The Click Song. 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. ), palatal (), and lateral (). 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). A century ago the Haiom people spoke a Ju dialect, probably close to Kung, but they now speak a divergent dialect of Nama. All rights reserved. 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. Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. The sustainability village focused on boo https://t.co/BDeRnlGHot, Experience the most exciting electric street racing here in Cape Town as the world's best street racers battle. https://t.co/ZihxkpWwe7, Undoubtedly the best spots to experience unbridled views of the Mother City. There are five places of articulation at which click consonants occur. 4. It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. It is also taught in universities. Bulu, 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. . The red letters are orthographic representations of the sounds. 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. A Beginners Guide Khoisan: Africas Clicking Languages. 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. Zulu: 22.7%, Xhosa: 16%, Afrikaans . http://www.gononda.com/xhosa/, Xhosa phrases [14] Also, a small community of Xhosa speakers (18,000) live in Quthing District, Lesotho.[15]. It is also Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. The language is an important part of Khois. When plain voiceless clicks (c, x, q) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal (ngc, ngx, ngq). Though these are still under debate, one frequently accepted dialect grouping is as follows: Xhosa (original), Bhaca, Gcaleka, Thembu, Mpondomise, Ngqika, Mpondo, Mfengu and Bomvana. Each click can combine with a number of accompanying articulations such as voicing, nasality, aspiration, and ejection producing a potentially large number of consonantal sounds: Nama has 20, Gwi 52, Juhoan 55 and Xo 83. The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. [citation needed], Khoisan was proposed as one of the four families of African languages in Joseph Greenberg's classification (19491954, revised in 1963). "Names of Khoisan languages and Their Variants." Look up Xhosa or xhosa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The Khoisan, or Click, linguistic family is made up of three branches: the Khoisan languages of the San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoi, spoken in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa; Sandawe, a language found in E Africa; and Hatsa (Hadzane or Hadzapi), also spoken in E Africa. The language is marked by the large number of click consonant sounds used. Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. When aspirated clicks (ch, xh, qh) are prenasalised, the silent letter k is added (nkc, nkx, nkq) to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq, and are actually distinct sounds. Xhosa: [noun] a member of a Bantu-speaking people of Eastern Cape province. The /i/ vowel is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable.[16]. They refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and their language as isiXhosa. Although Xhosa and Zulu are similar enough to be considered dialects of one language, Xhosa and Zulu speakers consider them to be separate languages. The orthographic b in mb is the voiced plosive [mb]. The majority of languages which contain clicks originate with the Khoisan languages. Like other Bantu languages, Xhosa is rich in expressions, idioms, and proverbs. South Khoisan includes a couple of endangered and several extinct languages of the Kalahari Desert. There are books, magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, films, plays and songs. Start learning here! On commence, ce tour d'horizon des onze langues officielles en Afrique du Sud par le xhosa. Choose your English to Xhosa translation service. This process can skip rightwards to non-local syllables (i.e. The Khoisan (Khoesan) language family is the smallest of the language families of Africa. In, Sands, Bonny. As with other South African languages, Xhosa is characterized by respectful forms of address for elders and in-laws. In Xhosa, the verb "have" is represented by the word "nga" and its various forms. The click consonant sounds are a typical and unique feature of the San and Khoikhoi languages. See also Khoisan languages, which contains several audio clips. Kikuyu, 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! But this line of thinking has proved fruitless. All click and most non-click consonants appear at the beginning of words and are followed by a vowel. However, some of the letters have a different pronunciation from English. Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. C'est la deuxime langue la plus parle du pays. The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. However, the Dutch used the word stotteraarto more specifically describe the clicking sounds used in the Khoisan languages. 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. 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. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. Eton, Xhosa, along with Zulu and other indigenous languages of South Africa, has been a source of many words that were borrowed by South African English and that do not occur in other varieties of English in other parts of the world. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Some corrections to this page by Michael Peter Fstumum, Information about Xhosa | The 'X' in Xhosa, for example, represents a type of . The normal word order in Xhosa is Verb-Object (the subject is part of the verb compound). Translate files. Xhosa has the following clicks consonants which can be modified in a variety of ways, such as aspirated, breathy-voiced or nasalized. Christian missionaries during the early 19th century. magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, Most of the languages in South Africa that involve tongue-clicking originate from the indigenous Khoisan people, who included plenty of different clicks in their speech and language. Gwere, The first Bible translation was in 1859, produced in part by Henry Hare Dugmore. But, as with any language, Xhosa had a rich history of oral traditions from which the society taught, informed, and entertained one another. 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"). By creating an account, I agree to theTerms of service and Privacy policy. (Click here for an audio sample of the extinct !Ora language.) 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. The word order is subjectverbobject, like in English. (They may also be voiced between vowels in some speaking styles.) Although all the Khoisan languages use click sounds, Sandawe and Hatsa are . In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots . The origin of Khoisan click consonants and their peculiarly African provenance therefore remains a mystery. The X and H languages are even more complex. Ejective consonants MustGo.com. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa 60,000 years ago. https://www.ethnologue.com/language/xho, Online Xhosa lessons Mbunda, Colours | 1998. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Khoisan Last but not least is the Khoisan family with between 40 - 70 members. 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. Mushungulu, They are currently restricted to the Kalahari Desert, primarily in Namibia and Botswana, and to the Rift Valley in central Tanzania.[2]. This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. Grazie! Lingala, Makhuwa, 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. Xhosa is a Bantu language that is closely related to Ndebele and Swazi and is characterized by the unique click sounds for some letters. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Author of, Professor Emeritus, Department of Linguistics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. OshiWambo, Ngqika is considered to be the standard variety. Both Xhosa and Zulu are an official languages in South Africa and Lesotho. Some languages have become extinct and others are endangered. Gldemann, Tom. Others think that Xhosa-speaking children should be taught in their native language in the early grades. In A. Traill (ed. Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. secondary schools. 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).. Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent phonemic tones: low and high. Sena, Kiga, Nguni languages of southern Africa, which include Zulu and Xhosa, are believed to have borrowed their clicks from Khoisan languages. Hadza (Hatsa), one of the East African Khoisan languages, is a remarkable exception to this, having retained its vitality through a pattern of stable bilingualism with Swahili, the dominant Bantu language in the area. Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. Xhosa, Zulu, Ndelebele and Swati share most of their basic vocabulary as well as grammar. Other Southeastern Bantu languages are Zulu, Swati (Swazi), Sotho, Tswana, Venda, and Ndebele. These are the only languages known to have clicks in normal vocabulary. There are books, The next are the alveolar clicks with the tongue tip and palate. Interestingly, the word Xhosa is from the Khoisan language and means The angry men.
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