Nguni Languages - Zulu Language, Xhosa Language, Southern Ndebele Language, Swati Language, Phuthi Language, Northern Ndebele Language, Isingqumo (Paperback)

Chapters: Zulu Language, Xhosa Language, Southern Ndebele Language, Swati Language, Phuthi Language, Northern Ndebele Language, Isingqumo. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 68. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Second language - 16 million Zulu (Zulu: ) is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa (24% of the population) as well as being understood by over 50% of the population (Ethnologue 2005). It became one of South Africa's eleven official languages in 1994. Like many other Bantu languages, it is written using the Latin alphabet. Geographical distribution of isiZulu in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks isiZulu at home. Geographical distribution of isiZulu in South Africa: density of isiZulu home-language speakers. Zulu belongs to the South-Eastern group of Bantu languages (the Nguni group). Zulu migrant populations have taken it to adjacent regions, especially to Zimbabwe, where Zulu is called (Northern) Ndebele. Xhosa, the predominant language in the Eastern Cape, is often considered mutually intelligible with Zulu. Much like the Xhosa who had moved into South Africa during earlier waves of the Bantu migrations, the Zulu assimilated many sounds from the San and Khoi languages of the country's earliest inhabitants. This has resulted in the preservation of click consonants in Zulu and Xhosa, (the sounds are unique to Southern and Eastern Africa except for the Australian Aborigine Damin ceremonial language) despite the extinction of many San and Khoi languages. Zulu, like all indigenous Southern African languages, was an oral language until contact with missionaries from Europe, who documented the language using the Latin ...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=6148