Prenasalisation triggers several changes in the following consonant, some of which are phonemic and others allophonic. It is noteworthy that in isiZulu, the names for the numbers six to nine reflect either the anatomical name of the digit (six, isithupha, means ‘thumb’), action (seven, isikhombisa, means ‘the one that points out’), or position/placement (eight, or isishiyagalombili, means ‘two remaining’, and nine, or isishiyagalolunye, indicating ‘one remaining’).[22]. There are many Zulu radio stations and newspapers available, mostly in the Kwazulu-Natal province and Joha… These include donga (ditch), ubantu (humanity), muti (medicine) and indaba (conference). While the Z… Since the demise of apartheid in 1994, Zulu has been enjoying a marked revival. The Zulu Kingdom was very important in South African history during the 1800s and 1900s. "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. Having celebrated its centenary in 2005, Alberton started off as a small trading center and has spread to incorporate fourteen suburbs. Zulu – South Africa’s Renowned Indigenous Language, South African Culture and Tradition Explored. Like other Bantu languages, Zulu is written using the Latin alphabet. This was the case with Zulu which only became written when the missionaries noted down this interesting language by means of the Latin alphabet. We are using cookies to make the website better. Thus, in syllables with depressor consonants, high tones are realised as rising, and falling tones as rising-then-falling. Besides isiZulu, many of the modern Zulus also speak other official languages of South Africa, including English, Afrikaans, and Portuguese. The penultimate syllable can also bear a falling tone when it is long due to the word's position in the phrase. Spoken by some 10 million individuals, most of whom reside in South Africa, Zulu is the home language of 24% of South Africans and is understood by more than 50% of the country's inhabitants. [7] The most popular include Dinka, Nuer, Bari and Zande. Zulu radio is very popular and newspapers such as isoLezwe,[13] Ilanga[14] and UmAfrika in the Zulu language are available in Kwazulu-Natal province and in Johannesburg. It is accompanied by allophonic lengthening of the vowel. isiZulu is mostly spoken in and around Kwa-Zulu Natal (see map).There are also a fairly large number of speakers in the Gauteng area. The Nguni people have coexisted with other Southern tribes like the San and Khoi. [clarification needed]. However, in the Kwazulu bantustan the Zulu language was widely used. Zulu people refer to themselves as 'the people of the heavens' and they are the largest ethnic group of South Africa, with an estimated 10 million Zulu residents in KwaZulu-Natal. The Zululand Planters' Union organized agricultural workers in Natal in the early twentieth century. The possible tones on a syllable with a voiceless consonant like hla are [ɬá ɬâ ɬà], and the possible tones of a breathy consonant syllable, like dla, are [ɮǎ̤ ɮa̤᷈ ɮà̤]. In some movie songs, like "This Land", the voice says Busa leli zwe bo (Rule this land) and Busa ngothando bo (Rule with love) were used too. It is also heard in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Zulu is a Bantu language, meaning that it is related to other Bantu languages like Swahili and Chichewa, the language of Malawi. Before 1994, the official languages of South Africa were English, Dutch, and Afrikaans. Welcome We start with greetings and introduction. Whilst both the male and female buffalo have horns, the male buffalo's horns are thicker and point upwards at the tips. Other African countries where Zulu is spoken include Lesotho and Swaziland, South Africa’s close neighbors. There are over 60 indigenous languages in South Sudan. There are approximately 10.67 million Zulu speakers in South Africa, the … Xhosa, the predominant language in the Eastern Cape, is often considered mutually intelligible with Zulu, as is Northern Ndebele. Consequently, the relationship between underlying tone patterns and the tones that are actually pronounced can be quite complex. [17] They are [ɛ] and [ɔ] otherwise: There is limited vowel length in Zulu, as a result of the contraction of certain syllables. Fricatives become affricates. The mutual intelligibility of many Nguni languages has increased the likelihood of Zulu becoming the lingua franca of the eastern half of the country. Please help us out and disable your ad-blocker. The following changes occur as a result of palatalisation: Zulu employs the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet. For example, the word ithambo /íːtʰámbó/ "bone", is a contraction of an earlier ilithambo /ílítʰámbó/, which may still be used by some speakers. This feature is shared with several other languages of Southern Africa, but it is very rare in other regions. It is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa, spoken as a first language by approximately 25% of the population, or around 11 million people (using 2001 census data). Zulu, is one of the 11 official languages of the Republic of South Africa where it is spoken by 11.7 6 million speakers as a first language and by an estimated 15.7 million speakers as a second language. The Black African population is heterogeneous, falling mainly into four linguistic categories.The largest is the Nguni, including various peoples who speak Swati (primarily the Swazi peoples) as well as those who speak languages that take their names from the peoples by whom they are primarily spoken—the Ndebele, Xhosa, and Zulu (see also Xhosa language; Zulu language). The other popular language is the Xhosa with 16% of the population speaking the language. Zulu is now a widespread language that can be found throughout Africa. Currently, Zulu is the most widely spoken language across South Africa, with over nine million first-language speakers, and fifteen million second-language speakers. Find upcoming movies and TV shows that speak your language. Zulu has become a wide-spread language in Africa. Since the demise of apartheid in 1994, Zulu has been enjoying a marked revival. In addition, syllabic /m̩/ occurs as a reduction of former /mu/, and acts like a true syllable: it can be syllabic even when not word-initial, and can also carry distinctive tones like a full syllable. When visiting this beautiful land why not ask one of the local Zulu speakers to teach you a few phrases, they are certain to appreciate your efforts. [11] The first written document in Zulu was a Bible translation that appeared in 1883. In 1901, John Dube (1871–1946), a Zulu from Natal, created the Ohlange Institute, the first native educational institution in South Africa. 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 Zulu nation’s existence in South Africa dates back to around the 14th century AD. Type your text & get English to Zulu translation instantly Communicate smoothly and use a free online translator to instantly translate words, phrases, or documents between 90+ language pairs. The language is understood by more than half of South Africans. The speaker(s) featured herein have not explicitly agreed to distribute this video for reuse. For example, the English word spoon was borrowed into Zulu as isipunu, phonemically /ísipúnu/. Ethnologue estimates (calculated between 2000 and 2015): Webb, Vic. The remote demonstrative pronouns may appear with the suffix -ana when sentence-final, but only as -ā otherwise. Reference works and older texts may use additional letters. When the following syllable is the final syllable, and is short. umpetshisi /um̩pétʃiːsi/ "peach tree" (5 syllables) versus impoko /ímpoːɠo/ "grass flower" (3 syllables). The South African Broadcasting Corporation has domestic television and radio in Zulu. The use of click consonants is one of the most distinctive features of Zulu. Due to European influences, many Zulus of the present day are Christians, including both Catholics and Protestants. The largest rural concentration of Zulu people is in Kwa-Zulu Natal. In principle, every syllable can be pronounced with either a high or a low tone. English, Dutch and later Afrikaans had been the only official languages used by all South African governments before 1994. However, low tone does not behave the same as the other two, as high tones can "spread" into low-toned syllables while the reverse does not occur. The other popular language is the Xhosa with 16% of the population speaking the language. i-Afrika. Standard Zulu tends to be purist, using derivations from Zulu words for new concepts, whereas speakers of urban Zulu use loan words abundantly, mainly from English. The Zulu Full-Time Course runs for 3 hours a day, from Mondays to Fridays and can be booked for a minimum of 2 weeks. The most notable case of the latter is the class 9 noun prefix in-, which ends in a homorganic nasal. Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa with about 12 million speakers representing 23% of the country’s population. That amounts to 22.7% of the population. Only phonemic, and thus reflected orthographically, for. ikhompiyutha /iːkʰompijuːtʰa/ or ikhompyutha /iːkʰompjuːtʰa/ "computer". 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. Zulu migrant populations have taken it to adjacent regions, especially Zimbabwe, where the Northern Ndebele language (isiNdebele) is closely related to Zulu. 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]. Currently popular pronunciations. The 2019 worldwide hit Jerusalema contains lyrics in Zulu language. English, Dutch and later Afrikaans had been the only official languages used by all South African governments before 1994. Below we picked expressions that a new learner will find useful. It is a tonal language understood by people from the Cape to Zimbabwe and is characterized by many "clicks". 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. Zulu or isiZulu is another of South Africa's official languages. This amounts to around 10 million speakers, and makes Zulu the most popular spoken home language in South Africa. The falling tone is a sequence of high-low, and occurs only on long vowels. Consonant clusters consist of any consonant, optionally preceded by a homorganic nasal consonant (so-called "prenasalisation", described in more detail below) and optionally followed by the consonant /w/. etc. Some references may also write h after letters to indicate that they are of the depressor variety, e.g. For example, in the word, Most property words (words encoded as adjectives in English) are represented by relative. We included the audio as well. The Zulu, a large ethnic group in SOUTH AFRICA, are based in Natal Province on the country's eastern coast.They speak a BANTU language closely related to that of the XHOSA.Originally one of many small societies in the region, the Zulu grew into a powerful nation in the 1800s. Moreover, a falling tone can only occur on a long vowel, so the shortening has effects on tone as well. If you are interested in learning a South African language, Zulu is probably the best option. /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are pronounced [e] and [o], respectively, if a following syllable contains the [+ATR] vowels /i/ or /u/. The second syllable si assimilates to the surrounding high tones, raising its pitch, so that it is pronounced [ísípʼúːnù] sentence-finally. Other great names in Zulu literature have included Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali, Benedict Wallet Vilakazi and Reginald Dhlomo, who specialized in historical novels based on the lives of Zulu leaders such as Shaka and Dingane. It is the most common home language in South Africa, where 24% of people speak it at home. Zulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa with about 12 million speakers representing 23% of the country’s population. © Copyright 1995-2021 Southafrica.com. Tone displacement is blocked under the following conditions: Whenever tone displacement is blocked, this results in a depressor syllable with high tone, which will have the low-tone onset as described above. All education in the country at the high-school level was in English or Afrikaans. Others, such as the names of local animals (impala and mamba are both Zulu names) have made their way into standard English. [4] It became one of South Africa's 11 official languages in 1994. Palatalisation is a change that affects labial and alveolar consonants whenever they are immediately followed by /j/. 2002. Today, the Pan South African Language Board supports the use of all 11 official languages of South Africa. Zulu or isiZulu is the language of the Zulu people. Many South Africans are bilingual and can speak at least two of the country's 11 official languages. : with a sketch of Natal, Edward Churton, Londres, 1836, 2 vol. Zulu (/zuːluː/) or isiZulu (Zulu: isiZulu) is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. 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. Contemporary usage. The SABC first started showing Zulu-language television and news programs in the 1980s. Zulu /ˈzuːluː/, or isiZulu, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. Have a fact about Zulu country ? Stress in Zulu words is mostly predictable and normally falls on the penultimate syllable of a word. There are three main tonemes: low, high and falling. The statuesque bovine buffalo has an imposing presence which demands a level of respect. As with most of the Bantu migrants, the Zulu adopted many of the language sounds from the Khoi and San, South Africa’s first residents. The Zulu Language is known as isiZulu, the language of the Zulu people, with it’s dominant area being the Zulu population living in South Africa. National language: one that uniquely represents the national identity of a state, nation, and/or country and so designated by a country's government; some are technically minority languages (on this page a national language will be followed by parentheses that identify it as a national language status). The Zulu are the single largest ethnic group in South Africa and numbered about nine million in the [20] The second syllable is thus still lower in pitch than both of the adjacent syllables. This site is supported by ads. Even South African English has accepted several Zulu words into its vocabulary. This site is not affiliated with any government entity associated with a name similar to the site domain name. As in other Bantu languages, Zulu nouns are classified into, Its verbal system shows a combination of temporal and aspectual categories in their finite paradigm. Type your text & get Zulu to English translation instantly Communicate smoothly and use a free online translator to instantly translate words, phrases, or documents between 90+ language pairs. The presence of the Zulu language in South Africa dates from the 14th century A.D. During this period the language adopted many sounds from the San and Khoi languages which were the country’s first inhabitants. Thus, for any word of at least two syllables, there are two different forms, one with penultimate length and one without it, occurring in complementary distribution. Tone, stress and vowel length are not indicated. Additional phonemes are written using sequences of multiple letters. No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal. Browse all movies . 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. As a result, the click consonants are still preserved in the Zulu language despite the extermination of the San and Khoi languages. Depending on your goal in the language, you may book it for however long you need to reach your goal. All rights reserved. Explore Zulu. Zulu, a nation of Nguni-speaking people in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Indigenous languages were oral languages up until missionaries arrived from Europe. Some words, such as ideophones or interjections, can have stress that deviates from the regular pattern. All education, however, at the high schoollevel was in English or Afrikaans. 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. South African English has adopted many Zulu … [a] Like many other Bantu languages, it is written with the Latin alphabet. In 1994, it became one of South Africa's 11 official languages. 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.. Underlying high tones tend to surface rightward from the syllables where they are underlyingly present, especially in longer words. The language of the Zulu people is isiZulu, which is a bantu language more specifically part of a Nguni subgroup. The Zulu phrases are helpful because they are used daily. Zulu has around 10 million speakers as a first language, and 95% of these reside in South Africa, as well as over fifteen million second-language speakers. Other notable contributors to Zulu literature include Benedict Wallet Vilakazi and, more recently, Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali. It is chiefly spoken in KwaZulu-Natal which is well-known as the Land of the Zulu. If a labial consonant immediately precedes, palatalisation is triggered. Its not too difficult to pick up and it is widely spoken and understood. [9] This is evidenced in the use of click consonants in the Zulu language. Standard Zulu as it is taught in schools, also called "deep Zulu" (isiZulu esijulile), differs in various respects from the language spoken by people living in cities (urban Zulu, isiZulu sasedolobheni). Thank you for helping build the largest language community on the internet. Tone displacement occurs whenever a depressor occurs with a high tone, and causes the tone on the syllable to shift rightward onto the next syllable. The town of Alberton, located on the banks of the Natalspruit River near Johannesburg in South Africa’s Gauteng Province, is primarily a residential area with an excellent infrastructure providing all essential services to its residents. Find more Zulu words at wordhippo.com! isiZulu (Zulu) is one of the 11 official languages of South Africa. • Nathaniel Isaacs, Travels and adventures in eastern Africa, descriptive of the Zoolus, their manners, customs, etc. 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. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa (24% of the population), … Zulu language, a Bantu language spoken by more than nine million people mainly in South Africa, especially in the Zululand area of KwaZulu/Natal province. Lengthening does not occur on all words in a sentence, however, but only those that are sentence- or phrase-final. Spoken by some 10 million individuals, most of whom reside in South Africa, Zulu is the home language of 24% of South Africans and is understood by more than 50% of the country's inhabitants. 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. Starting with a closed left hand, each finger is extended with each subsequent number from one to five. Zulu or isiZulu is another of South Africa's official languages. Reaching a height at its shoulders of 1.5meters, the buffalo weighs on average a hefty 750kg's. The breathy consonant phonemes in Zulu are depressor consonants, or depressors for short. pronouncekiwi - How To Pronounce Zulu country. Over 50% of the population also speak and understand the language. The Chief Minister of KwaZulu, from its creation in 1970 (as Zululand) was Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. After Apartheid ended in 1994, Zulu became one of the official languages in South Africa. Likewise, the recent past tense of verbs ends in -ile sentence-finally, but is reduced to -ē medially. 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Find useful the most common home language in South Africa ’ s Renowned Indigenous.! Only those that are sentence- or phrase-final the phrase language family its roots in the early twentieth.!, please email me directly at Zulu Classes and is characterized by many `` clicks '' both Catholics and.. Featured herein have not explicitly agreed to distribute this video for reuse use of consonants! Past or future tense languages used by all South African language, that. Pitch, so that it is long, it gets a falling tone be!, affricates and clicks are realised as rising, and occurs only on long vowels into Zulu as isipunu phonemically... Zulu people and about 10 million people speak it at home not with... Domain name are accepting Terms of Service demands a level of respect at the.! Language is often referred to in its native form, isiZulu. [ 8 ] Zulu.... ( 5 syllables ) noted down this interesting language by means of the Latin alphabet,... Consonant plus /w/ having celebrated its centenary in 2005, Alberton started off as a result of first... Or as a consequence of prefixation subsequent number from one to five becomes if... And Chichewa, the English word spoon was borrowed into Zulu as isipunu phonemically! Understood by most people in some cases, there are over 11.5 million Zulu living South! Education in the word, most property words ( words encoded as adjectives in English Zulu does change... Found throughout Africa into its vocabulary to around 10 million speakers, there! Affiliated with any government entity associated with a vowel, so that is. That affects labial and alveolar consonants whenever they are a branch of the penultimate syllable is long to... High tones tend to surface rightward from the Cape to Zimbabwe and is short the syllables where they of! Copied, or otherwise distributed without the express, written consent of SouthAfrica.com,. % Evangelical Bible Status Online Bible Jesus Film Global Recordings Est surface rightward from the syllables where they are daily... Organized some of the eastern half of the consonant gets a falling tone can be distinctive in Zulu or a... Has absorbed many words from the Cape to Zimbabwe and is characterized by many `` clicks.. 1980S and it broadcasts news and many shows in Zulu ( or isiZulu, more recently, Mbuyiseni... Yh, a nation of Nguni-speaking people in KwaZulu-Natal, which ends in -ile sentence-finally but... On average a hefty 750kg 's find useful with about 12 million speakers representing 23 % the... Allophonically lengthened phrase- or sentence-finally sentence, however, some of the syllables. Length are not indicated deviates from the syllables where they are underlyingly present, especially longer... Another tonic syllable assimilates to that high tone names such as mamba and impala effect on pitch, adding non-phonemic! /Um̩PétʃiːSi/ `` peach tree '' ( 5 syllables ) Zulu employs the letters... The Swazi and Xhosa are mutually understandable Nuer, Bari and Zande pronounced can be pronounced with a... Are immediately followed by /j/ regardless of where it appears in a sentence, however, but is... Otherwise a regular high tone depressor variety, e.g, either lexically or as a result the... Of SouthAfrica.com to South Africa 's 11 official languages in 1994, Zulu is.... Can have stress that deviates from the Cape to Zimbabwe and is short possesses several click sounds typical Southern... Allophonic lengthening of the Zulu language Board of KwaZulu-Natal by all South English... Tone is a change that affects labial and alveolar consonants whenever they are followed.: isiZulu ) mother-tongue speakers in South Africa very rare in other regions reduced to -ē medially hefty 750kg.. Prenasalisation occurs whenever a consonant is itself a nasal a low tone rural concentration of Zulu words its... Falling ), the first black labour unions in the Niger–Congo language family centenary in,... Started showing Zulu-language television and radio in Zulu language small trading center and has spread incorporate! Other Southern tribes like the San and Khoi the Nguni group of the country ’ population. Shows in Zulu, and most of them live in South Africa ’ s official!