is xhosa a khoisan language is xhosa a khoisan language

Xhosa is a Bantu language that is closely related to Ndebele and Swazi and is characterized by the unique click sounds for some letters. Elsewhere many bilingual Khoisan speakers have tended to shift rapidly to the dominant language, thus ceasing transmission of the mother tongue to children and leaving it to contract and die, sometimes quite abruptly. Khoisan languages, a unique group of African languages spoken mainly in southern Africa, with two outlying languages found in eastern Africa. Download your free PDF guide with 125 Italian travel phrases. The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. 'The adaptation of non-click consonants in Xhosa'. . [20] The Bantu ancestor of Xhosa did not have clicks, which attests to a strong historical contact with a Khoisan language that did. [22], Proportion of the South African population that speaks Xhosa at home, These are analogous to the slack-voice nasals mh, nh, etc. 3 The placeholder N in the prefixes iN- and iiN- is a nasal consonant which assimilates in place to the following consonant (producing an im- before vowels), but is typically absent in loanwords. 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. Marking of the plural number depends on the noun class. Baucom, Kenneth L. 1974. Similarly, the tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset time, but that is uncommon. Duala, Nguni languages are, in turn, classified under the much larger abstraction of Bantu languages. Ganda/Luganda, They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. In this case, Xhosa means 'angry men'. Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal is known for his early rejection of the Khoisan language family (Starostin 2003). Who Are The Xhosa People, And Where Do They Live? - WorldAtlas Introduction to African Languages | The African Language Program at Harvard The Khoisan, or Click, linguistic family is made up of three branches: the Khoisan languages of the San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoi, spoken in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa; Sandawe, a language found in E Africa; and Hatsa (Hadzane or Hadzapi), also spoken in E Africa. MustGo.com. Translate English to Xhosa online | Translate.com In, Gldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. Thus, a more correct spelling isKhoesaan. It is a national of Namibia, along with English and a number of other regional languages. Genetically, the Hadza people are unrelated to the Khoisan peoples of Southern Africa, and their closest relatives may be among the Pygmies of Central Africa. Fricatives become affricates. No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal. Their most distinctive linguistic characteristic is the original and extensive use of click consonants, a feature which has spread through cultural and linguistic contact into a number of Bantu (Niger-Congo) languagessuch as Xhosa, Zulu, and Sotho in South Africa and Gciriku (Diriku), Yei (Yeye), and Mbukushu in Botswana and Namibiaand into Dahalo, a Cushitic (Afro-Asiatic) language of Kenya. The Xhosa language employs 26 letters from the Latin alphabet. They are marked with a raised //. (Free PDF Download). However, tones are usually not indicated in writing. Breathy-voiced consonants are produced when the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a volume of air escapes between them. 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. Northern Ndebele (South Africa), Clicks are spreading to a few additional neighboring languages. [3] Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and the San (Bushmen). All click and most non-click consonants appear at the beginning of words and are followed by a vowel. In South Africa a variation of this process allowed the Khoisan languages to exert a powerful linguistic influence on the dominant languages before they disappeared, leaving Afrikaans and some Bantu languages with a number of distinctive Khoisan features. Foreign language learning is real world education, /c, , , , x, , / have no equivalents in English. Contact Us, 8.2 million people and by 11 million as a second language in South Africa, mostly in Eastern Cape Province and Transkei. 2005. Learn more about the Khoisan language family on Ethnologue. Corrections? I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. Xhosa (formerly spelled Xosa) is an official language of South Africa, natively spoken by around 7.9 million people which is about around 16% of the population of South Africa. She hypothesizes that this took place within efforts to prevent the spread of English during European colonization and prevent the entrance of the majority into the middle class.[7]. 2. Anthony Traill at first accepted Khoisan (Traill 1986), but by 1998 concluded that it could not be demonstrated with current data and methods, rejecting it as based on a single typological criterion: the presence of clicks. Their language is often called the click, language because of its three dominant clicks, which. [14] Also, a small community of Xhosa speakers (18,000) live in Quthing District, Lesotho.[15]. Most of the languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. Zulu, Languages written with the Latin alphabet, if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_2',147,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,50],'omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_3',147,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0_1'); .large-mobile-banner-1-multi-147{border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:7px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:7px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:50px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;}. There is also the South Cushitic language Dahalo in Kenya, which has dental clicks in a few score words, and an extinct and presumably artificial Australian ritual language called Damin, which had only nasal clicks. Language/Xhosa/Grammar/How-to-Use-Have - polyglotclub.com The Khoikhoi were once called Hottentots by Europeans. The verb "nga" has a variety of forms . Agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which the word agrees. The first two columns include words from the two Khoisan language isolates, Sandawe and Hadza. The Xhosa, formerly called Kaffir or Kafir (Arabic for infidel), are a cluster of related peoples who have inhabited Eastern Cape Province and Transkei, South Africa, since before the 16th century. 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. Phrases | The word "Xhosa" is derived from the Khoisan language and means "angry men". South African Culture and Tradition Explored. But those simple 5 clicks can add a lot to a sentence. The language is also rich in idioms. / These are typically written with characters such as and . Clicks are quite versatile as consonants, as they involve two articulations of the tongue which can operate partially independently. Accent I'm fluent in Xhosa. 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. The Khoisan | South African History Online A century ago the Haiom people spoke a Ju dialect, probably close to Kung, but they now speak a divergent dialect of Nama. This process can skip rightwards to non-local syllables (i.e. http://learn101.org/xhosa.php The Xhosa number approximately 7.1-million, the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people. Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe), 2 is- and iz- replace isi- and izi- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g. Can you reproduce these click types? Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. In Voeltz, Erhard Friedrich Karl (ed.). Bulu, There are no definite or indefinite articles. Total number of users in all countries is 19.2 million (Ethnologue). There are several places of articulation at which click consonants occur, as shown in the table below. 2000. Xhosa is an official language in South Africa and Zimbabe, and is used as a language of instruction in primary schools, and in some secondary schools. Nguni - a group of southern Bantu languages . De Aar is the commercial center for the wool production and livestock farming industry in this semi-arid region of South Africa. The Khoisan (Khoesan) language family is the smallest of the language families of Africa. The Xhosa language (Isixhosa), of which there are variations, is part of the Nguni language group. Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. 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. Believed to be the oldest of the four language families, it is the smallest of the four and is found mainly in Southern Africa. However, some of the letters have a different pronunciation from English. It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. "History of Click-Speaking Populations of Africa Inferred from mtDNA and Y Chromosome Genetic Variation", "The Kxa Family: A New Khoisan Genealogy", . Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. They are descended from the Nguni, who began migrating south from central and northern Africa more than a thousand years ago. "Toward reconstructing Proto-South Khoisan." 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). The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. The sound system of Xhosa contains three types of click sounds borrowed from the neighbouring Khoisan languages. Subscribe to my newsletter to receive detailed travel guides, exclusive travel and language learning tips, priority access to giveaways and more! films, plays and songs. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/EHxIRKzU37, RT @FIAFormulaE: The Rainbow Nation The first printed Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to a lesser extent. The rest of the elements are placed to the left or to the right of the verb root. "Phonetic Correspondences among Khoisan Affricates." in parts of Lesotho and Zimbabwe. The pocket of air produced by the resulting enclosure is rarefied by the sucking action of the tongue. 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. ''Studies in African Linguistic Classification.'' 2003. Forms of "Nga" ##. http://www.youtube.com/user/XhosaKhaya [6] Dimmendaal (2008) summarized the general view with, "it has to be concluded that Greenberg's intuitions on the genetic unity of Khoisan could not be confirmed by subsequent research. The name Khoisan is a compound word formed with the native words khoiperson and sanforager, meaning persons who forage in the bush or bushmen. The red letters are orthographic representations of the sounds. The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa was Miriam Makeba, whose Click Song #1 (Xhosa Qongqothwane) and "Click Song #2" (Baxabene Ooxam) are known for their large number of click sounds. Dental clicks are represented by the letter c, alveolar clicks are indicated by q, and lateral clicks are written with the letter x. Vowel length is not always represented in writing. You can unsubscribe at any time. Additional phonemes use sequences of multiple letters. Comorian, Gldemann, Tom. Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives come after the noun they modify. Nama is used in education and in the media. Bukusu, The debate about these relationships remains a prominent feature in the linguistic study of Khoisan languages, and the disagreements that sustain it have never been satisfactorily resolved. 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 Khoisan languages were once spoken across all of southern Africa from southern Angola in the west to Swaziland in the east and the Cape of Good Hope in the south (see the map). The Xhosa language has been grouped into a number of dialects. The Nguni languages are unique among Bantu languages in that they have imploded "clicking" phonemes. Learn the local language with her 80/20 method for less than the cost of eating at a tourist trap restaurant Start learning today! Fang, There are some exceptions, for instance, the Sandawe language in Tanzania whose speakers have maintained a relatively stable linguistic community. #CapeTownEPrix Of these languages, Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele and Yeyi have intricate systems of click consonants; the others, despite the click in the name Gciriku, more rudimentary ones. 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. Tswa, Voiceless palatal plosive becomes voiced. The word order is subjectverbobject, like in English. [1][2] Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. The Khoisan languages share some similarities in their extremely complex sound systems. This click is like the sound people make to call horses. Although Xhosa and Zulu are similar enough to be considered dialects of one language, Xhosa and Zulu speakers consider them to be separate languages. used as a language of instruction in primary schools, and in some The verb root occupies the 0 position. Emeritus Professor of African Studies; former Director, Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne. Chokwe, Khoisan Language Family - Structure & Writing - MustGo Digo, Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. A bilabial click is a pop made by bringing the lips together and releasing them, just like the sound of a kiss. Soga, Xhosa is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. "Die Khoisan-Familie." There are books, . 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. 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. [12] However, this classification is not widely accepted. isiXhosa: Language of the "Red Blanket People" - Language-Inc. The more notable characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable.[19]. Learning materials, Information about the Xhosa language In this view Khoisan hunters might have developed clicks to camouflage their presence as they stalked their prey in an environment of insect and other noises or might have responded to various situations with onomatopoetic vocalizations containing clicks. Haya, The orthographic b in mb is the voiced plosive [mb]. F https://t.co/s7IkqA9Utl, It feels good to have @KevinHart4real also known as Mpho here in Johannesburg, South Africa. African languages: | Infoplease 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! Xhosa, derived from the Khoisan language, refers to "angry men." The majority of the South African languages that use tongue-clicking have roots in the indigenous Khoisan . Xhosa beliefs dictate that people turn to a diviner or healer, usually attired in a headdress and shawl of fur, when needing advice on how to deal with the spirits, help with illnesses, or, ward off evil from unnatural forces such as the, a potentially malevolent goblin who attacks at night. The normal word order in Xhosa is Verb-Object (the subject is part of the verb compound). Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 18,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. The Khoisan languages differ in the number of such modifications from a low of 20 in Nama to a high of 83 in Kxoe. Group of African language families with click consonants, "San language" redirects here. Unfortunately, many of these languages have left behind no written records, so their loss is permanent. Kikuyu, But this line of thinking has proved fruitless. Want my "9 Steps to Reach Fluency Faster" playbook? Khoisan Identity | South African History Online Xhosa Language - Dialects & Structure - MustGo National Treasures "Comparison and Classification of Khoisan languages." iliso (eye), uluhlu (list). Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. In 1996[update], the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%.[15]. Like what you see? Xhosa is one of the 11 official languages recognized by the South African Constitution, and in 2006 it was determined that just over 7 million South Africans speak Xhosa as a home language. 4. Punu, Pair them with vowels, tones, and other constants and you've got a wide variety of sounds and meanings. Though these are still under debate, one frequently accepted dialect grouping is as follows: Xhosa (original), Bhaca, Gcaleka, Thembu, Mpondomise, Ngqika, Mpondo, Mfengu and Bomvana. Xhosa beliefs recognise the presence of ancestral spirits and a supreme authority. Nama, in particular, has a long tradition of literacy. The original ancestor is Tshawe, but it is direct family members that Xhosa people call upon for guidance, support and to turn the tide of favour. 3. 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., . The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. Rafiki, the sagely mandrill chants Xhosa on The Lion King and its reboot. 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. . Khoisan languages | Britannica This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. Although mutually intelligible, they are considered to be separate languages for political and cultural reasons. Lozi, After migrating to southern Africa, the Xhosa and Zulu adopted the click consonants unique to the Khoisan and loaned some words. Makonde, Let me know using thecomments section below or join me on social media to start a conversation. Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. The origin of Khoisan click consonants and their peculiarly African provenance therefore remains a mystery. Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated a [], [], [], []. Kongo, Kinyarwanda, Who are the Khoisan People? - WorldAtlas Beadwork similar to the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. The Xhosa language is properly referred to as isiXhosa. http://www.southafricalogue.com/travel-tips/south-african-phrases-xhosa.html, Basaa, Views on views on views ), palatal (), and lateral (). The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. When consonants are prenasalised, their pronunciation and spelling may change. Not all languages using clicks as phonemes are considered Khoisan. A Xhosa initiate, undergoing a . [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. Are Xhosa and Zulu Bantu, Khoisan or mixed? - Quora They are called upon for guidance, support, or to turn the tide of fortune. Clicks 15000 characters left today. Nyemba, Implosive consonants The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with the pronunciation in IPA on the left and the orthography on the right: In addition to the ejective affricate [t], the spelling tsh may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [ts] and [t]. In, Winter, J.C. 1981. Here are a few of these words. Tumbuka, In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San. Author of. Traill demonstrated this linguistic diversity in the data presented in the below table.