Xhosa

Introduction

Xhosa is the southernmost Bantu language in Africa. The Xhosa, formerly called Kaffir or Kafir (Arabic for "infidel”), is a cluster of related peoples who have inhabited Eastern Cape Province and Transkei, South Africa since before the 16th century after having migrated to this region Xhosa Map

along the east coast of Africa and through central Africa. In southern Africa, they came into contact with Khoisan-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. This explains why only the southern Bantu languages have these sounds.

Xhosa is closely related to Zulu, Swati (spoken in Swaziland), and Ndebele (spoken in Mozambique). These languages are mutually intelligible but are considered to be separate languages for political and cultural reasons.

Status
Around 7.1 million people in South Africa, mostly in Eastern Cape Province and Transkei, use Xhosa as their first language. It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. It is also spoken in Botswana and Lesotho (Ethnologue). Almost 45% of South Africa's population speaks Ndebele, Swati, Zulu or Xhosa as their first language, as compared to only 9% who speak English as their native language.

The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. 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. At the secondary level, instruction in schools serving Xhosa-speaking students is in English. All education at the university level is in English or Afrikaans. The Xhosa themselves are somewhat ambivalent about the use of their language in education. Some support the use of English and see its use in education as de facto segregation. Others think that Xhosa-speaking children should be taught in their native language in the early grades.

Two radio stations and one TV station broadcast in Xhosa. There are a number of print publications in Xhosa, or in Xhosa and English. Ever since Xhosa and Zulu were reduced to a written form in the early 19th century, Xhosa and Zulu writers have produced various works of fiction, from poetry to modern novels.

Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, a Xhosa tribesman, was born in Tembu in the Transkei on 18 July 1918. An anti-apartheid leader throughout his entire life, he was the first democratically elected President of South Africa. Mandela's 27-year imprisonment, much of which he spent in a tiny prison cell, became a symbol for opponents of apartheid. Upon his release from prison in 1994, he led the country to a peaceful transition through national reconciliation which would not have been possible without his leadership.

Structure

Sound System

Xhosa women

Xhosa man

Xhosa baby

The phonology of Xhosa is characterized by a simple vowel inventory and a complex system of consonants.

Vowels
There are five vowels /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/. They can be either short or long. After some consonants, vowels are breathy, i.e., they are produced with incomplete glottal closure, so that the air continues to leak between the vocal folds with an audible friction noise.

Consonants
Xhosa has a complex system of consonants, including consonants that occur only in southern Bantu languages, including the following:

dental clicks produced with the tongue against the back of the front teeth (similar to the English tsk-tsk to express disapproval);
alveolar clicks produced with the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth (like a cork pulled from a bottle);
lateral clicks produced by the side of the tongue against the back of the side teeth (similar to the sound made when calling horses);
implosive /b/ produced by inhaling rather than exhaling the air;
ejective consonants which are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis, raising air pressure in the mouth, so that when the sound, e.g., [k] is released, there is a noticeable burst of air ccompanying it. Ejective consonants are written with [h] following them, e.g., kh represents an ejective [k];
prenasalized consonants, represented in writing with a nasal preceding them, e.g., /mb/, /nd/, /ngk/.

Tones
Xhosa has two tones: low and high.

Grammar

Xhosa woman

Xhosa women

Xhosa i s an agglutinative language, i.e., grammatical functions are expressed by adding prefixes and suffixes to stems.

Noun phrase
Xhosa nouns belong to 15 different classes, roughly based on semantic features, e.g., there are classes for human beings, animals, plants, objects of various shapes, etc. Not all noun classes can be easily defined. Each class has a different set of prefixes for marking numbers (singular and plural). Marking of the plural number depends on the noun class. For example, umntu "person" becomes abantu "people", umama "mother" becomes oomama "mothers". Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives come after the noun they modify and agree with it inclass and number.

Verb phrase
Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. Many notions that are expressed by words in English are realized as prefixes and suffixes. Xhosa verbs use various affixes to mark person, tense, aspect, and mood. Suffixes are used to derive passive, causative, reciprocal, and prepositional forms.

Word order
The normal word order in Xhosa is Verb-Object (the subject is part of the verb compound).

Vocabulary

Like other Southern Bantu languages, Xhosa has borrowed words from the Khoisan languages, and most recently from English and Afrikaans. Swati, Zulu and Xhosa share most of the basic vocabulary as well as grammar. Compare these equivalents of "What's your name" in three languages:

Ndelebele	Ungubani igama lakho?
Swati	Ngubani ligama lakho?
Zulu	Ungubani igama lakho?
Xhosa	Ngubani igama lakho?

Writing

Xhosa has a Roman-based orthography adapted to represent the sounds of the language. 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. High tone is represented in writing by an acute accent over the vowel, i.e., ; low tone is indicated by by a grave accent, i.e., . However, tones are usually not indicated in writing.

Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Xhosa.

Can you find any words you can recognize?
Can you find any words that contain clicks?
Can you find any words with prenasalized consonants?
Are tones represented in this document?
What does the length of some of the words tell you about the structure of Xhosa?

Inqaku loku-1
Bonke abantu bazalwa bekhululekile belingana ngesidima nangokweemfanelo. Bonke abantu banesiphiwo sesazela nesizathu sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Resources

Xhosa language and culture study resources
UCLA Language Materials Project (Xhosa Profile)
UCLA Language Materials Listing for the Less Commonly Taught Languages
University of Minnesota Less Commonly Taught Languages Database
WorldLanguage.com (Xhosa resources)
Izifundo zesiXhosa (basic Xhosa lessons on the Web)