Zulu language

**Zulu** or **isiZulu** ( _isiZulu_) is the language of the Zulu people. 10 million people speak Zulu, and most of them (95%) live in South Africa. It is the most common home language in South Africa, where 24% of people speak it at home. Over 50% of the population also speak and understand the language.

In 1994, it became one of South Africa's 11 official languages. Like other Bantu languages, Zulu is written using the Latin alphabet.

## Where it is spoken

Zulu belongs to the Nguni group of Bantu languages. Zulu migrants (people who move from place to place) have taken the language to other regions. There are now Zulu speakers in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, and Swaziland.

Zulu speakers in Zimbabwe speak a dialect called "Northern Ndebele language."

People who speak Xhosa can understand most Zulu. The opposite is also true: Zulu speakers can understand Xhosa. Xhosa language is the most common language spoken in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

## History

The Zulu, Xhosa, and other Nguni people have lived in South Africa for a long time. The Zulu language has a lot of click sounds common in Southern African languages. These click sounds are not found in the rest of Africa. The Nguni people have lived together with other Southern tribes like the San and Khoi.

Zulu and all other native Southern African languages was at first an oral language. It was not written down until missionaries came from Europe. These missionaries used the Latin alphabet to write the Zulu language. The first Zulu grammar book was published in Norway in 1850 by Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder.

The oldest document written in Zulu is a Bible from 1883. John Dube, a Zulu from Natal, wrote the first Zulu novel, _Insila kaShaka_, in 1933. Another important Zulu author was Reginald Dhlomo. Dhlomo wrote _U-Dingane_ (1936), _U-Shaka_ (1937), _U-Mpande_ (1938), _U-Cetshwayo_ (1952) and _U-Dinizulu_ (1968). Other important Zulu writers are Benedict Wallet Vilakazi and Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali.

Before 1994, the Zulu language was controlled by the Zulu Language Board in KwaZulu-Natal. Today, the Pan South African Language Board supports the use of all 11 official languages of South Africa.

## Use today

Before 1994, the official languages of South Africa were English, Dutch, and Afrikaans. During Apartheid, Zulu was spoken commonly in the Kwazulu bantustan. All education, however, at the high school level was in English or Afrikaans.

After Apartheid ended in 1994, Zulu became one of the official languages in South Africa. The SABC first started showing Zulu-language television and news programs in the 1980s. There are many Zulu radio stations and newspapers available, mostly in the Kwazulu-Natal province and Johannesburg. The first full-length feature film in Zulu was _Yesterday_. It was made in 2004 and nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar).

In _The Lion King_ movie, the "Circle of Life" song has many Zulu phrases in it. Some of these phrases are:
- _Ingonyama nengw' enamabala_ ()
- _Nants ingonyama bakithi Baba** ()
- _Siyo nqoba_ ()
Other _Lion King_ songs also had Zulu phrases in them.

### Standard and urban Zulu

There are two main types of Zulu. One type is called standard Zulu, and it is taught in schools. Standard Zulu is also called "deep Zulu" (). Standard Zulu is a purist language. This means that new ideas are described using words that are derived from other Zulu words.

The other type of Zulu is called urban Zulu (). Urban Zulu is the kind of Zulu spoken by people who live in cities. Urban Zulu uses loan words borrowed from other languages to describe new ideas. Most of these loan words come from English.

Some of these different words for new ideas in Standard and Urban Zulu are listed here:
|Standard Zulu|urban Zulu|English|
| --- | --- | --- |
|_umakhalekhukhwini_|_icell_|cell/mobile phone|
|_Ngiyaqonda_|_Ngiya-understanda_|I understand|
These two different types of Zulu language make problems in learning and education. Young people speak urban Zulu and do not often understand standard Zulu.

## Phrases

This is a list of phrases in Zulu.

|Sawubona|_Hello,_ to one person|
| --- | --- |
|Sanibonani|_Hello,_ to a group of people|
|Unjani? / Ninjani?|_How are you (one person)? / How are you (many people)?_|
|Ngisaphila / Sisaphila|_I'm okay / We're okay_|
|Ngiyabonga (kakhulu)|_Thank you (very much)_|
|Ngubani igama lakho?|_What is your name?_|
|Igama lami ngu...|_My name is..._|
|Isikhathi sithini?|_What's the time?_|
|Ngingakusiza?|_Can I help you?_|
|Uhlala kuphi?|_Where do you stay?_|
|Uphumaphi?|_Where are you from?_|
|Hamba kahle / Sala kahle|_Go well / Stay well_ (used as goodbye)|
|Hambani kahle / Salani kahle|_Go well / Stay well_, to a group of people|
|Eish!|_Wow!_|
|Hhayibo|_No! / Stop! / No way!_|
|Yebo|_Yes_|
|Cha|_No_|
|Angazi|_I don't know_|
|Ukhuluma isiNgisi na?|_Do you speak English?_|
|Ngisaqala ukufunda isiZulu|_I've just started learning Zulu_|

## Common place names in Zulu

Zulu place names occur in the _locative_ form most of the time. A place name is both a preposition and a name. Changing the prefix of the place name changes the preposition.

For example, the Zulu name for Johannesburg is _iGoli._ The word _eGoli_ means to/at/in/from Johannesburg. The root word _Goli_ means "Johannesburg," but doesn't mean anything by itself in Zulu.

Most of the time, changing the _i-_ or _u-_ prefix to the _e-_ prefix changes the meaning like this. In some cases, like with Durban, the name changes too.

|English place|Zulu place name (Locative)|to/at/in/from Zulu place name|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Durban|iTheku|eThekwini|
|Johannesburg|iGoli|eGoli|
|Cape Town|iKapa|eKapa|
|Pretoria|iPitoli|ePitoli|
|Pietermaritzburg|uMgungundlovu|eMgungundlovu|
|Ladysmith|uMnambithi|eMnambithi|

## 'Zulu' or 'isiZulu'?

The Zulu name for the language is _isiZulu_. The _isi-_ prefix means "language." (It also means other things, but here it means language.) For example, _isiNgisi_ means English, _isiXhosa_ means Xhosa, _isiBhunu_ means Afrikaans, and _isiJalimane_ means German.

When the word Zulu has a prefix that is _not_ "isi-", it means a lot of different things. This is a table that shows how the meanings of the word changes:

|Prefix|Word|Meaning|
| --- | --- | --- |
|**um(u)**|_umZulu_|a Zulu person|
|**ama, aba**|_amaZulu_|Zulu people|
|**isi**|_isiZulu_|the Zulu language|
|**kwa**|_kwaZulu_|place of the Zulu people|
|**i(li)**|_izulu_|the weather/sky/heaven|
|**pha**|_phezulu_|on top|
|**e**|_ezulwini_|in/at/to/from heaven|

## Zulu words in South African English

Many Zulu words are used in South African English. Some words, like the names of local animals, are used in standard English. _Impala_ and _mamba_, for example, are zulu words. Some Zulu words used in South African English are:

- **Muti** (from _umuthi_) - medicine
- **Donga** (from _udonga_) - ditch (udonga actually means 'wall' in Zulu)
- **Indaba** - conference (it means 'an item of news' in Zulu)
- **inDuna** - chief or leader
- **Shongololo** (from _ishongololo_) - millipede
- **Ubuntu_' - compassion/humanity.

## Sources

- UCLA Language Materials Project  - Zulu

## Other websites

- Ethnologue report on Zulu
- Zulu phrasebook on Wikivoyage
- Zulu Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Zulu
- **nativename**: isiZulu
- **states**: South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland
- **region**: KwaZulu-Natal, eastern Gauteng, eastern Free State (South African province), Free State, southern Mpumalanga
- **speakers**: million
- **date**: 2011 census
- **ref**: e18
- **speakers2**: L2 speakers:  million (2002)
- **familycolor**: Niger-Congo
- **fam2**: Atlantic–Congo languages, Atlantic–Congo
- **fam3**: Benue–Congo languages, Benue–Congo
- **fam4**: Southern Bantoid languages, Southern Bantoid
- **fam5**: Bantu languages, Bantu
- **fam6**: Southern Bantu
- **fam7**: Nguni languages, Nguni
- **fam8**: Zunda languages, Zunda
- **agency**: Pan South African Language Board
- **script**: Latin script, Latin (Zulu alphabet)
Zulu Braille
- **sign**: Signed Zulu
- **iso1**: zu
- **iso2**: zul
- **iso3**: zul
- **glotto**: zulu1248
- **glottorefname**: Zulu
- **guthrie**: S.42
- **lingua**: [http://linguasphere.info/?page=linguascale&linguacode=99-AUT-fg 99-AUT-fg] incl.
varieties 99-AUT-fga to 99-AUT-fge
- **map**: South Africa Zulu speakers proportion map.svg
- **mapcaption**: Proportion of the South African population that speaks Zulu at home
- **notice**: IPA