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Ndebele language

 

 
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Ndebele language
 
 
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There are at least two languages commonly called Ndebele:





Ndebele is related to the Nguni language of Zulu
Zulu

The Zulu are the largest South African ethnic group of an estimated 10-11 million people who live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa....
 spoken in South Africa. When Mzilikazi
Mzilikazi

Mzilikazi , also sometimes called Mosilikatze, was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom , Matabeleland, in what became Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe....
 and his people separated from the Zulu, they took the Zulu language with them. Part of them remained in the region of modern Pretoria. They are now the South Ndebele. Their language combines Zulu and Sotho-Tswana elements taken over from the neighbouring peoples.






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There are at least two languages commonly called Ndebele:

  • The Northern Ndebele language
    Northern Ndebele language

    The Northern Ndebele language, or isiNdebele, or Sindebele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni languages group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe....
    , a Nguni language spoken in Zimbabwe
    Zimbabwe

    Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....


  • The Southern Ndebele language
    Southern Ndebele language

    The Southern Ndebele language is an African language belonging to the Nguni languages group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the amaNdebele . There are two dialects of Southern Ndebele in South Africa:...
    , classified as Nguni language or Sotho-Tswana language, spoken in South Africa
    South Africa

    The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
    , heavily influenced by surrounding Sotho-Tswana languages and therefore mostly classified as one of them.


Ndebele is related to the Nguni language of Zulu
Zulu

The Zulu are the largest South African ethnic group of an estimated 10-11 million people who live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa....
 spoken in South Africa. When Mzilikazi
Mzilikazi

Mzilikazi , also sometimes called Mosilikatze, was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom , Matabeleland, in what became Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe....
 and his people separated from the Zulu, they took the Zulu language with them. Part of them remained in the region of modern Pretoria. They are now the South Ndebele. Their language combines Zulu and Sotho-Tswana elements taken over from the neighbouring peoples. The major part of the Ndebele went northward into present-day Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....
. Therefore their language is Nguni without Sotho-Tswana elements.

Ndebele has several unusual sounds. There are three clicks:
  • c (IPA:
    Dental click

    The dental clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia....
    ) - sounds like the "tsk" noise made when pulling your tongue away from your front teeth
  • q (IPA:
    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 forward articulation of these sounds is ....
    ) - a clucking noise made by pulling your tongue away from the roof of your mouth
  • x (IPA: )- the sound we might use to call a dog; made on the side of your mouth


Other interesting sounds include:
  • hl (IPA:
    Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative

    The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental consonant, alveolar consonant, and postalveolar consonant fricative consonant is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K....
    ) - form your mouth to say an "l" but say an "h" instead


Northern Ndebele is also spoken in the Limpopo province.It is recognised as a non official language,but, recognised by PANSLAB as there are a significant number of people speaking it as a first language. Areas where the language is spoken as a first language includes Mokopane, which was previously known as Potgietersrus and Polokwane which was known as Pietersburg. Furthermore, Northern Ndebele is spoken in Gauteng in areas such as Hammanskraal and Soshanguvhe in Pretoria.