A depressor has no effect on a syllable that's already low, but it blocks assimilation to a preceding high tone, so that the tone of the depressor syllable and any following low-tone syllables stays low. Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa with about 12 million speakers representing 23% of the country’s population. However, a small number of Zulu also live in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique.The Zulu language, called isiZulu, is a Bantu language of the Nguni subgroup.. For example, the word ithambo /íːtʰámbó/ "bone", is a contraction of an earlier ilithambo /ílítʰámbó/, which may still be used by some speakers. Xhosa, the predominant language in the Eastern Cape, is often considered mutually intelligible with Zulu, as is Northern Ndebele. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa (24% of the population), and it is understood by over 50% of its population. The Zulu, like Xhosa and other Nguni people, have lived in South Africa for a long time. While the Z… If tone pitch is indicated with numbers, with 1 highest and 9 lowest pitch, then the pitches of each syllable can be denoted as 2-4-3-9. It is also heard in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. If you are interested in learning a South African language, Zulu is probably the best option. The Zulu nation’s existence in South Africa dates back to around the 14th century AD. When the following syllable already has a high or falling tone, the tone disappears from the syllable as if it had been shifted away, but the following syllable's tone is not modified. English, Dutch and later Afrikaans had been the only official languages used by all South African governments before 1994. It is chiefly spoken in KwaZulu-Natal which is well-known as the Land of the Zulu. In both cases, the pitch does not reach as high as in non-depressed syllables. The Zulu Kingdom was very important in South African history during the 1800s and 1900s. IsiZulu is South Africa's most widely spoken official language. Ethnologue estimates (calculated between 2000 and 2015): Webb, Vic. Reaching a height at its shoulders of 1.5meters, the buffalo weighs on average a hefty 750kg's. In January 2005 the first full-length feature film in Zulu, Yesterday, was nominated for an Oscar.[15]. Below we picked expressions that a new learner will find useful. Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa with about 12 million speakers representing 23% of the country’s population. The language is understood by more than half of South Africans. Find more Zulu words at wordhippo.com! View the guide. A frequent example is the diminutive suffix -yana. "Language in South Africa: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development", "Ukwabelana - An open-source morphological Zulu corpus", "Oscar nomination for SA film - Brand South Africa", "The salience and symbolism of numbers across cultural beliefs and practice", "Structural characteristics of Zulu English", The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Zulu, A short English–isiZulu–Japanese phraselist, Zulu Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words, Zulu With Dingani - Online beginner's course, University Of South Africa, free online course, isiZulu.net Zulu–English Online Dictionary, Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Community Rights, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zulu_language&oldid=1001112184, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from August 2020, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from December 2016, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Contemporary usage. That is, if the preceding syllable ends on a high tone and the following syllable begins with a high tone (because it is high or falling), the intermediate toneless syllable has its pitch raised as well. A common former practice was to indicate the implosive /ɓ/ using the special letter ɓ, while the digraph bh would then be simply written as b. Currently popular pronunciations. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 10 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa. It is the most common home language in South Africa, where 24% of people speak it at home. Zulu-language television was introduced by the SABC in the early 1980s and it broadcasts news and many shows in Zulu. 2002. The Zulu language possesses several click sounds typical of Southern African languages, not found in the rest of Africa. Zulu syllables are canonically (N)C(w)V[clarification needed], and words must always end in a vowel. In the 1994 film The Lion King, in the "Circle of Life" song, the phrases Ingonyama nengw' enamabala (English: A lion and a leopard spots), Nans' ingonyama bakithi Baba (English: Here comes a lion, Father) and Siyonqoba (English: We will conquer) were used. This effect can be seen in the locative forms of nouns ending in -o or -u, which changes to -weni and -wini respectively in the locative. Palatal approximant becomes palatal nasal. There may be some variation between speakers as to whether clusters are broken up by an epenthetic vowel or not, e.g. Its not too difficult to pick up and it is widely spoken and understood. The vowel system of Zulu consists of five vowels. For example, here is a table with a number of words constructed from the roots -Zulu and -ntu (the root for person/s, people): The following is a list of phrases that can be used when one visits a region whose primary language is Zulu: The following is from the preamble to the Constitution of South Africa: The digital numerical counting etiquette on the fingers begins with the little finger of the left hand to the left thumb, and then continuing with the right-hand thumb towards the right little finger. Some words, such as ideophones or interjections, can have stress that deviates from the regular pattern. ikhompiyutha /iːkʰompijuːtʰa/ or ikhompyutha /iːkʰompjuːtʰa/ "computer". Once the left hand is open, then counting continues on the right hand with each finger opening in turn. If the prefix ends with a vowel (as most do) and the noun stem also begins with a vowel, a hyphen is inserted in between, e.g. Phrases Tips To make sure you are more likely to remember each expression, try to first to read the sentence without hearing it, then click to hear how it is prnounced, then read it out loud 3 times while imagining yourself vividly talking to somone. The most notable case of the latter is the class 9 noun prefix in-, which ends in a homorganic nasal. This was the case with Zulu which only became written when the missionaries noted down this interesting language by means of the Latin alphabet. Starting with a closed left hand, each finger is extended with each subsequent number from one to five. The changes can be summed as follows:[18][19]. There are three main tonemes: low, high and falling. Prenasalisation triggers several changes in the following consonant, some of which are phonemic and others allophonic. Explore Zulu. • Nathaniel Isaacs, Travels and adventures in eastern Africa, descriptive of the Zoolus, their manners, customs, etc. “IsiZulu”, a Bantu language spoken by the Ngunis, is the traditional language of the Zulus. Status. Whilst both the male and female buffalo have horns, the male buffalo's horns are thicker and point upwards at the tips. The statuesque bovine buffalo has an imposing presence which demands a level of respect. In addition the vowel of the penultimate syllable is allophonically lengthened phrase- or sentence-finally. Zulu workers organized some of the first black labour unions in the country. Official Language: English. Since the demise of apartheid in 1994, Zulu has been enjoying a marked revival. Consequently, the relationship between underlying tone patterns and the tones that are actually pronounced can be quite complex. Palatalisation is a change that affects labial and alveolar consonants whenever they are immediately followed by /j/. Very early texts, from the early 20th century or before, tend to omit the distinction between plain and aspirated voiceless consonants, writing the latter without the h. Nouns are written with their prefixes as one orthographical word. Additional phonemes are written using sequences of multiple letters. Like almost all other Bantu and other African languages, Zulu is tonal. In 1883 the first written work in the Zulu language was produced, a Bible. The Chief Minister of KwaZulu, from its creation in 1970 (as Zululand) was Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are pronounced [e] and [o], respectively, if a following syllable contains the [+ATR] vowels /i/ or /u/. This occurs only with loanwords. ubuZulu (personification/Zulu-like tendencies), The plain voiceless plosives, affricates and clicks are realised phonetically as ejectives. There are 10,677,305 (23.82 %) first language speakers [2001 census data], which makes this the language in South Africa with the most first language speakers. Learn only what you need. Zulu or isiZulu is another of South Africa's official languages. [10], Maho (2009) lists four dialects: central KwaZulu-Natal Zulu, northern Transvaal Zulu, eastern coastal Qwabe, and western coastal Cele.[3]. In 1901, John Dube (1871–1946), a Zulu from Natal, created the Ohlange Institute, the first native educational institution in South Africa. Zulu (/zuːluː/) or isiZulu (Zulu: isiZulu) is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 12 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa. The Progress Scale is derived from people group values for percent Evangelical and percent Christian Adherent . Reference works and older texts may use additional letters. 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