Northern Ndebele language

This article is about the Nguni language spoken in Zimbabwe. For the Ndebele language spoken in South Africa, see Southern Ndebele language.

Northern Ndebele
isiNdebele
Spoken in	Zimbabwe  Botswana  South Africa
Region	Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South in Zimbabwe; North-East District in Botswana
Native speakers	1.6 million  (2001)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Nguni Zunda Northern Ndebele
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nd
ISO 639-2	nde
ISO 639-3	nde
200px Title page of one of the earliest Ndebele phrase books

The Northern Ndebele language, isiNdebele, or Ndebele is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe. It is commonly known as Sindebele.

IsiNdebele is related to the Zulu language spoken in South Africa. This is because the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe descend from followers of the Zulu leader Mzilikazi, who left KwaZulu in the early nineteenth century during the Mfecane.

The Northern and Southern Ndebele languages are not variants of the same language; though they both fall in the Nguni group of Bantu languages, Northern Ndebele is essentially a dialect of Zulu, and the older Southern Ndebele language appears to be the first Nguni language to reach the very Southern parts of Africa. The shared name may be due to contact between Mzilikazi's people and the original Ndebele, through whose territory they crossed during the Mfecane. Either way, the shared name is only indicative of the most tenuous links - though it is not coincidental, neither is it deeply significant (cf. Ladin and Ladino).

Pronunciation

Pronunciation of Ndebele words is relatively easy in comparison to many languages because the vowels are quite constant, with each vowel having basically one sound, and the accent is usually on the penultimate syllable.

Pronunciation of vowels

There are five basic vowel sounds; a, o, u are very constant and e and i have only slight variation

a is pronounced like a in father; e.g. abantwana (children)
e is pronounced like e in bed; e.g. emoyeni (in the air)
i is pronounced like ee in see; e.g. siza (help)
o is pronounced like o in bone; e.g. okhokho (ancestors)
u is pronounced like oo in soon; e.g. umuntu (person)

Click sounds

In Ndebele there are three click sounds c, q and x.

c is made by placing the tip of the tongue against the front upper teeth and gums, the centre of the tongue is depressed and the tip of the tongue is drawn backwards. The resulting sound is similar to the sound used in English to express annoyance.^[1] Some examples are cina (end), cela (ask)

The q sound is made by raising the back of the tongue to touch the soft palate and touching the gums with the sides and tip of the tongue. The centre of the tongue is depressed and the tip drawn quickly away from the gum. The resulting sound is like the "pop" heard when quickly removing the cork from a bottle.^[1] Some examples are qalisa (start), qeda (finish)

The x sound is made by placing the tongue so that the back of the tongue touches the soft palate and the sides and tip of the tongue touch the gums. One side of the tongue is quickly withdrawn from the gums.^[1] Some examples are xoxa (discuss), ixoxo (frog)

See also

• Matabele
• Southern Ndebele language
• Provinces of Zimbabwe
• Matabeleland North
• Matabeleland South
• Bulawayo

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Shenk, J.R. A New Ndebele Grammar

External links

• Map of Ndebele language from the LL-Map Profject
• Information about Ndebele language from the MultTree Project
• Ethnologue entry
• Speak Ndebele
• Zimbabwe News in Ndebele Language

• "The History of the Ndebele People". http://www.bulawayo1872.com/history/ndebele.htm.