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Xhosa is a language of South Africa. It is spoken by
approximately 7.9 million speakers (about 18% of South Africans). Click
consonants feature prominently in the sounds of this language, and even the name, "Xhosa", begins with a click. In IPA, the name of the language is pronounced
approximately [||hosa].
History
The name Xhosa refers to one of their legendary chieftains of old. The ethnic group that speaks Xhosa refer to
themselves as the amaXhosa and their language is known as isiXhosa. Almost all languages with
clicks are Khoisan languages, and the presence of clicks in Xhosa
betray the strong historical interaction with its Khoisan neighbors. Even the name Xhosa may be of Khoisan origin.
Geographic distribution
The language represents the most South Western branch of the Nguni subfamily of the
Bantu languages. Most native Xhosa speakers are located in the
Eastern Cape Province, but increasingly also in the
Western Cape, including Cape Town.
Dialects
In addition to being mostly mutually intelligible with Zulu and
closely related Bantu languages, Xhosa has several dialects. There is debate among scholars as to what exactly the divisions
between the dialects are. One such grouping is: (original) Xhosa, Ngqika, Gcaleka, Mfengu, Thembu, Bomvana, and Mpondomise.
Sounds
Xhosa has a relatively simple set of vowels, but it is rich in unusual consonants. Besides normal pulmonic egressive sounds,
it has 3 basic clicks in addition to ejectives and implosives. The first is the dental click, which is made with the tongue on
the back of the teeth, and is the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk" used to reprimand someone. The second is
the lateral click, which is made by the tongue at the sides of the mouth, and is similar to the sound used to call horses. The
third is the postalveolar click, which is made with the body of the tongue on the roof of the mouth. Each click occurs in 6
varieties. Xhosa is also a tone language with two inherent tones, low and
high.
Grammar
The grammar of Xhosa is of a type called agglutinative: suffixes and prefixes are attached to root words and stems to convey grammatical
information. Xhosa also has the characteristic noun class, or "gender" system which is common to all Bantu languages. There are
many more classes than the masculine, feminine, and neuter genders of familiar Indo-European languages. The nouns in each class
are roughly related in meaning. For example, there are classes for people, relatives, animals, plants, objects, abstract
concepts, etc.
Writing system
Xhosa is written using the Latin alphabet. Clicks are written using
'c' for the dental click, 'x' for the lateral click, and 'q' for the postalveolar click. An example of the written language is a
section of the national anthem of South Africa.
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- Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika;
- Malupakam'upondo lwayo;
- Yiva imithandazo yethu
- Usisikelele.
Another example is Qongqothwane, written by Miriam Makeba. It is known
in English as The Click Song. (See the bottom for a 6 second sample of the song.)
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- Igqira lendlela nguqongqothwane
- Igqira lendlela kuthwa nguqongqothwane
- Sebeqabele gqithapha bathi nguqongqothwane
- Sebeqabele gqithapha bathi nguqongqothwane.
External links
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