Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by 7.6 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet. Henry Hare Dugmore helped translate the entire Bible in Xhosa language. Xhosa has ten vowels.
Quick facts Native to, Region ...
| Xhosa |
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| Native to | South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho |
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| Region | Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Free State |
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| Ethnicity | Xhosa people |
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Native speakers | 8.2 million (2011 census)[1]
11 million L2 speakers (2002)[2] |
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| Latin (Xhosa alphabet)
Xhosa Braille |
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| Signed Xhosa[3] |
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Official language in | South Africa
Zimbabwe |
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| ISO 639-1 | xh |
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| ISO 639-2 | xho |
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| ISO 639-3 | xho |
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| Glottolog | xhos1239 |
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Guthrie code | S.41[4] |
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| Linguasphere | 99-AUT-fa incl.
varieties 99-AUT-faa
to 99-AUT-faj +
99-AUT-fb (isiHlubi) |
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 Proportion of the South African population that speaks Xhosa at home
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0–20%
20–40%
40–60% |
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60–80%
80–100% |
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| 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. |
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Xhosa is well known for its set of three major clicks.
