The xhosa is people and a language of southern Africa. It counts for only the South Africa a little more than eight million speakers, that is to say approximately 18% of the population, which makes the second language of the country of it after the Zoulou.

The xh of xhosa is an original consonant of this language which decides of a sound slapping of the language called click. The International Phonetic Alphabet, note this sound in this manner: .

History

The name of these people would originate in that of a legendary chief, uXhosa, approximately 1.500 years ago. It took its true rise thanks to a fusion with the clans Khoi and Griqua from where they drew the roots of their dialect. In addition, the ethnicity which practices this language names itself amaXhos and names its idiom isiXhosa . The click characteristic of the group ethno-linguistics Khoïsan in the xhosa betrays its strong influence on this language bantoue.

Geographical distribution

The xhosa represents the south-Eastern branch of the subfamily Nguni of the Langues bantoues. It is practiced primarily in the the Cape Province Oriental, but also, more and more, in the the Cape Province Occidental, included/understood there the city of the Cape.

Dialects

The Zulu and the close languages bantoues are comprehensible in xhosa and reciprocally. Moreover, it counts a certain number of dialects on the identification of which the divergent opinion: xhosa, ngqika, gcaleka, mfengu, thembu, bomvana, and mpondomise.

Sounds

If the vowels of the xhosa are relatively simple, its consonants are more unusual. Beside the common pulmonary égressives consonants, there exist éjectives and implosive consonants like three click S basic.

• the click dental which is made language on the back of the teeth the made-to-order of the tss tss of reprimand.
• the side click, the language creating a depression in the lower part of the mouth suddenly releases the cavity on each side and produces a similar sound by which one calls an animal.
• the third, very near, is made in a similar way but the cavity is formed in the top of the mouth with the language against the palate.

Each one of these clicks counts six varieties, each one in two tonalities.

The xhosa was made famous for these sounds, into the film the Gods fell on the head .

Grammar

The xhosa proceeds by agglutination. Prefixes and suffixes come to stick to radicals to affect of it the direction and the role in the sentence. A little like the kinds masculine, female and neutral of the Indo-European languages there are 8 classes in singular which mark the relationship, the animals, the objects, the abstraction, etc In the plural it there 5 classes, of which one often indicates words of quantity. The verbs, the pronouns, the adjective agree to the class of the name.

Examples

uku' dlala' (verb name classifies 15) - to play

uku' bona' (verb name classifies 15) - to see

um ntwana (class 1) (child) - aba ntwana (class 2) (children)

um ntwana U yadlala - the child plays

aba ntwana Ba yadlala - the children play

in doda (class 9) (man) - ama doda (class 6) (men)

in doda I ya m bona um ntwana (the man sees the child)

ama doda has ya Ba bona aba ntwana (the men see the children).

Writing

The xhosa uses the Latin alphabet. The three clicks note respectively C , X and Q . Here is an example drawn from the South-African national anthem.

Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika;

Malupakam'upondo lwayo;

Yiva imithandazo yethu

Usisikelele.

Another example is this extract of the Qongqothwane of Miriam Makeba whose English name is The Click Song . Here is the text:

Igqira lendlela nguqongqothwane

Igqira lendlela kuthwa nguqongqothwane

Sebeqabele gqithapha bathi nguqongqothwane

Sebeqabele gqithapha bathi nguqongqothwane.

Large characters

The fight against apartheid was carried, mainly, by of Xhosas in which we count all the great names of this time: Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki.

The current president of the RSA, Thabo Mbeki, is besides the son of one of these great names which forged the South Africa news.

References

Random links:

Fantasia (the Maghreb) | Ralph Edwards | Count of the characters Unicode (102000-102FFF) | Flag of the Republic of Congo | Automobile Grand Prix of the United States West 1979