Southern Ndebele Language Guide

Where it's spoken

Southern Ndebele, called isiNdebele in the South African Constitution, is one of the official languages of South Africa, listed there together with Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

In the latest South African census release cited here, 1.7% of the population named isiNdebele as the language most often spoken in the household. The share is highest in Mpumalanga at 9.9%, followed by Gauteng at 3.1% and Limpopo at 1.1%.

A University of Pretoria thesis on the language says that the Southern Ndebele people live mainly in four provinces: Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng and North West. The same thesis notes that a Statistics South Africa booklet on a population census makes no distinction between Southern Ndebele and Northern Ndebele, and that Section 6(1) of the Constitution refers to isiNdebele. It also separates the Ndebele people of South Africa from the Ndebele of Zimbabwe, who have a different history.

Sources

• Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, Chapter 1 (Founding Provisions), s.6 — s.6(1)
• Statistics South Africa. Census 2022 Statistical Release (P0301.4) — Table 2.8 and Table 2.9, IsiNdebele row
• Skhosana, P. B. (2009). The Linguistic Relationship Between Southern and Northern Ndebele. DLitt thesis, University of Pretoria — Sections 1.1, 1.3 and 2.5.1

Script & pronunciation

Southern Ndebele is written in the Latin alphabet. The app's cards spell the greeting Lotjhani, and the same spelling appears as the translation of "Good evening" in a published English–isiNdebele parallel corpus. This app gives no separate romanization for Southern Ndebele; the text of each card is the Latin-script spelling itself.

A University of Pretoria thesis comparing Southern and Northern Ndebele lists the letter groups tj, tjh and tlh among the affricate sounds, and rh, hl and dl among the fricative sounds. Its examples include -tjela ('tell'), -tjhisa ('burn'), -tlhoga ('need'), -rhola ('get paid/lead'), ihloko ('head') and -dla ('eat'). The same thesis notes that most of the click sounds found in Nguni languages such as isiZulu are also found in Southern Ndebele.

Sources

• McKellar, C. (2021). Autshumato English-isiNdebele Parallel Corpora. North-West University, CTexT (CC BY 4.0) — Line 87011: "Good evening ." paired with Lotjhani
• Skhosana, P. B. (2009). The Linguistic Relationship Between Southern and Northern Ndebele. DLitt thesis, University of Pretoria — Sections 3.2.2.3 (fricatives), 3.2.2.4 (affricates) and 3.2.2.9 (clicks)

Grammar essentials

An English–isiNdebele parallel corpus has angivumelani for "I do not agree" and angikhumbuli for "I can't recall", Khulumani ngalokho enikubonako for "Talk about what you see", and kuzakuthatha for "will take".

The same corpus gives Iye and Awa as the answers "Yes" and "No", in a line about a learner answering a teacher's question; the app's cards for "Yes" and "No" use the same words. The corpus renders "individual" as umuntu and "people" as abantu, and "How much do adults pay to go in?" as Abadala babhadela malini.

Sources

• McKellar, C. (2021). Autshumato English-isiNdebele Parallel Corpora. North-West University, CTexT (CC BY 4.0) — Lines 510, 522, 27585, 20008, 16867, 13514, 20898 and 15116

Politeness & etiquette

The corpus contains both Lotjha and Lotjhani as greetings: Lotjha nomzana Langa for "Good morning, Mr Sun!" and Lotjhani for "Good evening." The app's card for Lotjhani describes it as the plural imperative of the verb lotjha ("to greet").

The corpus has Ngibawa utlole kubonakale nge-ingi enzima for "Please write clearly in black ink", sibawa uthintane ne-ofisi ye-SATI for "please contact the SATI office", and ngiyabawa at the end of "Can you help me, please?" (Ungangirhelebha, ngiyabawa?). The corpus also has Ngiyathokoza for "I thank you", Siyathokoza ukuba nathi ngaphambilini for "Thanks for joining us earlier", and Sithokoza iinhlanganwezi for "Thank you to these organisations".

Sources

• McKellar, C. (2021). Autshumato English-isiNdebele Parallel Corpora. North-West University, CTexT (CC BY 4.0) — Lines 42842, 87011, 5134, 5060, 17190, 3912, 20314, 51590 and 3273