Xhosa language
Encyclopedia
Xhosa (ˈkoʊsə, Xhosa: isikǁʰóːsa) is one of the official language
s of South Africa
. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages
, Xhosa is a tonal language
, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonant
s; the word "Xhosa" begins with a click.
Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet
-based system. Three letters are used to indicate the basic clicks: c for dental clicks, x for lateral clicks, and q for palatal clicks (for a more detailed explanation, see the table of consonant phonemes, below). Tones are not indicated in the written form.
. There is some mutual intelligibility with the other Nguni languages, all of which share many linguistic features. Nguni languages are in turn part of the much larger group of Bantu languages
, and as such Xhosa is related to languages spoken across much of Africa.
Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, while the most widely spoken is Zulu
. Xhosa is the second most common home language in South Africa as a whole. the majority of Xhosa speakers, approximately 5.3 million, live in the Eastern Cape
, followed by the Western Cape
(approximately 2 million), 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 minority of Xhosa speakers (18,000) exists in Quthing District
, Lesotho
.
s, including
Almost all languages with clicks are Khoisan languages
and the presence of clicks in Xhosa demonstrates the strong historical interaction with its Khoisan neighbours. An estimated 15% of the vocabulary is of Khoekhoe (Khoisan) origin. In the modern period, Xhosa has also borrowed from both Afrikaans
and English.
The role of African languages
in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Their use in education has been governed by legislation, beginning with the Bantu Education Act of 1953.
At present, Xhosa is used as the main language of instruction in many primary schools and some secondary school
s, 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.
The language of instruction at universities in South Africa is English or Afrikaans, and Xhosa is taught as a subject, both for native and non-native speakers.
Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. The first Bible
translation was in 1859, produced in part by Henry Hare Dugmore
. 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. The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa is Miriam Makeba
, whose Click Song #1
(Qongqothwane in Xhosa) and Click Song #2 (Baxabene Ooxam) are known for their large number of click sounds.
, the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%, though this may have changed dramatically in the years since the abolition of apartheid.
(or genders), with different prefixes for singular and plural. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun
must agree with the noun according to its gender. These agreements usually reflect part of the original class that it is agreeing with. Constituent word order is subject–verb–object.
Verbs are modified by affixes that mark subject, object, tense, aspect, and mood. The various parts of the sentence must agree in class and number.
tones: low and high. Tones are frequently not marked in the written language, but when they are, they are a [à], á [á], â [áà], ä [àá]. Long vowels are phonemic
but are usually not written, except for â and ä which are the results of gemination
of two vowels with different tones each and have thereby become long vowels with contour tones (â high-low = falling, ä low-high = rising).
s. Besides pulmonic egressive
sounds, as in English
, it has 18 clicks
(by way of comparison, the Juǀʼhoan language, spoken by roughly 10,000 people in Botswana
and Namibia
has 48 clicks, while the ǃXóõ language, with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana
, has 83 click sounds, the largest consonant inventory of any known language), plus ejectives and an implosive. 15 of the clicks also occur in Zulu, but are used less frequently than in Xhosa.
The six dental click
s (represented by the letter "c") are made with the tongue on the back of the teeth, and are similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk" to reprimand someone. The second six are lateral (represented by the letter "x"), made by the tongue at the sides of the mouth, and are similar to the sound used to call horses. The remaining six are alveolar
(represented by the letter "q"), made with the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth, and sound somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle.
The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, giving the pronunciation in IPA
on 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 "breathy voiced" clicks, plosives, and affricates are actually plain voiced, but the following vowel is murmured. That is, da is pronounced [da̤].
When voiceless clicks c, x, q are prenasalized, a silent letter k is added – nkc, nkx, nkq – so as to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq.
is part of the national anthem of South Africa
, national anthem of Tanzania
and Zambia
, and the former anthem of Zimbabwe
and Namibia
. It is a Xhosa hymn written by Enoch Sontonga
in 1897. The first chorus is:
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
s of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
, Xhosa is a tonal language
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonant
Click consonant
Clicks are speech sounds found as consonants in many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa. Examples of these sounds familiar to English speakers are the tsk! tsk! or tut-tut used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the...
s; the word "Xhosa" begins with a click.
Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
-based system. Three letters are used to indicate the basic clicks: c for dental clicks, x for lateral clicks, and q for palatal clicks (for a more detailed explanation, see the table of consonant phonemes, below). Tones are not indicated in the written form.
Affiliation and distribution
Xhosa is the southernmost branch of the Nguni languages, which includes Swati, Northern Ndebele and ZuluZulu language
Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...
. There is some mutual intelligibility with the other Nguni languages, all of which share many linguistic features. Nguni languages are in turn part of the much larger group of Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
, and as such Xhosa is related to languages spoken across much of Africa.
Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, while the most widely spoken is Zulu
Zulu language
Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...
. Xhosa is the second most common home language in South Africa as a whole. the majority of Xhosa speakers, approximately 5.3 million, live in the Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London. It was formed in 1994 out of the "independent" Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province...
, followed by the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
(approximately 2 million), Gauteng
Gauteng
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...
(671,045), the Free State
Free State
The Free State is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Orange Free State Boer republic and later Orange Free State Province. The current borders of the province date from 1994 when the Bantustans...
(246,192), KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....
(219,826), North West (214,461), Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga , is a province of South Africa. The name means east or literally "the place where the sun rises" in Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. It constitutes 6.5% of South Africa's land area...
(46,553), the Northern Cape
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...
(51,228), and Limpopo
Limpopo
Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. The capital is Polokwane, formerly named Pietersburg. The province was formed from the northern region of Transvaal Province in 1994, and initially named Northern Transvaal...
(14,225). A minority of Xhosa speakers (18,000) exists in Quthing District
Quthing District
Quthing is a district of Lesotho. It has an area of 2,916 km² and a population in 2006 of approximately 120,502. Quthing, also known as Moyeni, is the capital of the district or camptown, and the only town in the district...
, Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
.
Dialects
Xhosa has several dialectDialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s, including
- GcalekaGcalekaThe Gcaleka are a major sub-group of the Xhosa found in the Transkei area of the Eastern Cape. Their counterparts in Ciskei are the Rharhabe.The Gcaleka kingdom was founded by Gcaleka kaPhalo, who became chief in 1775....
- Ndlambe
- Ngqika /Rharhabe
- ThembuThembuThe Thimbu are one of the handful of nations and population groups which speak Xhosa in South Africa. In Xhosa the name is abaThembu, aba- being a common prefix for peoples....
- Bomvana
- Mpondomse (Mpondomise)
- Mpondo
- Xesibe
- BhacaBhacaThe Bhaca people or amaBhaca are an ethnic group in South Africa, mainly found in the small towns of the former Transkei homeland, Mount Frere and Umzimkhulu, and surrounding areas .Their dialect, isiBhaca, is Xhosa with strong Zulu and some Swati influences. The origin of their name is unclear...
- Cele people
- Hlubi
- MfenguMfenguThe Fengu are a Bantu people; originally closely related to the Zulu people. They were previously known in English as the "Fingo" people, and they gave their name to the district of Fingoland , the South West portion of the Transkei division, in the Cape Province...
History
Xhosa-speaking peoples have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern Africa since before the sixteenth century. The members of the ethnic group that speaks Xhosa refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and call their language isiXhosa, while the language is most commonly known as "Xhosa" in English.Almost all languages with clicks are Khoisan languages
Khoisan languages
The Khoisan languages are the click languages of Africa which do not belong to other language families. They include languages indigenous to southern and eastern Africa, though some, such as the Khoi languages, appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion...
and the presence of clicks in Xhosa demonstrates the strong historical interaction with its Khoisan neighbours. An estimated 15% of the vocabulary is of Khoekhoe (Khoisan) origin. In the modern period, Xhosa has also borrowed from both Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
and English.
Role in modern society
Languages of Africa
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Their use in education has been governed by legislation, beginning with the Bantu Education Act of 1953.
At present, Xhosa is used as the main language of instruction in many primary schools and some secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s, 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.
The language of instruction at universities in South Africa is English or Afrikaans, and Xhosa is taught as a subject, both for native and non-native speakers.
Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. The first Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
translation was in 1859, produced in part by Henry Hare Dugmore
Henry Hare Dugmore
The Reverend Henry Hare Dugmore , a South African missionary, writer and translator, was born in England, son of Isaac and Maria Dugmore. The family emigrated when his father was financially ruined after being forced to pay the debts of a relative for whom he had stood surety...
. The South African Broadcasting Corporation
South African Broadcasting Corporation
The South African Broadcasting Corporation is the state-owned broadcaster in South Africa and provides 18 radio stations as well as 3 television broadcasts to the general public.-Early years:Radio broadcasting began in South Africa in 1923...
broadcasts 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 is Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....
, whose Click Song #1
The Click Song
Qongqothwane is a traditional song of the Xhosa people of South Africa. It is sung at weddings to bring good fortune. In the Western World it is mainly known as The Click Song, a nickname given to the song by European colonials who could not pronounce its xhosa title, which has many click...
(Qongqothwane in Xhosa) and Click Song #2 (Baxabene Ooxam) are known for their large number of click sounds.
, the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%, though this may have changed dramatically in the years since the abolition of apartheid.
Linguistic features
Xhosa is an agglutinative language featuring an array of prefixes and suffixes that are attached to root words. As in other Bantu languages, Xhosa nouns are classified into fifteen morphological classesNoun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
(or genders), with different prefixes for singular and plural. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
must agree with the noun according to its gender. These agreements usually reflect part of the original class that it is agreeing with. Constituent word order is subject–verb–object.
Verbs are modified by affixes that mark subject, object, tense, aspect, and mood. The various parts of the sentence must agree in class and number.
- Examples
- ukudlala - to play
- ukubona - to see
- umntwana - a child
- abantwana - children
- umntwana uyadlala - the child plays
- abantwana bayadlala - the children play
- indoda - a man
- amadoda - men
- indoda iyambona umntwana - the man sees the child
- amadoda ayababona abantwana - the men see the children
- Zonke zinto ezilungile zivela kuThixo - all things that are good proceed from God.
Vowels
Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels: [a], [ɛ], [i], [ɔ] and [u], both long and short, written a, e, i, o and u.Tones
Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent, phonemicPhoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
tones: low and high. Tones are frequently not marked in the written language, but when they are, they are a [à], á [á], â [áà], ä [àá]. Long vowels are phonemic
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
but are usually not written, except for â and ä which are the results of gemination
Gemination
In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
of two vowels with different tones each and have thereby become long vowels with contour tones (â high-low = falling, ä low-high = rising).
Consonants
Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonantConsonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s. Besides pulmonic egressive
Airstream mechanism
In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation, it is one of two mandatory aspects of sound production; without these, there can be no speech sound....
sounds, as in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, it has 18 clicks
Click consonant
Clicks are speech sounds found as consonants in many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa. Examples of these sounds familiar to English speakers are the tsk! tsk! or tut-tut used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the...
(by way of comparison, the Juǀʼhoan language, spoken by roughly 10,000 people in Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
and Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
has 48 clicks, while the ǃXóõ language, with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
, has 83 click sounds, the largest consonant inventory of any known language), plus ejectives and an implosive. 15 of the clicks also occur in Zulu, but are used less frequently than in Xhosa.
The six dental click
Dental click
Dental clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia. The tut-tut! or tsk! tsk! sound used to express disapproval or pity is a dental click, although it isn't a speech sound in that context.The symbol in the...
s (represented by the letter "c") are made with the tongue on the back of the teeth, and are similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk" to reprimand someone. The second six are lateral (represented by the letter "x"), made by the tongue at the sides of the mouth, and are similar to the sound used to call horses. The remaining six are alveolar
Postalveolar click
The alveolar or postalveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia.The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is...
(represented by the letter "q"), made with the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth, and sound somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle.
The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, giving the pronunciation in IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
on the left, and the orthography on the right:
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Dental/ Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... /Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central Central consonant A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. The class contrasts with lateral consonants, in which air flows over the sides of the tongue rather than down its center.... |
lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
||||||
| Click Click consonant Clicks are speech sounds found as consonants in many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa. Examples of these sounds familiar to English speakers are the tsk! tsk! or tut-tut used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the... |
plain | [kǀ] c | [kǁ] x | [kǃ] q | |||
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
[kǀʰ] ch | [kǁʰ] xh | [kǃʰ] qh | ||||
| breathy voice Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... d |
[ɡǀʱ] gc | [ɡǁʱ] gx | [ɡǃʱ] gq | ||||
| nasal | [ŋǀ] nc | [ŋǁ] nx | [ŋǃ] nq | ||||
| breathy voiced nasal | [ŋǀʱ] ngc | [ŋǁʱ] ngx | [ŋǃʱ] ngq | ||||
| glottalized nasal | [ŋ̊ǀˀ] nkc | [ŋ̊ǁˀ] nkx | [ŋ̊ǃˀ] nkq | ||||
| Plosive | ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
[pʼ] p | [tʼ] t | [tʲʼ] ty | [kʼ] k | ||
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
[pʰ] ph | [tʰ] th | [tʲʰ] tyh | [kʰ] kh | |||
| breathy voice Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... d |
[bʱ] bh | [dʱ] d | [dʲʱ] dy | [ɡʱ] g | |||
| implosive Implosive consonant Implosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can... |
[ɓ] b | ||||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
[tsʼ] ts | [tʃʼ] tsh | [kxʼ] kr | |||
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
[tsʰ] ths | [tʃʰ] thsh | |||||
| breathy voice Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... d |
[dzʱ] dz3 | [dʒʱ] j | |||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
voiceless Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of... |
[f] f | [s] s | [ɬ] hl | [ʃ] sh | [x] rh | [h] h |
| breathy voice Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... d |
[v̤] v | [z̤] z | [ɮ̈] dl | [ʒ̈] zh2 | [ɣ̈] gr | [ɦ] hh | |
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
fully voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
[m] m | [n] n | [nʲ] ny | [ŋ] ng’ | ||
| breathy voice Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... d |
[m̤] mh | [n̤] nh | [n̤ʲ] nyh | [ŋ̈] ngh4 | |||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
fully voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
[l] l | [j] y | [w] w | |||
| breathy voice Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... d |
[l̤] lh | [j̈] yh | [w̤] wh | ||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
fully voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
[r] r1 | |||||
| breathy voice Breathy voice Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise... d |
[r̤] r1 | ||||||
- Two additional consonants, [r] and [r̤], are found in borrowings. Both are spelled r.
- Two additional consonants, [ʒ] and [ʒ̈], are found in borrowings. Both are spelled zh.
- Two additional consonants, [dz] and [dz̤], are found in loans. Both are spelled dz.
- An additional consonant, [ŋ̈] is found in loans. It is spelled ngh.
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 "breathy voiced" clicks, plosives, and affricates are actually plain voiced, but the following vowel is murmured. That is, da is pronounced [da̤].
Consonant changes with prenasalization
When consonants are prenasalized, their pronunciation and spelling may change. Murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. Fricatives become affricates, and if voiceless, become ejectives as well, at least with some speakers: mf is pronounced [ɱp̪fʼ]; ndl is pronounced [ndɮ];n+hl becomes ntl [ntɬʼ]; n+z becomes ndz [ndz], etc. The orthographic b in mb is a voiced plosive, [mb].When voiceless clicks c, x, q are prenasalized, a silent letter k is added – nkc, nkx, nkq – so as to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq.
Anthem
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrikaNkosi Sikelel' iAfrika
"Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" , was originally composed as a hymn by a Methodist mission school in Johannesburg teacher, Enoch Sontonga in 1897, to the tune 'Aberystwyth' by Joseph Parry...
is part of the national anthem of South Africa
National anthem of South Africa
Since 1997, the South African national anthem has been a hybrid song combining new English lyrics with extracts of the hymn "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" and the former anthem "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" . The fact that it shifts and ends in a different key, a feature it shares with the Italian national...
, national anthem of Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
and Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, and the former anthem of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
and Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
. It is a Xhosa hymn written by Enoch Sontonga
Enoch Sontonga
Enoch Mankayi Sontonga was the composer of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika , which has been part of the South African national anthem since 1994. It was also the official African National Congress anthem since 1925 and is still the national anthem of Tanzania and Zambia...
in 1897. The first chorus is:
- Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika;
- Maluphakam'upondo lwayo;
- Yiva imithandazo yethu
- Usisikelele.
- Lord, bless Africa;
- May her horn rise high up;
- Hear Thou our prayers And bless us.
See also
- Xhosa calendar
- Henry Hare DugmoreHenry Hare DugmoreThe Reverend Henry Hare Dugmore , a South African missionary, writer and translator, was born in England, son of Isaac and Maria Dugmore. The family emigrated when his father was financially ruined after being forced to pay the debts of a relative for whom he had stood surety...
, the first translator of the Scriptures into Xhosa - U-Carmen eKhayelitshaU-Carmen eKhayelitshaU-Carmen eKhayelitsha is a 2005 South African operatic film directed and produced by Mark Dornford-May.-Production:The movie is a modern remake of Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. It was shot entirely in Xhosa, and combines both music from the original opera with traditional African music. It takes place...
, a 2005 Xhosa film adaptation of Bizet's Carmen - UCLA Language Materials ProjectUCLA Language Materials ProjectThe UCLA Language Materials Project maintains a web resource about teaching materials for some 150 languages that are less commonly taught in the United States. The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, was created in 1992...
, an online project for teaching languages, including Xhosa.