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Xhosa ( / ˈkɔːsə / KAW-sə, / ˈkoʊsə / KOH-sə; [ 5][ 6][ 7] Xhosa pronunciation: [kǁʰóːsa] ), formerly spelled Xosa and also known by its local name isiXhosa, is a Nguni language, indigenous to Southern Africa and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. [ 8]
SA Sign Language. 0.5%. At least thirty-five languages are spoken in South Africa, twelve of which are official languages of South Africa: Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, South African Sign Language, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, and English, which is the primary language used in parliamentary and state discourse, though all ...
There is a small but significant Xhosa-speaking community in Zimbabwe, and their language, isiXhosa, is recognised as an official national language. This community is the remnant migrated from central Africa into South Africa upon the establishment of Rhodesia with Cecil Rhodes. [clarification needed] [6]
The Northern Cape's four official languages are Afrikaans, Tswana, Xhosa, and English. Minorities speak the other official languages of South Africa and a few people speak indigenous languages such as Nama and Khwe. The provincial motto, Sa ǁa ǃaĩsi 'uĩsi ("We go to a better life"), is in the Nǀu language of the Nǁnǂe (ǂKhomani) people.
It became one of South Africa's 12 official languages in 1994. [6] According to Ethnologue, it is the second-most widely spoken of the Bantu languages, after Swahili. [a] Like many other Bantu languages, it is written with the Latin alphabet. In South African English, the language is often referred to in its native form, isiZulu. [10]
Glottolog. ngun1267. The Nguni languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa (mainly South Africa, Zimbabwe and Eswatini) by the Nguni people. Nguni languages include Xhosa, Hlubi, Zulu, Ndebele, and Swati. The appellation "Nguni" derives from the Nguni cattle type. Ngoni (see below) is an older, or a shifted, variant.
Khoisan / ˈkɔɪsɑːn / KOY-sahn, or Khoe-Sān ( pronounced [kxʰoesaːn] ), is a catch-all term for the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who traditionally speak non- Bantu languages, combining the Khoekhoen (formerly "Hottentots") and the Sān peoples (also called "Bushmen"). Khoisan populations traditionally speak click languages and ...
Other major Bantu languages include Lingala with more than 20 million speakers (Congo, DRC), followed by Zulu with 13.56 million speakers (South Africa), Xhosa at a distant third place with 8.2 million speakers (South Africa and Zimbabwe), and Shona with less than 10 million speakers (if Manyika and Ndau are included), while Sotho-Tswana ...