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Zulu (), or isiZulu as an
endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
, is a
Southern Bantu The Southern Bantu languages are a large group of Bantu languages, largely validated in Janson (1991/92).Tore Janson (1991-92) "Southern Bantu and Makua", ''Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika'' (''SUGIA'') Vol. 12/13: 63-106, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag ...
language of the Nguni branch spoken in
Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
. It is the language of the
Zulu people Zulu people (; zu, amaZulu) are a Nguni ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated 10–12 million people, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal ...
, with about 12 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of
KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...
of
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. Zulu is the most widely spoken
home language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
in South Africa (24% of the population), and it is understood by over 50% of its population. It became one of South Africa's 11 official languages in 1994. According to
Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
, it is the second-most-widely spoken of the
Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...
, after Swahili. Like many other Bantu languages, it is written with the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
. In
South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
, the language is often referred to in its native form, ''isiZulu''.


Geographical distribution

Zulu migrant populations have taken it to adjacent regions, especially
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
, where the
Northern Ndebele language Northern Ndebele (), also called Ndebele, isiNdebele saseNyakatho, Zimbabwean Ndebele or North Ndebele, associated with the term Matabele, is a Bantu language spoken by the Northern Ndebele people which belongs to the Nguni group of languages. ...
( isiNdebele) is closely related to Zulu.
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
, the predominant language in the
Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
, is often considered mutually intelligible with Zulu, as is Northern Ndebele.NorthernNdebele.blogspot.com ''NorthernNdebele.blogspot.com'' Maho (2009) lists four dialects: central KwaZulu-Natal Zulu, northern Transvaal Zulu, eastern coastal Qwabe, and western coastal Cele.


History

The Zulu, like
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
and other
Nguni people The Nguni people are a Bantu ethnic group from South Africa, with off-shoots in neighbouring countries in Southern Africa. Swazi (or Swati) people live in both South Africa and Eswatini, while Northern Ndebele people live in both South Africa (a ...
, have lived in South Africa for a long time. The Zulu language possesses several click sounds typical of Southern African languages, not found in the rest of Africa. The Nguni people have coexisted with other Southern tribes like the San and Khoi. Zulu, like most indigenous Southern African languages, was not a
written language A written language is the representation of a spoken or gestural language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will pick up spoken language or sign language by exposure even i ...
until the arrival of missionaries from Europe, who documented the language using the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
. The first grammar book of the Zulu language was published in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
in 1850 by the Norwegian missionary Hans Schreuder. The first written document in Zulu was a Bible translation that appeared in 1883. In 1901,
John Dube John Langalibalele Dube (22 February 1871 – 11 February 1946) was a South African essayist, philosopher, educator, politician, publisher, editor, novelist and poet. He was the founding president of the South African Native National Congress ...
(1871–1946), a Zulu from Natal, created the Ohlange Institute, the first native educational institution in South Africa. He was also the author of ''Insila kaShaka'', the first novel written in Zulu (1930). Another pioneering Zulu writer was Reginald Dhlomo, author of several historical novels of the 19th-century leaders of the Zulu nation: ''U-Dingane'' (1936), ''U-Shaka'' (1937), ''U-Mpande'' (1938), ''U-Cetshwayo'' (1952) and ''U-Dinizulu'' (1968). Other notable contributors to Zulu literature include
Benedict Wallet Vilakazi Benedict Wallet Vilakazi (6 January 1906 – 26 October 1947) was a South African novelist, a descendant of the Zulu royal family, and author of Romantic poetry in the Zulu language. Vilakazi was also a professor at the University of Witwate ...
and, more recently, Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali. The written form of Zulu was controlled by the Zulu Language Board of
KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...
. This board has now been disbanded and superseded by the
Pan South African Language Board The Pan South African Language Board ( af, Pan-Suid-Afrikaanse Taalraad , abbreviated PanSALB) is an organisation in South Africa established to promote multilingualism, to develop the 11 official languages, and to protect language rights in Sou ...
which promotes the use of all eleven official languages of South Africa.


Contemporary usage

English, Dutch and later
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
had been the only official languages used by all South African governments before 1994. However, in the
Kwazulu KwaZulu was a semi-independent bantustan in South Africa, intended by the apartheid government as a homeland for the Zulu people. The capital was moved from Nongoma to Ulundi in 1980. It was led until its abolition in 1994 by Chief Mangosuth ...
bantustan A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now N ...
the Zulu language was widely used. All education in the country at the high-school level was in English or Afrikaans. Since the demise of apartheid in 1994, Zulu has been enjoying a marked revival. Zulu-language television was introduced by the
SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...
in the early 1980s and it broadcasts news and many shows in Zulu. Zulu radio is very popular and newspapers such as ''isoLezwe'', ''Ilanga'' and ''UmAfrika'' in the Zulu language are available in
Kwazulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...
province and in
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
. In January 2005 the first full-length feature film in Zulu, '' Yesterday'', was nominated for an
Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
. The mutual intelligibility of many
Nguni languages The Nguni languages are a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa by the Nguni peoples. Nguni languages include Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele (sometimes referred to as "Northern Ndebele"), and Swazi. The appellation "Nguni" d ...
has increased the likelihood of Zulu becoming the
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
of the eastern half of the country. In the 1994 film ''
The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...
'', in the "
Circle of Life "Circle of Life" is a song from Disney's 1994 animated film ''The Lion King''. Composed by English musician Elton John, with lyrics by Tim Rice, the song was performed by Carmen Twillie (the deep female lead vocals) and Lebo M. (opening vocals ...
" 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. 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. The song ''
Siyahamba ''Siyahamba'' (written down by Andries Van Tonder, and possibly composed by him, or possibly a Zulu folk song) is a South African hymn that became popular in North American churches in the 1990s. The title means "We Are Marching" or "We are Walk ...
'' is a South African hymn originally written in the Zulu language that became popular in North American churches in the 1990s. The 2019 worldwide hit ''
Jerusalema "Jerusalema" is a song by South African DJ and record producer Master KG featuring South African vocalist Nomcebo. The upbeat gospel-influenced house song was initially released on 29 November 2019 after it garnered positive response online, w ...
'' contains lyrics in Zulu language.


Standard vs urban Zulu

Standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...
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''). Standard Zulu tends to be
purist Purism is an arts movement that took place between 1918 and 1925. Purism may also refer to: *Purism (Spanish architecture) (1530–1560), a phase of Renaissance architecture in Spain *Purism (company) Purism, SPC is an American computer techn ...
, using derivations from Zulu words for new concepts, whereas speakers of urban Zulu use
loan words A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
abundantly, mainly from English. For example: This situation has led to problems in education because standard Zulu is often not understood by young people.


Phonology


Vowels

The vowel system of Zulu consists of five vowels. and are pronounced [] and [], respectively, if a following syllable contains the [+Advanced and retracted tongue root, ATR] vowels or . They are and otherwise: * ''umgibeli'' "passenger", phonetically * ''ukupheka'' "to cook", phonetically There is limited
vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, f ...
in Zulu, as a result of the contraction of certain syllables. For example, the word ''ithambo'' "bone", is a contraction of an earlier ''ilithambo'' , which may still be used by some speakers. Likewise, ''uphahla'' "roof" is a contraction of earlier ''uluphahla'' . In addition the vowel of the penultimate syllable is allophonically lengthened phrase- or sentence-finally.


Consonants

# The plain voiceless plosives, affricates and clicks are realised phonetically as ejectives , , , , . # When not preceded by a nasal, is almost in complementary distribution with and . The latter two phonemes occur almost exclusively root-initially, while appears exclusively medially. Recent loanwords contain and in other positions, e.g. ''isekhondi'' "second", ''ibhayisikili'' "bicycle". # The slack-voiced consonants are
depressor consonant A depressor consonant is a consonant that depresses (lowers) the tone of its or a neighboring syllable. This is a consequence of the phonation (type of voicing) of the consonant. The Nguni languages of South Africa are well known for the lowering ...
s. These have a lowering effect on the tone of their syllable. # The consonant occurs in some dialects as a reduction of the cluster when it is not in stem-initial position, and is therefore always slack-voiced. # The trill is not native to Zulu and occurs only in expressive words and in recent borrowings from European languages. The use of
click consonant Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the '' tut-tut'' (British spelling) or '' tsk! tsk!'' ...
s is one of the most distinctive features of Zulu. This feature is shared with several other languages of Southern Africa, but it is very rare in other regions. There are three basic articulations of clicks in Zulu: *
Denti-alveolar In linguistics, a denti-alveolar consonant or dento-alveolar consonant is a consonant that is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and the upper teeth, such as and in languages such as French, Italian and Spanish. That is, ...
, comparable to a sucking of teeth, as the sound one makes for 'tsk tsk'. * Postalveolar , comparable to a bottle top 'pop'. *
Lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Healthcare *Lateral (anatomy), an anatomical direction *Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle *Lateral release (surgery), a surgical procedure on the side of a kneecap Phonetics *Lateral cons ...
, comparable to a click that one may do for a walking horse. Each articulation covers five click consonants, with differences such as being slack-voiced, aspirated or nasalised, for a total of 15.


Phonotactics

Zulu syllables are canonically (N)C(w)V, and words must always end in a vowel. 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 . In addition, syllabic occurs as a reduction of former , 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. It does not necessarily have to be homorganic with the following consonant, although the difference between homorganic nonsyllabic and syllabic is distinctive, e.g. ''umpetshisi'' "peach tree" (5 syllables) versus ''impoko'' "grass flower" (3 syllables). Moreover, sequences of syllabic ''m'' and homorganic ''m'' can occur, e.g. ''ummbila'' "maize" (4 syllables). Recent loanwords from languages such as English may violate these constraints, by including additional consonant clusters that are not native to Zulu, such as in ''igremu'' "
gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...
". There may be some variation between speakers as to whether clusters are broken up by an
epenthetic vowel In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epenth ...
or not, e.g. ''ikhompiyutha'' or ''ikhompyutha'' "computer".


Prosody


Stress

Stress in Zulu words is mostly predictable and normally falls on the penultimate syllable of a word. It is accompanied by allophonic lengthening of the vowel. When the final vowel of a word is long due to contraction, it receives the stress instead of the preceding syllable. Lengthening does not occur on all words in a sentence, however, but only those that are sentence- or phrase-final. 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. In some cases, there are morphemic alternations that occur as a result of word position as well. The remote demonstrative pronouns may appear with the suffix ''-ana'' when sentence-final, but only as ''-ā'' otherwise. Likewise, the recent past tense of verbs ends in ''-ile'' sentence-finally, but is reduced to ''-ē'' medially. Moreover, a falling tone can only occur on a long vowel, so the shortening has effects on tone as well. Some words, such as ideophones or interjections, can have stress that deviates from the regular pattern.


Tone

Like almost all other
Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...
and other
African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Southern A ...
, Zulu is tonal. There are three main ''tonemes'': low, high and falling. Zulu is conventionally written without any indication of tone, but tone can be distinctive in Zulu. For example, the words for "priest" and "teacher" are both spelled ''umfundisi'', but they are pronounced with different tones: for the "priest" meaning, and for the "teacher" meaning. In principle, every syllable can be pronounced with either a high or a low tone. 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. A low tone is therefore better described as the ''absence'' of any toneme; it is a kind of default tone that is overridden by high or falling tones. The falling tone is a sequence of high-low, and occurs only on long vowels. The penultimate syllable can also bear a falling tone when it is long due to the word's position in the phrase. However, when it shortens, the falling tone becomes disallowed in that position. In principle, every
morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...
has an inherent underlying tone pattern which does not change regardless of where it appears in a word. However, like most other Bantu languages, Zulu has
word tone Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...
, meaning that the pattern of tones acts more like a template to assign tones to individual syllables, rather than a direct representation of the pronounced tones themselves. Consequently, the relationship between underlying tone patterns and the tones that are actually pronounced can be quite complex. Underlying high tones tend to surface rightward from the syllables where they are underlyingly present, especially in longer words.


Depressor consonants

The breathy consonant phonemes in Zulu are
depressor consonant A depressor consonant is a consonant that depresses (lowers) the tone of its or a neighboring syllable. This is a consequence of the phonation (type of voicing) of the consonant. The Nguni languages of South Africa are well known for the lowering ...
s, or depressors for short. Depressor consonants have a lowering effect on pitch, adding a non-phonemic low-tone onset to the normal tone of the syllable. Thus, in syllables with depressor consonants, high tones are realised as rising, and falling tones as rising-then-falling. In both cases, the pitch does not reach as high as in non-depressed syllables. The possible tones on a syllable with a voiceless consonant like ''hla'' are , and the possible tones of a breathy consonant syllable, like ''dla'', are . 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.


Phonological processes


Prenasalisation

Prenasalisation occurs whenever a consonant is preceded by a homorganic nasal, either lexically or as a consequence of prefixation. The most notable case of the latter is the class 9 noun prefix ''in-'', which ends in a homorganic nasal. Prenasalisation triggers several changes in the following consonant, some of which are phonemic and others allophonic. The changes can be summed as follows:


Tone assimilation

Zulu has tonic assimilation: high tones tend to spread allophonically to following low-tone syllables, raising their pitch to a level just below that of adjacent high-tone syllables. A toneless syllable between a high-tone syllable and another tonic syllable assimilates to that high tone. 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. When the preceding syllable is high but the following is toneless, the medial toneless syllable adopts a high-tone onset from the preceding syllable, resulting in a falling tone contour. For example, the English word ''spoon'' was borrowed into Zulu as ''isipunu'', phonemically . The second syllable ''si'' assimilates to the surrounding high tones, raising its pitch, so that it is pronounced sentence-finally. If tone pitch is indicated with numbers, with 1 highest and 9 lowest pitch, then the pitches of each syllable can be denoted as 2-4-3-9. The second syllable is thus still lower in pitch than both of the adjacent syllables.


Tone displacement

Depressor consonants have an effect called ''tone displacement''. 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. If the next syllable is long, it gets a falling tone, otherwise a regular high tone. If the penultimate syllable becomes high (not falling), the final syllable dissimilates and becomes low if it wasn't already. Tone displacement is blocked under the following conditions: * When the syllable has a long vowel. * When the following syllable also has a depressor consonant. * When the following syllable is the final syllable, and is short. Whenever tone displacement is blocked, this results in a depressor syllable with high tone, which will have the low-tone onset as described above. When the following syllable already has a high or falling tone, the tone disappears from the syllable as if it had been shifted away, but the following syllable's tone is not modified. Some examples: * ''izipunu'' "spoons", the plural of ''isipunu'' from the previous section, is phonemically . Because is a depressor consonant, tone assimilation is prevented. Consequently, the word is pronounced as sentence-finally, with low tone in the second syllable. * ''izintombi'' "girls" is phonemically . is a depressor, and is not blocked, so the tone shifts to the third syllable. This syllable can be either long or short depending on sentence position. When long, the pronunciation is , with a falling tone. However, when the third syllable is short, the tone is high, and dissimilation of the final syllable occurs, resulting in . * ''nendoda'' "with a man" is phonemically . is a depressor, but so is , so tone displacement is blocked. Consequently, the pronunciation is , with rising pitch in the first syllable due to the low-onset effect.


Palatalization

Palatalization is a change that affects labial and alveolar consonants whenever they are immediately followed by . While palatalization occurred historically, it is still productive, and occurs as a result of the addition of suffixes beginning with . A frequent example is the diminutive suffix ''-yana''. Moreover, Zulu does not generally tolerate sequences of a labial consonant plus . Whenever follows a labial consonant, it changes to , which then triggers palatalization of the consonant. 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. If a labial consonant immediately precedes, palatalization is triggered. The change also occurs in nouns beginning in ''ubu-'' with a stem beginning with a vowel. The following changes occur as a result of palatalization:


Zulu employs the 26 letters of the

ISO basic Latin alphabet The ISO basic Latin alphabet is an international standard (beginning with ISO/IEC 646) for a Latin-script alphabet that consists of two sets (uppercase and lowercase) of 26 letters, codified in various national and international standards and u ...
. However, some of the letters have different pronunciation than in English. Additional phonemes are written using sequences of multiple letters. Tone, stress and vowel length are not indicated. Reference works and older texts may use additional letters. A common former practice was to indicate the implosive using the special letter ''ɓ'', while the digraph ''bh'' would then be simply written as ''b''. Some references may also write ''h'' after letters to indicate that they are of the depressor variety, e.g. ''mh'', ''nh'', ''yh'', a practice that is standard in
Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...
orthography. Very early texts, from the early 20th century or before, tend to omit the distinction between plain and aspirated voiceless consonants, writing the latter without the ''h''. Nouns are written with their prefixes as one orthographical word. If the prefix ends with a vowel (as most do) and the noun stem also begins with a vowel, a hyphen is inserted in between, e.g. ''i-Afrika''. This occurs only with loanwords.


Morphology

Here are some of the main features of Zulu: * Word order is subject–verb–object. * Morphologically, it is an
agglutinative language An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) tend to remain ...
. * As in other Bantu languages, Zulu nouns are classified into morphological classes or '' genders'' (16 in Zulu), with different prefixes for singular and plural. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. Such agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which it is agreeing. An example is the use of the class 'aba-': ::Bonke abantu abaqatha basepulazini bayagawula. ::''All the strong people of the farm are felling (trees).'' :The various agreements that qualify the word 'abantu' (people) can be seen in effect. * Its verbal system shows a combination of temporal and aspectual categories in their finite paradigm. Typically verbs have two stems, one for present-undefinite and another for perfect. Different prefixes can be attached to these verbal stems to specify subject agreement and various degrees of past or future tense. For example, in the word ''uyathanda'' ("he loves"), the present stem of the verb is ''-thanda'', the prefix ''u-'' expresses third-person singular subject and ''-ya-'' is a filler that is used in short sentences. :Suffixes are also put into common use to show the causative or reciprocal forms of a verb stem. * Most property words (words encoded as adjectives in English) are represented by relative. In the sentence ''umuntu ubomvu'' ("the person is red"), the word ''ubomvu'' (root ''-bomvu'') behaves like a verb and uses the agreement prefix ''u-''. however, there are subtle differences; for example, it does not use the prefix ''ya-''.


Morphology of root ''Zulu''

The root can be combined with a number of prefixes and thus create other words. For example, here is a table with a number of words constructed from the roots -''Zulu'' and ''-ntu'' (the root for ''person/s'', ''people''):


Sample phrases and text

The following is a list of phrases that can be used when one visits a region whose primary language is Zulu: The following is from the preamble to the
Constitution of South Africa The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the Govern ...
: Translation:


Counting in isiZulu

Counting from 1 to 10 The digital numerical counting etiquette on the fingers begins with the little finger of the left hand to the left thumb, and then continuing with the right-hand thumb towards the right little finger. Starting with a closed left hand, each finger is extended with each subsequent number from one to five. Once the left hand is open, then counting continues on the right hand with each finger opening in turn. 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').


Months

Months in Zulu


Zulu words in South African English

South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
has absorbed many words from the Zulu language. Others, such as the names of local animals (''
impala The impala or rooibok (''Aepyceros melampus'') is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The only extant member of the genus '' Aepyceros'' and tribe Aepycerotini, it was first described to European audiences by Germa ...
'' and ''
mamba Mambas are fast moving highly venomous snakes of the genus ''Dendroaspis'' (which literally means "tree asp") in the family Elapidae. Four extant species are recognised currently; three of those four species are essentially arboreal and green ...
'' are both Zulu names) have made their way into standard English. A few examples of Zulu words used in South African English: *
muti Muthi is a traditional medicine practice in Southern Africa as far north as Lake Tanganyika. Name In South African English, the word ''muti'' is derived from the Zulu language, Zulu/Xhosa language, Xhosa/Northern Ndebele language, Northern Nde ...
(from ''umuthi'') – medicine * donga (from ''udonga'') – ditch (udonga means 'wall' in Zulu and is also the name for ditches caused by soil erosion) *
indaba An indaba (; ) is an important conference held by the izinDuna (principal men) of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples of South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bo ...
– conference (it means 'an item of news' in Zulu) * induna – chief or leader * songololo (from ''isongololo'') – millipede *
ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All the ...
– compassion/humanity.


See also

*
Impi is a Zulu word meaning war or combat and by association any body of men gathered for war, for example is a term denoting an army. were formed from regiments () from (large militarised homesteads). In English is often used to refer to a ...
*
Shaka kaSenzangakhona Shaka kaSenzangakhona ( – 22 September 1828), also known as Shaka Zulu () and Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1816 to 1828. One of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu, he ordered wide-reaching reforms tha ...
*
Tsotsitaal Tsotsitaal is a vernacular derived from a variety of mixed languages mainly spoken in the townships of Gauteng province (such as Soweto), but also in other agglomerations all over South Africa. ''Tsotsi'' is a Sesotho, Pedi or Tswana slang wor ...
– a Zulu-based
creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...
spoken in
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
*
Xhosa language Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a second ...
*
Northern Ndebele language Northern Ndebele (), also called Ndebele, isiNdebele saseNyakatho, Zimbabwean Ndebele or North Ndebele, associated with the term Matabele, is a Bantu language spoken by the Northern Ndebele people which belongs to the Nguni group of languages. ...


Notes


References


Sources


UCLA Language Materials Project

Zulu


Bibliography

* Canonici, Noverino, 1996, ''Imisindo YesiZulu: An Introduction to Zulu Phonology'', University of Natal * Canonici, Noverino, 1996, ''Zulu Grammatical Structure'', University of Natal *


Further reading

* * Dent, G.R. and Nyembezi, C.L.S. (1959) ''Compact Zulu Dictionary''. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter. * Dent, G.R. and Nyembezi, C.L.S. (1969) ''Scholar's Zulu Dictionary''. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter. * Doke, C.M. (1947) ''Text-book of Zulu grammar''. London: Longmans, Green and Co. * Doke, C.M. (1953) ''Zulu–English Dictionary''. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. * Doke, C.M. (1958) ''Zulu–English Vocabulary''. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. * Doke, C.M. (2014)
English-Zulu/Zulu-English Dictionary
'. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. * Nyembezi, C.L.S. (1957) ''Learn Zulu''. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter. * Nyembezi, C.L.S. (1970) ''Learn More Zulu''. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter. * Wilkes, Arnett, ''Teach Yourself Zulu''.


External links

* *
South African Languages: IsiZulu
incl. sound file
Zulu Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words
(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh-list appendix

Counting in Zulu


Courses


TeachMe! Zulu – PDF Zulu workbookZulu With Dingani – Online beginner's courseSifunda isiZulu!


Grammar


Zulu Grammar with Audio!


Dictionaries


isiZulu.net Zulu–English Online DictionaryZulu–English Dictionary


Newspapers


IsolezweIlanga
*UmAfrika
Izindaba News24


Software


Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and MozillaOpenOffice.orgMozilla Firefox web-browser
an
Mozilla Thunderbird email program
in Zulu
Translate.org.za
Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa including Zulu
PanAfrican L10n wiki page on Zulu


Literature and culture



{{DEFAULTSORT:Zulu language Subject–verb–object languages Agglutinative languages Languages of South Africa