Xhosa language

Xhosa(/ˈkɔːsə/KAW-səor/ˈkoʊsə/KOH-sə,Xhosa:[ᵏǁʰôːsa]), formerly spelledXosaand also known by itslocal nameisiXhosa, is aBantulanguage, indigenous to Southern Africa and one of the officiallanguages of South AfricaandZimbabwe.Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8 million people and as a second language in South Africa, particularly inEastern Cape,Western Cape,Northern CapeandGauteng, and also in parts of Zimbabwe andLesotho.It has perhaps the heaviestfunctional loadofclick consonantsin a Bantu language (approximately tied withYeyi), with one count finding that 10% of basic vocabulary items contained a click.
Xhosa is part of the branch ofNguni languages, which also includeZulu,Southern NdebeleandNorthern Ndebele, called the Zunda languages.Zunda languages effectively form a dialect continuum of variously mutually intelligible varieties.
Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible withZuluand with other Nguni languages to a lesser extent. Nguni languages are, in turn, classified under the much larger abstraction ofBantu languages.
Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most commonly spoken South African language is Zulu.Xhosa is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa. As of 2003approximately 5.3 million Xhosa-speakers, the majority, live in theEastern Cape, followed by theWestern Cape(approximately 1 million),Gauteng(671,045), theFree State(246,192),KwaZulu-Natal(219,826), North West (214,461),Mpumalanga(46,553), theNorthern Cape(51,228), andLimpopo(14,225).There is a small but significantXhosa communityof about 200,000 inZimbabwe.Also, a small community of Xhosa speakers (18,000) live inQuthing District,Lesotho.
The Xhosa language employs 26 letters from theLatin alphabet; some of the letters have different pronunciations from English. Phonemes not represented by one of the 26 letters are written as multiple letters. Tone, stress, and vowel length are parts of the language but are generally not indicated in writing.
Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels:[a],[ɛ~e],[i],[ɔ~o]and[u]writtena,e,i,oanduin order, all occurring in bothlongandshort. The/i/vowel is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable.
Xhosa is atonal languagewith two inherentphonemictones: low and high. Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated⟨a⟩[à],⟨á⟩[á],⟨â⟩[áà],⟨ä⟩[àá]. Long vowels arephonemicbut are usually not written except for⟨â⟩and⟨ä⟩, which are each sequence of two vowels with different tones that are realized as long vowels with contour tones (⟨â⟩high–low = falling,⟨ä⟩low–high = rising).
Xhosa is rich in uncommonconsonants. Besidespulmonic egressivesounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series ofejectivestops and oneimplosivestop.
It has 18click consonants(in comparison,Juǀʼhoan, spoken inBotswanaandNamibia, has 48, andTaa, with roughly 4,000 speakers inBotswana, has 83). There is a series of sixdental clicks, represented by the letter⟨c⟩, similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk"; a series of sixalveolar lateral clicks, represented by the letter⟨x⟩, similar to the sound used to call horses; and a series ofalveolar clicks, represented by the letter⟨q⟩, that sounds somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle.
The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with the pronunciation inIPAon the left and the orthography on the right:
In addition to the ejective affricate[tʃʼ], the spelling⟨tsh⟩may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates[tsʰ]and[tʃʰ].
The breathy voiced glottal fricative[ɦ]is sometimes spelled⟨h⟩.
The ejectives tend to be ejective only in careful pronunciation or in salient positions and, even then, only for some speakers. Otherwise, they tend to betenuis(plain) stops. Similarly, the tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a longvoice onset time, but that is uncommon.
The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. That is,damay be pronounced[dʱa̤](or, equivalently,[d̥a̤]). They are better described asslack voicedthan as breathy voiced. 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. Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. (They may also be voiced between vowels in some speaking styles.) The more notable characteristic is theirdepressoreffect on the tone of the syllable.
When consonants areprenasalised, their pronunciation and spelling may change. The murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. Fricatives become affricated and, if voiceless, they become ejectives as well:mfis pronounced[ɱp̪fʼ],ndlis pronounced[ndɮ],n+hlbecomesntl[ntɬʼ],n+zbecomesndz[ndz],n+qbecomes [n͡ŋǃʼ]etc.The orthographicbinmbis the voiced plosive[mb]. 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- + ɬɛ/→intle"beautiful" (of a class 9 word likeinja"dog")
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. 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. When plain voiceless clicks (⟨c, x, q⟩) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal (⟨ngc, ngx, ngq⟩).
Palatalisationis a change that affects labial consonants whenever they are immediately followed by/j/. While palatalisation occurred historically, it is still productive, as is shown by palatalization before the passive suffix /-w/ and before diminutive suffix /-ana/. This process can skip rightwards to non-local syllables (i.e. uku-sebenz-is-el + wa -> ukusetyenziselwa "be used for"), but does not affect morpheme-initial consonants (i.e. uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa). The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa.
In keeping with many otherBantu languages, Xhosa is anagglutinativelanguage, with an array ofprefixesandsuffixesthat are attached toroot words. As in other Bantu languages, nouns in Xhosa are classified intomorphological classes, orgenders(15 in Xhosa), with different prefixes for both singular and plural. Various parts of speech that qualify anounmust agree with the noun according to its gender. Agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which the word agrees. Theword orderissubject–verb–object, like in English.
Theverbis modified by affixes to mark subject, object, tense, aspect and mood. The various parts of the sentence must agree in both class and number.
The Xhosa noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. Which they call 'amahlelo'
The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.
Before monosyllabic stems, e.g.iliso(eye),uluhlu(list).
is- andiz- replaceisi- andizi- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g.isandla/izandla(hand/hands).
The placeholderNin the prefixesiN- andiiN- is a nasal consonant which assimilates in place to the following consonant (producing anim-before vowels), but is typically absent in loanwords.
Before monosyllabic stems in some words.
Verbs use the following prefixes for the subject and object:
The following is a list of phrases that can be used when one visits a region whose primary language is Xhosa:
Xhosa-speaking people have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern Africa since before the 16th century. They refer to themselves as theamaXhosaand their language asisiXhosa. Ancestors of the Xhosa migrated to the east coast of Africa and came acrossKhoisan-speaking people; "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".The Bantu ancestor of Xhosa did not have clicks, which attests to a strong historical contact with aKhoisan languagethat did. An estimated 15% of Xhosa vocabulary is of Khoisan origin.
John Benniewas a Scottish Presbyterian missionary and early Xhosa linguist. Bennie, along with John Ross (another missionary), set up a printing press in theTyhumeValley and the first printed works in Xhosa came out in 1823 from theLovedalePress in the Alice region of the Eastern Cape. But, as with any language, Xhosa had a rich history of oral traditions from which the society taught, informed, and entertained one another. The first Bible translation was in 1859, produced in part byHenry Hare Dugmore.
The role ofindigenous languagesin South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Their use in education has been governed by legislation, beginning with theBantu Education Act, 1953.
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. The language is also studied as a subject in such schools.
The language of instruction atuniversities in South Africais English (or Afrikaans, to a diminishing extent), and Xhosa is taught as a subject, both for native and for non-native speakers.
Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. TheSouth African Broadcasting Corporationbroadcasts in Xhosa on both radio (on Umhlobo Wenene FM) and television, and films, plays and music are also produced in the language. The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa wasMiriam Makeba, whoseClick Song #1(XhosaQongqothwane) and "Click Song #2" (Baxabene Ooxam) are known for their large number of click sounds.
In 1996, the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%.
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrikais part of thenational anthem of South Africa, national anthem ofTanzaniaandZambia, and the former anthem ofZimbabweandNamibia. It is a hymn written in Xhosa byEnoch Sontongain 1897. The single original stanza was:
Additional stanzas were written later by Sontonga and other writers, and the original verse was translated into Sotho and Afrikaans, as well as English.
InThe Lion Kingandits reboot, Rafiki the sagelymandrillchants in Xhosa.
In theMarvel Cinematic UniversefilmsCaptain America: Civil War,Black Panther,Avengers: Infinity War,Avengers: Endgame, andBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever, the language spoken in the fictional African nation ofWakandais Xhosa. This came about because South African actorJohn Kani, a native of the Eastern Cape province who plays Wakandan King T'Chaka, speaks Xhosa and suggested that the directors of the fictionalCivil Warincorporate a dialogue in the language. ForBlack Panther, directorRyan 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.