Southern Ndebele (), also known by its native name isiNdebele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, spoken by the Ndebele people of South Africa. It is not to be confused with Northern Ndebele (also called Zimbabwean Ndebele or isiNdebele) nor with Northern Transval Ndebele (also called Sumayela Ndebele or Sindebele) 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.
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 Ndebele is one of the twelve 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 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 u Mid e [~] o [~] Open a
Consonants +Southern Ndebele consonants Labial Alveolar Post-alv./Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive p t k ph th kh bh d ɡ mp nt nk mb nd ng b Affricate ts tl tj kg tsh tlh tjh kgh dz j nj Fricative f s hl rh v z dl h mf mv dlh Nasal m n ny ngh Liquid r l Semivowel w y
Consonant sounds nt, nd, k, mf, and mv often result in allophones of .
Click consonants
+Southern Ndebele clicksDentalPost- alveolarLateralvoicelessplainc q x aspiratedch qh voicedplaingc gq nasalizednc nq nx
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.
ClassSingularPlural1/2um(u)-1aba-, abe-1a/2au-abo-3/4um(u)-1imi-5/6i-, ili-, ilu-ama-7/8is(i)-iz(i)-, iiN-9/10iN-iiN-14ubu-, ub-, utj-15uku-17uku-
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
Days of the week +English Southern NdebeleMondayUmvuloTuesdayUlwesibiliWednesdayUlwesithathuThursdayUlwesineFridayUlwesihlanuSaturday uMgqibeloSundayiNsondo
Numbers in Southern Ndebele +English Southern NdebeleOneKunyeTwo KubiliThree Kuthathu FourKuneFiveKuhlanu SixIsithandathuSevenIsikhombaEight UbunaniNineIthibaTen ItjhumiFiftyAmatjhumi amahlanuOne hundredIkhuluOne thousand Ikulungwane
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. Southern Ndebele, while maintaining its Nguni roots, has been influenced by the Sotho languages.Skhosana, P.B. (2010) The Linguistic Relationship between Southern and Northern Ndebele, University of Pretoria, DLitt Thesis
References
External links
List links to Ndebele language resources
Software Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Ndebele Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into Ndebele