Southern Ndebele language

This article is about the Ndebele language spoken in South Africa. For the Ndebele language spoken in Zimbabwe, see Northern Ndebele language. For the Northern Ndebele language spoken in Limpopo Province, South Africa, see Ndebele language.

isiNdebele (English: /ɛndəˈbiːliː/), also known as Southern Ndebele^[1][4][5] is an African language belonging to the Mbo group of Bantu languages, spoken by the Ndebele people of South Africa.

Southern Ndebele
isiNdebele sakwaNdzundza noManala[citation needed]
isiNdebele seSewula[citation needed]
Native to	South Africa
Region	Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng, North West
Ethnicity	amaNdebele
Native speakers	1.1 million (2011 census)[1] 1.4 million L2 speakers (2002)[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Nguni Zunda Southern Ndebele
Writing system	Latin (Ndebele alphabet) Ndebele Braille
Signed forms	Signed Ndebele
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nr – South Ndebele
ISO 639-2	nbl – South Ndebele
ISO 639-3	nbl – South Ndebele
Glottolog	sout2808
Guthrie code	S.407[3]
Linguasphere	+ 99-AUT-fj 99-AUT-fi + 99-AUT-fj
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Ndebele
Person	iNdebele
People	AmaNdebele
Language	IsiNdebele
Country	KwaNdebele

Geographical distribution of isiNdebele in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks isiNdebele at home.

•   0–20%
•   20–40%
•   40–60%
•   60–80%
•   80–100%

Geographical distribution of isiNdebele in South Africa: density of isiNdebele home-language speakers.

•   <1 /km²
•   1–3 /km²
•   3–10 /km²
•   10–30 /km²
•   30–100 /km²
•   100–300 /km²
•   300–1000 /km²
•   1000–3000 /km²
•   >3000 /km²

Bilingual sign in Afrikaans and Transvaal Ndebele at the Pretoria Art Museum

Northern Ndebele or Ndebele also known as isiNdebele is spoken in Limpopo in areas such as Polokwane (Bhulungwane), Ga-Rathoka (KaSondonga), Ga-Mashashane, Ga Maraba / Kalkspruit, Mokopane (Mghumbane), Zebediela (Sebetiela), which is closer to Southern Ndebele.^[6]

Overview

The Ndebele (Southern and Northern) people's history has been traced back to King Ndebele, King Ndebele fathered King Mkhalangana, King Mkhalangana fathered King Mntungwa (not to be confused with the Khumalo Mntungwa, because he was fathered by Mbulazi), King Mntungwa fathered King Jonono, King Jonono fathered King Nanasi, King Nanasi fathered King Mafana, king Mafana fathered King Mhlanga and Chief Libhoko, King Mhlanga fathered King Musi and Chief Skhube.

Ndebele – Some of his sons were left behind with the Hlubi tribe
Mkhalangana – Some of his sons branched north and formed the Kalanga tribe
Mntungwa – Founder of the amaNtungwa clan
Njonono – He died in Jononoskop near Ladysmith – Surname Jonono is in the Hlubi tribe
Nanasi – He died in Jononoskop near Ladysmith – Surname Nanasi is in the Hlubi tribe
Mafana – He died in Randfontein (Emhlangeni)
Mhlanga – He died in Randfontein (Emhlangeni)
Musi – He died in kwaMnyamana (Pretoria)

King Musi's kraal was based at eMhlangeni a place named after his father Mhlanga, the name of the place is currently known as Randfontein (Mohlakeng) and later moved to KwaMnyamana which is now called Emarula or Bon Accord in Pretoria. King Musi was a polygamist and fathered the following sons, Skhosana (Masombuka), Manala (Mbuduma), Ndzundza (Hlungwana), Thombeni (Kekana or Gegana), Sibasa, Mhwaduba (Lekhuleni) and Mphafuli and others.

Southern Transvaal Ndebele is one of the eleven official languages in the Republic of South Africa. The language is a Nguni or Zunda classification (UN) spoken mostly in the Mpumalanga Province, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Northwest.

The expression isikhethu can be loosely translated to mean 'the Southern Ndebele way of doing or saying'. Isikhethu means Southern Ndebele in the same way that sikitsi will mean Swazi and se harona will mean Sotho.

The language has been severely marginalised over the years. Until the formation of the apartheid Southern Ndebele homeland (KwaNdebele), speaking the language publicly was discouraged. Most Southern Transvaal Ndebele speakers preferred Zulu especially because the latter was learned at school. Today the Southern Ndebele speakers, mostly those who are educated still prefer to use Southern Ndebele as home language for their children and will use Southern Ndebele as a language to communicate with other Southern Ndebele speakers.

Phonology

Vowels

Southern Ndebele vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i [i]	u [u]
Mid	e [e~ɛ]	o [o~ɔ]
Open	a [a]

Consonants

Southern Ndebele consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			central	lateral
Plosive	ejective	p [pʼ]	t [tʼ]			k [kʼ]
	aspirated	ph [pʰ]	th [tʰ]			kh [kʰ]
	devoiced	bh [b̥]	d [d̥]			ɡ [ɡ̊]
	prenasal	mp [ᵐp]	nt [ⁿt]			nk [ᵑk]
	prenasal (vd.)	mb [ᵐb]	nd [ⁿd]			ng [ᵑɡ]
	implosive	b [ɓ]
Affricate	ejective		ts [tsʼ]	tl [tɬʼ]	tj [tʃʼ]	kg [kxʼ]
	aspirated		tsh [tsʰ]	tlh [tɬʰ]	tjh [tʃʰ]	kgh [kxʰ]
	plain		dz [dz]
	devoiced				j [d̥ʒ]
	prenasal				nj [ᶮdʒ]
Fricative	plain	f [f]	s [s]	hl [ɬ]		rh [x]
	voiced	v [v]	z [z]	dl [ɮ]			h [ɦ]
	prenasal	mf [ᶬf]
	prenasal (vd.)	mv [ᶬv]
	aspirated			dlh [ɮʰ]
Nasal		m [m]	n [n]		ny [ɲ]	ngh [ŋ]
Liquid			r [r]	l [l]
Semivowel		w [w]			y [j]

Consonant sounds nt, nd, k, mf, and mv often result in allophones of [d̥r dr k̬ ɱp̪fʼ ɱb̪v].^[7]

Click consonants

Southern Ndebele clicks

		Dental	Post- alveolar	Lateral
voiceless	plain	c [ᵏǀ]	q [ᵏ!]	x [ᵏǁ]
	aspirated	ch [ᵏǀʰ]	qh [ᵏ!ʰ]
voiced	plain	gc [ᶢǀ]	gq [ᶢ!]
	nasalized	nc [ᵑǀ]	nq [ᵑ!]	nx [ᵑǁ]

Grammar

Nouns

The Southern Ndebele noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages.

The following table gives an overview of Southern Ndebele noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.

Class	Singular	Plural
1/2	um(u)-1	aba-, abe-
1a/2a	u-	abo-
3/4	um(u)-1	imi-
5/6	i-, ili-, ilu-	ama-
7/8	is(i)-	iz(i)-, iiN-
9/10	iN-	iiN-
14	ubu-, ub-, utj-
15	uku-
17	uku-

¹ umu- replaces um- before monosyllabic stems, e. g. umuntu (person).

Verbs

Verbs use the following affixes for the subject and the object:

Person/ Class	Prefix	Infix
1st sing.	ngi-	-ngi-
2nd sing.	u-	-wu-
1st plur.	si-	-si-
2nd plur.	ni-	-ni-
1	u-	-m(u)-
2	ba-	-ba-
3	u-	-m(u)-
4	i-	-yi-
5	li-	-li-
6	a-	-wa-
7	si-	-si-
8	zi-	-zi-
9	i-	-yi-
10	zi-	-zi-
14	bu-	-bu-
15	ku-	-ku-
17	ku-	-ku-
reflexive		-zi-

Examples

Months in Southern Ndebele

English	Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe)	Southern Ndebele (South Africa)	Zulu (South Africa)
January	uZibandlela	uTjhirhweni	uMasingane
February	uNhlolanja	uMhlolanja	uNhlolanja
March	uMbimbitho	uNtaka	uNdasa
April	uMabasa	uSihlabantangana	UMbasa
May	uNkwekwezi	uMrhayili	UNhlaba
June	uNhlangula	uMgwengweni	UNhlangulana
July	uNtulikazi	uVelabahlinze	uNtulikazi
August	uNcwabakazi	uRhoboyi	UNcwaba
September	uMpandula	uKhukhulamungu	uMandulo
October	uMfumfu	uSewula	uMfumfu
November	uLwezi	uSinyikhaba	uLwezi
December	uMpalakazi	uNobayeni	uZibandlela

AmaNdebele in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean Ndebele is part of the Nguni cluster and is therefore very similar to other Nguni languages (such as Zulu, Xhosa and Swati) with which it shares a high level of mutual intelligibility. The South African (or Southern Transvaal Ndebele), while maintaining its Nguni roots, has been influenced by the Sotho languages.^[7]