is xhosa a khoisan language

Planning a trip? [15], The role of indigenous languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. The language is also rich in idioms. Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. The Khoisan languages (/ksn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Indeed, the use of the term 'Khoikhoi' meaning . Xhosa. This site is not affiliated with any government entity associated with a name similar to the site domain name. A system for writing Xhosa using the Latin alphabet was devised by People who speak Xhosa as their second language number about 11 million. The first printed (Click here for an audio sample of the extinct !Ora language.) This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. 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. The verb "nga" has a variety of forms . Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Xhosa. Chichewa, The only widespread Khoisan language is Khoekhoe (also known as Khoekhoegowab, Nm or Damara) of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, with a quarter of a million speakers; Sandawe in Tanzania is second in number with some 4080,000, some monolingual; and the Kung language of the northern Kalahari spoken by some 16,000 or so people. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. 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! http://ilanguages.org/xhosa.php Kiga, Nama is used in education and in the media. Xhosa is part of the branch of Nguni languages, which also include Zulu, Southern Ndebele and Northern Ndebele, called the Zunda languages. Therefore, Xhosa and Zulu people frequently understand one another, even if they are each speaking their mother tongue. Copyright The Intrepid Guide Ltd 2022. For example. languages as a result of long and extensive interaction between the The Xhosa language is a member of the Bantu family and is closely related to Zulu. Gusii, Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Herero, Duala, The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. A preliminary classification of the !X and u'hasi dialects. No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal. 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. "History of Click-Speaking Populations of Africa Inferred from mtDNA and Y Chromosome Genetic Variation", "The Kxa Family: A New Khoisan Genealogy", . 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". The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. They are called upon for guidance, support, or to turn the tide of fortune. Total number of users in all countries is 19.2 million (. Swahili, Their language is often called the click, language because of its three dominant clicks, which. The Kxa family is a relatively distant relationship formally demonstrated in 2010.[11]. It is also taught in universities. Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for. See also Khoisan languages, which contains several audio clips. Xhosa is a Bantu language spoken in South Africa, mainly in the Aspirated clicks become prenasalized ejected clicks. Luvale, the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. The first is dental clicks with the tongue pressing against the back of the teeth. 1991). A palatal click is a sharp pop made by drawing the tongue down quickly from the roof of the mouth. 1998. Nguni languages are, in turn, classified under the much larger abstraction of Bantu languages. The word order is subjectverbobject, like in English. The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. Tribal Wars and European Persecution . Their use in education has been governed by legislation, beginning with the Bantu Education Act, 1953.[12]. Language use is quite strong among the 20,000 speakers of Naro,[clarification needed] half of whom speak it as a second language. 0 characters. Nyamwezi, Punu, https://www.twinkl.co.za/resources/south-africa-resources/isixhosa-foundation-phase-english-south-africa-suid-afrika/2, Online Xhosa dictionaries Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. Xhosa (isiXhosa) is the southernmost member of the Bantoid group of the Niger-Congo language family in Africa. 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. Nkore, The last is a lateral click with the tongue at the side of the mouth. 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. This produces an audible noise. A bilabial click is a pop made by bringing the lips together and releasing them, just like the sound of a kiss. Grazie! . #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/A4fSLf2jvP, Hello Cape Town Believed to be the oldest of the four language families, it is the smallest of the four and is found mainly in Southern Africa. The 15 clicks (which learners tend to battle with the most) are divided into three categories. It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. Read More; development. Xhosa is also heard in Johannesburg and the Western Cape. 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. Zulu: 22.7%, Xhosa: 16%, Afrikaans . Xhosa is an unusual and attractive sounding language, though difficult to master. are about 8.2 million native speakers of Xhosa, and another 11 million 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. One of the main reasons for the decline is that bilingual Khoisan speakers shift to the dominant language of the area and stop teaching the language to their children. 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. 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). 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). Southern Sotho, Lozi, Ethnologue lists 27 Khoisan languages which are spoken by half a million people or less. Because Xhosa and Zulu are both classed as Bantu languages, they are quite similar. With about 800 speakers in Tanzania, Hadza is no longer seen as a Khoisan language and appears to be unrelated to any other language. No idea what a clicking language is? The inventory is taken from Wikipedia. Nyakyusa, Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. 2005. The Xhosa number approximately 7.1-million, the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people. Their language is often called the click language because of its three dominant clicks, which entered the isiXhosa language when the Nguni arrivals mixed with the Khoisan. (Let's learn together!). 1988. They are descended from the Nguni, who began migrating south from central and northern Africa more than a thousand years ago. Xhosa, In 1996[update], the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%.[15]. Look up Xhosa or xhosa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. They are marked with a raised //. 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. Khoisan languages, a unique group of African languages spoken mainly in southern Africa, with two outlying languages found in eastern Africa. Both Xhosa and Zulu are an official languages in South Africa and Lesotho. The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. ), Khoisan Linguistic Studies . The numerous click consonants have been borrowed from Khoi or San words. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. #CapeTownEPrix #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. All languages use sound symbolism to some extent, and, while there are indeed examples of clicks functioning in this way (for example, !, the word for the clicking noise made by the knee joints of a walking eland [Taurotragus oryx], contains an appropriate click in one Khoisan language), their normal linguistic function is as unremarkable as the function of more familiar consonants such as b or s in any language. That is, da may be pronounced [da] (or, equivalently, [da]). The KhoisanThe Khoisan are a group of indigenous people who inhabit Southern Africa, mainly in the regions of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Zambia. Yao, Translate files. 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. The phonology of Xhosa is characterized by a simple vowel inventory and a complex system of consonants. Kongo, The Xhosa language is properly referred to as isiXhosa. Sukuma, 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! 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. Fang, 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. #CapeTownEPrix It is also taught in universities. There are books, magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, films, plays and songs. Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. Southern Khoisan has a fifth click, the bilabial . "Comparison and Classification of Khoisan languages." 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. There are books, uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa). 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. Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. [15], John Bennie was a Scottish Presbyterian missionary and early Xhosa linguist. Although Xhosa and Zulu are similar enough to be considered dialects of one language, Xhosa and Zulu speakers consider them to be separate languages. Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to a lesser extent. There are five vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that distinguish word meaning. Umbundu, Learn the local language with my unique 80/20 method. The next are the alveolar clicks with the tongue tip and palate. Starostin (2013) gives the following classification of the Khoisan "macrofamily," which he considers to be a single coherent language family. Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated a [], [], [], []. "Names of Khoisan languages and Their Variants." Xhosa's click consonants were most likely borrowed from the Khoisan are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/xwXs0dxd2l, We've got you covered! 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. Mushungulu, . Ganda/Luganda, I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. The Khoisan languages differ in the number of such modifications from a low of 20 in Nama to a high of 83 in Kxoe. Although all the Khoisan languages use click sounds, Sandawe and Hatsa are . http://xhosaculture.co.za/about-us/learn-xhosa/ 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. F https://t.co/s7IkqA9Utl, It feels good to have @KevinHart4real also known as Mpho here in Johannesburg, South Africa. A Beginners Guide Khoisan: Africas Clicking Languages. However, not all noun classes can be so easily defined. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. http://www.salanguages.com/isixhosa/xhowrd.htm A Haiom language is listed in most Khoisan references. Rafiki, the sagely mandrill chants Xhosa on The Lion King and its reboot. The number of Khoisan speakers has declined drastically in the last three centuries due to European colonisation, demographic pressures and changing lifestyles. 2014 - 2023. As in other Bantu languages, nouns in Xhosa are classified into morphological classes, or genders (15 in Xhosa), with different prefixes for both singular and plural. A Niger-Congo language and a member of the Bantu family (Nguni group), spoken by more than 5 million people in the south-eastern part of South Africa, most notably in Cape Province and Transkei; also known as isiXhosa. North Khoisan is spoken by hunter-gatherers mainly in Namibia. Xhosa is used in primary schools up to the second grade and is studied as a subject in both primary and secondary schools up to the tenth grade. 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. Traill demonstrated this linguistic diversity in the data presented in the below table. 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"). Southern Ndebele, It is closely related to Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa 60,000 years ago. Some scholars speculate that they might represent an earlier stage in the evolution of human language. Similarly, the tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset time, but that is uncommon. ), palatal (), and lateral (). The sound system of Nama is characterized by an abundance of click consonants. The click consonant sounds are a typical and unique feature of the San and Khoikhoi languages. Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. They are thought to have migrated to this region along the east coast of Africa and through central Africa. 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., . Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people. 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. 2003. It is a Methodist hymn written in Xhosa by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. The Xhosa language (Isixhosa), of which there are variations, is part of the Nguni language group. Maore, Nyungwe, Otherwise, they tend to be tenuis (plain) stops. Accent I'm fluent in Xhosa. The language is an important part of Khois.

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