Xhosa

Xhosa isiXhosa
Spoken in	South Africa
Region	Eastern Cape
Number of speakers	8000000
Classification by family
- Niger-Congo languages - Atlantic-Congo languages - voltaco-Congo languages (hypothetical) - Benue-Congo languages - Languages Bantoid - Bantoid southern languages (en) - Bantu languages - Nguni - Xhosa
Official status
Official language of	South Africa
Language codes
ISO 639-1	xh
ISO 639-2	Xho
ISO 639-3	Xho
IETF	xh
Sample
Article I of the Declaration of Human Rights ( see text in French ) Inqaku Loku-1 Bonke abantu bazalwa bekhululekile belingana ngesidima nangokweemfanelo. Bonke abantu banesiphiwo sesazela nesizathu sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho.
change

The Xhosa language is one of Africa Southern Africa. This language alone account for South Africa a little more than eight million speakers, about 18% of the population, making it the second country after the Zulu. It is the language of the people Xhosa.

The XH Xhosa is a consonant of this original language to pronounce a loud click of the tongue called click. The International Phonetic Alphabet notes that sound like this: History

The name of this people would have originally that of a legendary leader, uXhosa, there are about 1500 years . Moreover, the ethnic group that practices the language itself is called and calls its AmaXhosa isiXhosa idiom. The click feature of the ethno-linguistic Khoisan in the Xhosa betrays its strong influence on the Bantu language.

Geographic distribution

The Xhosa represents the south-eastern branch of the subfamily Nguni of Bantu languages. It is practiced primarily in the Eastern Cape Province , but also, increasingly, in the Western Cape province , including the city of Cape Town.

Dialects

The Zulu and Bantu neighbors are understandable in Xhosa and vice versa. In addition, there are a number of dialects on identifying which opinions diverge: Xhosa, ngqika, gcaleka, mfengu, Thembu, and bomvana mpondomise.

Sounds

If the Xhosa vowels are relatively simple, its consonants are more unusual. Besides pulmonary extrusions consonants common, there are consonants ejective and implosive and three clicks base.

• The dental click is that the language on the back teeth in the manner of tsk-tsk of reprimand.
• Click lateral tongue creating a vacuum in the lower part of the mouth suddenly releases the cavity of each side and produces a sound similar which is called by an animal.
• The third, very close, is done similarly, but the cavity is formed at the top of the mouth with the tongue against the palate.

Each of these clicks are six varieties, each in two tones.

These sounds were made famous by the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy , although the language spoken by the hero or the Xhixho ungwatsi , language Bushman ( San ).

Grammar

The Xhosa proceeds by agglutination. Prefixes and suffixes are attached to radicals to affect the meaning and role in the sentence. A bit like the masculine, feminine and neutral Indo-European languages, there are 8 classes in the singular that marked kinship, animals, objects, abstraction, etc.. In the plural there are 5 classes, which often indicates a quantity of words. Verbs, pronouns, adjectives agree with the class name.

Examples

• uku Dlala (verb / Name Class 15) - play
• uku bona (verb / Name Class 15) - see
• um Ntwana (Class 1) (Child) - aba Ntwana (class 2) (children)
• um u Ntwana yadlala - the child plays
• aba ba Ntwana yadlala - children play
• in doda (class 9) (man) - ama doda (Class 6) (men)
• doda i is in bona Ntwana (man sees the child)
• doda ama a ya bona Ntwana (men are children).

Writing

The Xhosa use the Latin alphabet. The three clicks are denoted respectively c, x and q. Here's an example from the South African national anthem.

• Nkosi Sikelel 'iAfrika;
• Malupakam'upondo lwayo;
• Yiva imithandazo Yethu
• Usisikelele.

Another example is this excerpt from Qongqothwane of Miriam Makeba , whose English name is The Click Song. It reads:

• Igqira lendlela nguqongqothwane
• Igqira lendlela kuthwa nguqongqothwane
• Sebeqabele gqithapha bath nguqongqothwane
• Sebeqabele gqithapha nguqongqothwane bath.

Major characters

The struggle against apartheid was conducted mainly by Xhosa among whom we count all the big names of that era: Nelson Mandela , Chris Hani , Oliver Tambo , Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki . As Brenda Fassie.

The former president of RSA , Thabo Mbeki , is also the son of one of these great names that have shaped the new South Africa .

References

Bibliography

• William Chassang, South Africa, in Xhosa territory, Paris, The Society of Writers, 2007, ( ISBN 978-2-7480-3642-8 )

See also

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