Northern Ndebele (), also called Ndebele, isiNdebele saseNyakatho, Zimbabwean Ndebele
or North Ndebele,
associated with the term Matabele, is a
Bantu language
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 ...
spoken by the
Northern Ndebele people which belongs to the
Nguni group of languages.
As a start and to give some context, Ndebele is a term used to refer to a collection of many different African cultures in
Zimbabwe. It perhaps by default became a 'language' (for lack of better word) spoken predominantly by the descendants of
Mzilikazi. As a language, it is by no means similar to the Ndebele language spoken in kwaNdebele in
South Africa although, like many Nguni dialects, some words will be shared. Many of the natives that were colonized by the
Matabele were assimilated into Mzilikazi's kingdom to create a version of isiZulu. The Matebele people of Zimbabwe descend from followers of the
Zulu leader
Mzilikazi (one of Zulu King
Shaka's generals), who left the
Zulu Kingdom
The Zulu Kingdom (, ), sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or the Kingdom of Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a modern standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following ...
in the early 19th century, during the
Mfecane, arriving in present-day Zimbabwe in 1839.
Although there are some differences in grammar, lexicon and intonation between
Zulu and Northern Ndebele, the two languages share more than 85% of their lexicon. To prominent Nguni linguists like Anthony
Trevor Cope
Anthony Trevor Cope was professor of Zulu at the University of Natal. He edited Harry Camp Lugg's translation of Magema Magwaza Fuze
Magema Magwaza Fuze (c. 1844–1922) was the author of ''Abantu Abamnyama Lapa Bavela Ngakona'' (''The Black P ...
and
Cyril Nyembezi, Northern Ndebele is a dialect of Zulu. To others like Langa Khumalo, it is a language.
Distinguishing between a language and a dialect for language varieties that are very similar is difficult, with the decision often being based not on linguistic but on political criteria.
[D.K. Rycroft “Ndebele and Zulu: Some Phonetic and Tonal Comparisons,” Zambezia, no. 2 (1980): 109–28.]
Northern Ndebele and
Southern Ndebele (or Transvaal Ndebele), which is spoken in South Africa, are separate but related languages with some degree of
mutual intelligibility, although the former is more closely related to Zulu. Southern Ndebele, while maintaining its Nguni roots, has been influenced by the
Sotho languages Sotho may refer to:
*Sotho people (or ''Basotho''), an African ethnic group principally resident in South Africa, Lesotho and southern Botswana
*Sotho language (''Sesotho'' or ''Southern Sotho''), a Bantu language spoken in southern Africa, an offi ...
.
Phonology
Consonants
Many consonant sounds may result in depressed (or breathy) allophones. Alveolar consonants, ''t'', ''d'', and ''n'', may have dentalized allophones of . Consonants ''k'' and ''h'' can result in allophones of and .
Ndebele /t͡ʃ/ generally correspond to Zulu /ʃ/.
Click consonants
In Northern Ndebele, there are fifteen
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.
The five clicks spelled with a ''c'' are 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.
[Shenk, J.R. ''A New Ndebele Grammar'']
Some examples are cina (end), cela (ask).
[NorthernNdebele at blogspot.com]
The five clicks spelled with a ''q'' are 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.
Some examples are qalisa (start), qeda (finish).
The five clicks spelled with a ''x'' are 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.
Some examples are xoxa (discuss), ixoxo (frog).
Vowels
There are five vowel phonemes, written with the letters ''a'', ''e'', ''i'', ''o'', ''u''.
* ''a'' is pronounced , approximately like ''a'' in father; e.g. abantwana (children)
* ''e'' is pronounced or , sometimes like ''e'' in bed; e.g. emoyeni (in the air)
* ''i'' is pronounced , like ''ee'' in see; e.g. siza (help)
* ''o'' is pronounced or , sometimes approximately like ''o'' in bone; e.g. okhokho (ancestors)
* ''u'' is pronounced , like ''oo'' in soon; e.g. umuntu (person)
Examples
Months in Northern and Southern Ndebele
Grammar
Ndebele grammar is similar to that of
Zulu, with some distinct differences. Northern Ndebele is a Nguni language and is to some extent also mutually intelligible with
Swati and
Xhosa, the predominant language in the Eastern Cape.
Nouns
The Northern Ndebele noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other
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 ...
.
The following table gives an overview of Northern Ndebele noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.
1 umu- replaces um- before monosyllabic stems, e. g.
umuntu (person).
Verbs
Verbs are marked with the following prefixes in
agreement Agreement may refer to:
Agreements between people and organizations
* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law
* Trade agreement, between countries
* Consensus, a decision-making process
* Contract, enforceable in a court of law
** Meeting o ...
with the noun class of the subject and the object:
While
subject-verb agreement
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...
is obligatory,
object marking is not, and only appears when the object is given in the discourse.
The object marker attaches closer to the verb root when it occurs (with the following notations: A - augment vowel; 1 - class 1 nominal prefix, etc; 1s - class 1 subject agreement, etc; FUT - future; 1o - class 1 object marker, etc):
There is evidence from Zulu that object markers are an evolution of
pronominal clitics to be agreement markers,
which might also be the case for Northern Ndebele, given the linguistic similarity between the languages.
See also
*
Matabele
*
Zulu language
*
Southern Ndebele language
Southern Ndebele (), also known as Transvaal Ndebele or South Ndebele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, spoken by the Ndebele people of South Africa.
There is also a different language called North ...
*
Provinces of Zimbabwe
*
Matabeleland North
*
Matabeleland South
*
Bulawayo
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
Northern Ndebele for BeginnersSpeak Ndebele
{{Authority control
Zulu language
Nguni languages
Languages of Botswana
Languages of Zimbabwe